The Strange Disappearance
of Sally Ann Corbett S TORY B Y J ANINE S TIDELY
(EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a fictional story based on real events that occurred on Camp Davis during World War II, and was also inspired by the story of Women’s Airforce Service Pilot (WASP) Gertrude Tompkins, whose plane went missing off the coast of California in 1944. The wreckage of her P-51D Mustang was never found.)
H
er name was Sally Ann Corbett. She was from West Texas and was a red-haired beauty, which is the one thing that people remember about her — but she was so much more. People often told her that she was too pretty to be doing man’s work or that she was better suited to be a pinup than a pilot, but Sally had plenty of brains and her first love was flying. She loved the freedom. She was already a skilled pilot who started out as a transport ferry pilot with Women’s Air Transport Detachment. She then became an instructor pilot with the Women Auxiliary Instructor Pilots before she was sent to Camp Davis. She was going to be part of the new and exciting program, Women Airforce Service Pilots, WASPs. Her best friend was Dorothea Laraine Thomas; Didi to her friends. She was a shy girl with raven hair, your typical all-American girl next door
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from Valdosta, Georgia. Didi was also a very accomplished pilot. The two of them had made many a man weak in the knees when they were out together. Didi and Sally had met some years earlier when they were both transport pilots and had become fast friends, due to their love of flying. They were thrilled to be stationed together again at Camp Davis. Being a female pilot could be a lonely place, but this was wartime and everyone was expected to do their part. Sally’s love interest was Matthew Winston Walker, a farm boy from North Platte, Nebraska. Matthew could zero in on a target at great distances and hit his mark with precision. It was all that hunting that he did as kid. They met some time after they both arrived at Camp Davis, he for antiaircraft artillery (AAA) training with 93rd Coast Artillery regiment and she to be a WASP. What started as a
friendship of two professionals with mutual respect for each other’s skills, grew to become much more and who knows what it could have become — maybe the love of a lifetime. Sally always said the she loved him “into the blue and back.” Didi didn’t have a special love interest but she always had a flock of suitors around her. She always felt more comfortable in the cockpit of a plane than in social situations, especially if men were involved. That’s why she and Sally were such good friends. Sally always knew what to say to keep the conversation going when there was an awkward silence around mixed company. In late October of 1943, Sally Corbett was scheduled to fly tow
