Tony Roomsburg had only been out of college 18-months when she felt a call to help her country. On New Year’s Eve of 1943, she enlisted in the Women’s Army Corp in order to start the new year with determination. After 18 months in the army, her parents were told their only child, an outstanding scholar and athlete, was never coming home.

An only child, Tony Pearl Roomsburg was the daughter of Texans James Austin Roomsburg and Caroline J. “Callie” McLester Roomsburg.[i] She arrived just in time for Thanksgiving on November 14, 1919. She was born at home and the land her house sat on is now under the Arizona State Attorney General’s office at the State Capitol Mall, according to a story about her by Major Jim Geiser at findagrave.com.[ii]

When Tony was born, James, 24, and Callie, 31, were living in a home they owned in Maricopa County, Arizona. They had been married 3 years. Tony’s widowed grandmother, Margarete McLester, lived with them. James was supporting them by farming.[iii]

By the time she’s ten, the family has moved. Tony and her parents are living in a home they own in Lomita in the Los Angeles, California area. James has a new career as a pumper for a Southern California Drilling Company.[iv] A pumper maintains the wellheads in an oil field.[v] Her grandmother, who had lived with her when she was little, also moved to Lomita and is living with a great-niece and family. Tony attends Lomita Elementary School in a class of 17 students and then attends Narbonne Junior High School.[vi]

By the time she is in high school the family has moved again. They are in Harbor City, which is very close to Lomita, where they first lived. Tony is attending Nathaniel Narbonne High School there. She was in the Honor Society and Los Amigos- the Spanish Club.[vii] In 1937, she served as president of the B Class[viii] and she was named as one of the “Ephebians” of her high school, chosen on scholarship, leadership, moral character, and service.[ix] She graduated in 1938.[x]

HER LIFE BEFORE MILITARY

Tony settles in at Arizona State Teachers' College, now Arizona State University, where she joins the Archery Team as a member of the First Squad. With them, she represents the college at inter-collegiate meets for the National Archers Association. She participates in the Winter Inter-Collegiate Telegraphic Meet. Tony’s team took second place in several events.[xi]

As we head into the war years, the family has moved from Lomita to 20 miles north and have settled in Inglewood. Tony spends time away at college. Living with her mother and father is her Aunt Winnie. A widow, Winnie Henderson is the younger sister of Tony’s mother. James is the production manager for an oil company.[xii]

In 1942, Tony graduated from the Arizona State Teachers’ College and she had won the archery state championship.[xiii] Then she was a primary and kindergarten teacher according to her enlistment papers.

Before the war, Tony had been the assistant to the director of the girls’ dormitory at the University of California, Los Angeles campus.[xiv]

HER MILITARY STORY

PVT Tony Pearl Roomsburg, service number A-917310, served in the Women’s Army Corp, WACs. Tony enlisted on New Year’s Eve, December 31, 1943 in Los Angeles and she headed to Des Moines, Iowa[xv] for basic training. 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, Tony 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.[xvi]

After some time in Africa, Tony wrote home to her mother believing a transfer was coming. She wrote that she expected to be transferred to some base in Europe.[xvii] That turned out to not be the case.

HER LAST DAY

PVT Tony Pearl Roomsburg was with 17 other women of the Women’s Army Corp on a normally routine 776- mile[xviii] flight from Accra, British West Africa to Robert’s Field[xix], 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.[xx]

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

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

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.[xxiv] A search was conducted by aircraft and surface craft over a wide area of the French Ivory Coast.[xxv] 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 Takoradi, Ghana.[xxvi] The Chicago Tribune reported the “[xxvii]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.[xxviii] News of the missing plane made newspapers across America on June 6th, 1945. Her hometown paper, The Los Angeles Times, reported the news under the headline “WACs From Here Missing on Trip.”

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

Tony was 25.

**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[xxix]

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.[xxx]

PVT Tony Pearl Roomsburg is remembered on the Tablets of the Missing, an American Battle Monument, North Africa American Cemetery in Carthage, Tunisia.

In May of 1947, a memorial plaque inscribed with Tony Pearl Roomsburg and 32 other high school classmates killed in WWII was unveiled at Narbonne High School. The bronze plaque, purchased by students, was hung in the school’s main hall. The event included speakers and a volley fired by an honor firing squad from Fort MacArthur.[xxxi]

In November of 2018, Tony Pearl Roomsburg was remembered at a ceremony at her alma mater, Arizona State University. The ceremony, held by ASU alumni vets, honored students from the university who had given their lives for their country. One hundred and thirty-seven names, spanning more than a century, were read.[xxxii]

A Veterans' Memorial Wall was dedicated to the many Arizona State University alumni, including Tony Pearl Roomsburg. The Honor Wall reads "Arizona State University recognizes and honors these Alumni who gave their lives while serving in the Armed Forces of the United States of America."

AUTHOR NOTE

All of PVT Tony Pearl Roomsburg’s documentation refers to her as Tony, including school year books and notices in the newspaper, until she reaches the army. After that, some documents refer to her as Pearl.

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] The Los Angeles Times, Thursday, June 7, 1945

[ii] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56250033/tony-pearl-roomsburg

[iii] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/6061/images/4294344-00828?pId=1788938

[iv]https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/1002/images/004670126_02789?treeid=26536425&personid=130081278086&usePUB=true&_phsrc=Zvj633&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&pId=13806659

[v] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/6224/images/4532462_00968?pId=88631643

[vi] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/605751560/?terms=%22pearl%2Broomsburg%22

[vii] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/1265/images/43134_b201862-00061?treeid=26536425&personid=130081278088&rc=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=Zvj647&_phstart=successSource&pId=999612372

[viii] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/605169209/?terms=%22tony%2Broomsburg%22

[ix] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/358989073/?terms=%22tony%2Broomsburg%22

[x] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56250033/tony-pearl-roomsburg

[xi] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/1265/images/40391_b67502-00079?treeid=26536425&personid=130081278088&rc=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=Zvj649&_phstart=successSource&pId=964969536

https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/2442/images/m-t0627-00235-00589?pId=68965489[xii]

[xiii] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/689258842/?terms=%22tony%2Broomsburg%22

[xiv] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/689258842/?terms=%22tony%2Broomsburg%22

[xv] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/605151307/?terms=%22pearl%2Broomsburg%22

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

[xvii] The Los Angeles Times, Thursday, June 7, 1945

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[xxix] https://www.honorstates.org/index.php?id=334183

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

[xxxi] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/605550691/?terms=%22tony%2Broomsburg%22

[xxxii] https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/karinabland/2018/11/11/saying-names-asu-veterans-honor-them/1946069002/

WAC Pin.jpg

1945 WAC Memorial Service for WACS Missing in Action.jfif

Tony Pearl Roomsburg 1935 high school photo.

Tony Pearl Roomsburg Crop from Archery Club at Arizona State.png

Tony Pearl Roomsburg leaves for basic - San_Pedro_News_Pilot_Fri__Feb_11__1944_.jpg

Tony Pearl Roomsburg - San_Pedro_News_Pilot_Wed__Jun_6__1945_.jpg

Tony Roomsburg 1935 class.png

Pearl Roomsburg - The_Los_Angeles_Times_Thu__Jun_7__1945_ (1).jpg

Pearl Roomsburg- missing article -The_Los_Angeles_Times_Thu__Jun_7__1945_ (2).jpg

Tony Pearl Roomsburg leaves U of C - Oakland_Tribune_Sun__Feb_27__1944_.jpg

Tony Pearl Roomsburg missing- Daily_News_Thu__Jun_7__1945_.jpg