America's Lost WWII Hero

**America's Lost WWII Hero** is the 8th episode in Season 6 of Expedition Unknown.

## Plot Synopsis

Josh Gates explores the case of WASP pilot Gertrude "Tommy" Tompkins who went missing in her P-51 Mustang during World War II; Josh joins search teams using modern technology to locate Tompkins' lost aircraft.

## Historical Context

"I'd like to introduce you to daring World War II pilot Tommy Tompkins. Tommy was everything you might expect from a young hero who made the ultimate sacrifice - skilled, brave, patriotic. But considering the era, there is one thing about Tommy that might surprise you. She was a woman. Gertrude "Tommy" Tompkins, she was part of an elite group of Women Air Force Service Pilots, codenamed the WASPs. Formed at the height of World War II, America's only all-female squadron tested and transported planes, carried cargo and ran simulated missions. On October 26th, 1944, Tompkins took off from Los Angeles in a legendary P-51 Mustang. Soon after, she flew into a fogbank and has been missing ever since. All told, 38 WASP Air Force pilots died in service. Tommy is the only one still unaccounted for."

~ Josh Gates

## Summary

Josh goes to Los Angeles, California and visits LAX, where warplanes were once shipped out from. He then meets Pat Macha, an aviation archaeologist, and David Lane, a pilot, who tell him about the WASPs and the day Tommy disappeared. David and Josh hike in the San Jacinto Mountains after a person reported seeing gleams of metal from a local fire tower. They find a downed Cessna 195 but it isn't Tommy's plane.

Josh goes to Sweetwater, Texas, home of the WASPs where he meets Nell Stevenson Bright, a WASP veteran and classmate of Tommy. Nell believes that Tommy's plane malfunctioned because it was untested. Josh then heads back to California and meets Chris Liguori, a pilot. They fly a P-51 Mustang, the plane Tommy was flying the day she disappeared. He then visits the Los Angeles Flight Path Museum and meets Pete Kelsey and Scott Pawlowski, explorers. They have reported that there were never sightings of Tommy's plane coming back across land from the ocean.

They go to Marina del Rey and meet Chad Nelson, an AUV operator, and they head out on a boat to explore the ocean for Tommy's plane. They find promising targets and Josh dives to one of them and finds a shipwreck and a toilet. A technical diving team and an ROV explore deeper targets and they find a World War II-era oxygen tank which they bring to the surface. The oxygen tank is from B-25 Bomber which crashed in the area on February 27th, 1946 and hasn't been completely recovered.

## Final Words

"Gertrude "Tommy" Tompkins is still missing, but we are able to bring closure to two cold-case aircraft wrecks, the San Jacinto Cessna and the B-25 in Santa Monica Bay. The WASPs proudly flew under the motto, "we live in the wind and the sand, and our eyes are on the stars." They believed in the ideals of hard work and dedication to a greater cause. These pioneering pilots who trained for and performed military jobs were classified as civilians and overlooked by history simply because they were women, but, nevertheless, they persisted, paving the runway for future generations of female pilots. Now, it's up to all of us to make sure that Tompkin's story and the history of these fearless fliers will never be lost."

~ Josh Gates

## Notes & Trivia

* *This is where you can put notes and trivia, anything that is interesting or strange can be included here*

## Quotes

* "After an hour of having our spines turned into a Jenga set."
* "You don't have a speargun on this ROV, do you?"
* "I mean, we could have dinner in the bag right now."
* "I swam from that boat to this boat after my dive, but they forgot to send over my underwear."

## References

1. ↑ https://api.discovery.com/v1/images/5ce583b385aeee22b7422d65?aspectRatio=16x9&width=1200&key=3020a40c2356a645b4b4