PFC Wilma Liles went missing over the sea near Africa shortly after one brother crashed and perished in the desert and another crashed behind enemy lines, narrowly escaping death.

On March 23 1913[i], Wilma (Wilna) Eva Liles was born to Thomas Oscar Liles Sr., a railroad agent, and his wife, Lena Mae Hillin Liles, both Texans. The young family lived in Reese, Texas.[ii] Waiting to greet their baby sister were big sisters Eunice Liles Reece, born in 1910, and Clotilde Eugene Liles Fryman, born in 1912.[iii]

She wasn’t the youngest child for too long. Wilma was soon joined by a brother, Thomas Oscar Liles Jr. in 1916 in Sacul, Texas.

World War I loomed on the horizon and Thomas Sr. was called to register for the draft even though he had children ages 8, 6, 5, and 4 at home. At the time of his registration in Wills Point, Texas in September of 1918, he was a dealer in Watkins Hoses in Ben Wheeler, Texas, where the family also lived.[iv]

Next, the family was surely surprised at the arrival of twins, James Louis Liles and Frances Louise Liles and 1920. The year the twins came along, Wilma was six years old. The family was living in Henderson, Texas in a home they owned and her father was working as an oil company salesman.[v]

When Wilma is 11 years old, her mother, Lena, dies along with another baby. The year is 1924.[vi] Widowed Thomas is left to care for children ages 14, 12, 11, 8, and twins age 4.

Two years later, on July 21, 1926, her father remarries to a farmer’s daughter, Lora Eva Merrick Liles.[vii] The wedding took place in Lora’s hometown of Callahan, Texas.[viii] The couple soon have a son, Don M. Liles, Wilma’s half-brother, in 1927.

By the time Wilma is 16, the family has moved to Nacogdoches, Texas. Thomas is still working in the oil industry but is now buying oil leases. The couple own a house valued at $3,200, about $50,000 in 2021 dollars. The oldest sisters, Eunice, age 20, and Clotilde, age 18, are no longer living at home. The household is made up of Thomas and his wife, Lola, and children, Wilma, James, Frances, and baby Don.[ix]

Lora and Thomas have an active life in the community. He’s active with the Baptist Church of Elliot. The couple are often mentioned in little social outings and visiting friends in the Hearne Democrat newspaper of Hearne, Texas.[x] Lora attends a family reunion for the Merricks, her maiden name, during this time.[xi]

HER LIFE BEFORE MILITARY

In 1940, as the country heads toward war years, 27-year-old college graduate Wilma is no longer living at home. She is a public-school teacher who makes $720 a year. It was common in those times for a teacher to live with a family in the area. Wilma resides as a lodger with the Harriott family on their farm in Trinity County, Texas. The Harriot family’s oldest, is 24-year-old Laura so it is likely the two are friends.[xii]

Meanwhile, her brother, Thomas Jr., is ranching near Houston.[xiii]

Thomas Sr., her father, had joined the national war effort as an LSDC safety inspector.[xiv] At the time he registered for WWII, he reported that he was working for the Red River Ordnance in New Boston-Bowie, Texas.[xv] He was living in Maud, Texas. By 1940, Thomas is no longer married to Lora. She is now living back in her hometown, Callahan, with a new husband, Marion Randolph, who she married on New Year’s Day of 1940.[xvi] Wilma’s stepbrother, Don Liles, age 12, is with her. At some point, Thomas Sr. marries again after his marriage to Lora because newspaper accounts refer to the couple as Mr. and Mrs. T. O. Liles but research did not turn up the name of his third wife.

In January of 1942, Wilma’s brother, Thomas Jr., enlists in the Air Forces. After training at Sheppard Field in Wichita and in San Antonio, Texas, he began serving as a flight instructor at Las Vegas, Nevada and Kingman, Arizona.[xvii]

In 1943, three members of her family made the Lone Star newspaper, a publication for employees of the Lone Star Ordnance in Texarkana, Texas. Her brother, Thomas Liles, Jr., was a second lieutenant in the Army Air Forces. He was a bomber pilot. At the time of the newspaper article, June 24, 1943, he was home from his base in Kingman, Arizona for a leave and visited his old company where he had once worked on the construction of the building. This time, he witnessed the loading of a 500-pound bomb which he would later drop on the enemy. Her other brother, James L. Liles, was in training to be a pilot at Ellington Field in Houston. Thomas Sr.’s work inspecting ordnance facilities made for the third family member.

