Gertrude Vreeland Tompkins Silver, a 32-year-old Women Airforce Service Pilot, disappeared on October 26, 1944, after departing Mines Field in Inglewood, California. She was ferrying a P-51D Mustang to New Jersey with a planned overnight stop in Palm Springs and was last seen flying into a fog bank over Santa Monica Bay after a cockpit-hatch problem delayed her on the taxiway. Tompkins is the only WASP who went missing during World War II and was not reported missing for four days because of clerical errors and the absence of an individual flight plan, which delayed search efforts.

An extensive military search followed, including 156 aircraft and more than 1,067 hours of flying time, covering nearby mountains and Santa Monica Bay, but no wreckage or remains were found. In November 1944 she was declared missing and presumed dead. Over the decades theories have pointed to a fog-related crash in Santa Monica Bay—an object of interest appeared on sonar imagery in 2001—or a mountain crash near Palm Springs; later searches, including one featured on the television series Expedition Unknown, have not produced definitive answers.

Did anyone with knowledge of wartime ferry routes, wartime weather conditions that day, or private recollections about the flight group ever pass along information about Gertrude Tompkins Silver?