At the end of the school year 1943/1944, Wilma was living in Dallas. It was then that she decided to leave her students and join her family in the war effort.[xviii]

HER MILITARY STORY

Wilma E. Liles, service number A-819034[xix], served in the Women’s Army Corp, WACS. Wilma enlisted on June 9, 1944 in McKinney, Texas.[xx] She served in the 1202nd Army Air Force Base Unit, WACS.

According to HonorStates.org, the women who were in the 1202nd were older, with an average age of 28, than the usual recruit and were chosen for their “maturity and work experience.”

In November of 1944, Wilma was one of 159 WACs in Accra, British West Africa to serve with the Air Transport Command. Their job was to deliver troops and supplies as well as transfer aircraft.[xxi]

During this time, Wilma must have been beside herself with worry for her little brother, James. He had been shot down over Germany. The family had been notified he was missing in action . For months, they did not know his condition or whereabouts. After being shot down, he lived in the German underground and finally escaped through Spain and then to England. When he finally arrived in New York, he could let his family know he was safe. Not long after his safe arrival, another tragedy struck the family.[xxii]

Even though Wilma was extremely far from the United States, news was sure to have reached her that her brother, Second Lieutenant Thomas Jr., was killed in a motorcycle crash near Roswell, New Mexico on February 26, 1944. He was working as an instructor for Air Force pilots on B-17s.

HER LAST DAY

PFC Wilma E. Liles was with 17 other women of the Women’s Army Corp on a normally routine 776- mile[xxiii] flight from Accra, British West Africa to Robert’s Field[xxiv], Liberia. The WACs were onboard as they were being transferred to a new assignment. There were scattered showers that morning but no other weather of note.[xxv]

Her plane, piloted by a crew of three[xxvi], a C-478 #44-76406, disappeared.[xxvii]

The plane was last reported over Takoradi, British West Africa, about 150 miles west of Accra, shortly after departure.[xxviii]

Little is known about what transpired aboard the plane that day but several calls of “Mayday,” an emergency procedure used as a voice distress signal, were heard. The distress signal was loud and clear, lasting five minutes.[xxix] A search was conducted by aircraft and surface craft over a wide area of the French Ivory Coast.[xxx] The search consisted of seven PET’s and British, French, and Native forces, who were informed to search waters and coastline. No sign of the plane was found.

The plane is believed to have crashed into the sea near Takordi, Ghana.[xxxi] The Chicago Tribune reported the “[xxxii]18 WACs were the first ever reported lost overseas.”

She went missing on May 30, 1945 and was declared dead while missing in action off the coast of Ghana, Africa.[xxxiii] News of the missing planes made newspapers across America on June 6th, 1945. Papers across the state of Texas ran the story of Texan Wilma Liles being missing including The Taylor Daily Press in Taylor, Texas which ran the story that day.[xxxiv]

Her father was notified via telegram. No details were given at that time but a press release from Washington followed with news of the missing plane.

Wilma was 32.

**READ THE STORIES OF ALL 21 ON THIS FLIGHT **

Click here- https://www.fold3.com/page/653613892/flight-c-47b-44-76406-stories-of-21-missing-in-action/stories

COMMENDATIONS

Purple Heart

World War II Victory Medal

American Campaign Medal

Army Presidential Unit Citation

Army Good Conduct Medal

European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign[xxxv]

MEMORIALS

On June 16, 1945, a memorial service for the missing women was held by the WACs’ leadership in Portman Square in London and over 660 WACs attended.[xxxvi]

PFC Wilma Eva Liles is remembered on the Tablets of the Missing, an American Battle Monument, North Africa American Cemetery in Carthage Tunisia.

NOTES ABOUT WILMA EVA LILES

Some reference materials, including ancestry.com and Find a Grave Index, list her name as Wilna instead of Wilma. The name space on her birth certificate is blank. The 1920, 1930 and 1940 census all are written Wilma. The U.S. Army press release about her death reads Wilma. For this story, Wilma is used.

ABOUT THIS STORY

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

[i] Texas Birth Certificate https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/2275/images/33153_B061364-05194?pId=3852791

[ii] Texas Birth Certificate https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/2275/images/33153_B061364-05194?pId=3852791

[iii] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/6061/images/4390419_00144?pId=62819552

[iv] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/6482/images/005153651_00310?pId=17249675

[v] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/6061/images/4390419_00144?pId=62819552

[vi] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/family-tree/person/tree/152804555/person/312024438273/facts

[vii] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/6224/images/4547358_00027?pId=61759745

[viii] https://search.ancestryinstitution.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?viewrecord=1&r=5561&db=FSMarriageTexas&indiv=try&h=900718464

[ix] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/6224/images/4547358_00027?pId=61759745

[x] https://basic.newspapers.com/search/legacy#query=%22t+o+liles%22&dr_year=1935-1939&offset=4&p_place=TX

[xi] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/11308156/?terms=%22lora%2B%2Bliles%22

[xii] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/2442/images/m-t0627-04152-00349?pId=157313468

[xiii] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/19750621/?terms=%22thomas%2Bliles%22

[xiv] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/mediaui-viewer/tree/152804555/person/312024438049/media/76763244-71aa-4ee7-9199-d9d27f05134f

[xv] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/1002/images/004150903_00205?pId=12472839

[xvi] https://search.ancestryinstitution.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?dbid=9168&h=925874401&indiv=try&o_vc=Record:OtherRecord&rhSource=61383

[xvii] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/19750621/?terms=%22thomas%2Bliles%22

[xviii] https://search.ancestryinstitution.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=8939&h=7032823&tid=&pid=&queryId=adebf6319203b252f4efaa0d206a5a2f&usePUB=true&_phsrc=Zvj300&_phstart=successSource

[xix] https://www.honorstates.org/index.php?id=333587

[xx] https://www.honorstates.org/index.php?id=333587

[xxi] https://www.honorstates.org/index.php?id=334268

[xxii] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/19750621/?terms=%22thomas%2Bliles%22

[xxiii]https://chicagotribune.newspapers.com/image/?clipping_id=22956270&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjM3MDE5ODM5MSwiaWF0IjoxNjAwNjUzOTMxLCJleHAiOjE2MDA3NDAzMzF9.GGROPxU0pGgcIxOv2cUjLCtQalRy9746RfogyVqiR44

[xxiv] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56250251/leona-marie_elizabeth-seyfert

[xxv] https://www.abmceducation.org/understandingsacrifice/soldier/rose-puchalla

[xxvi] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56250251/leona-marie_elizabeth-seyfert

[xxvii] https://www.honorstates.org/index.php?id=334268

[xxviii]https://chicagotribune.newspapers.com/image/?clipping_id=22956270&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjM3MDE5ODM5MSwiaWF0IjoxNjAwNjUzOTMxLCJleHAiOjE2MDA3NDAzMzF9.GGROPxU0pGgcIxOv2cUjLCtQalRy9746RfogyVqiR44

[xxix] https://www.abmceducation.org/understandingsacrifice/soldier/rose-puchalla

[xxx] New York Times, June 7, 1945 “18 WACS Missing on African Flight”

[xxxi] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56250251/leona-marie_elizabeth-seyfert

[xxxii]https://chicagotribune.newspapers.com/image/?clipping_id=22956270&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjM3MDE5ODM5MSwiaWF0IjoxNjAwNjUzOTMxLCJleHAiOjE2MDA3NDAzMzF9.GGROPxU0pGgcIxOv2cUjLCtQalRy9746RfogyVqiR44

[xxxiii] https://www.honorstates.org/index.php?id=334268

[xxxiv] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/55865033/?terms=%22wilma%2Bliles%22

[xxxv] https://www.honorstates.org/index.php?id=333587

[xxxvi] https://www.facebook.com/notes/mia-recoveries-locating-lost-wwii-servicemen/the-tragic-loss-of-c-47-44-76406-the-wacs-worst-disaster/10150778536912463/

Wilma Eva Liles death listing.jpg

Wilma Eva Liles from Honorstates website.jpg

Wilma Eva Liles military family article.jpg

Thomas Liles Jr Death -Kerrville_Mountain_Sun_Thu__Mar_8__1945_.jpg

Thomas Liles Jr. -The_Eagle_Wed__Sep_2__1942_.jpg