As a high school student, Dana King participated in an oratory competition where she spoke about “The Real American Character.” As a WAC, she showed real American character by stepping up to defend her country and losing her life in the process.

Dana King, for she went by her middle name, was born in Utah to William George King and his wife Emma Ruth Paine King in 1917. They named her Alice Dana King.[i] She was their first-born daughter.

William immigrated to the United States from Canada in 1913 and became a naturalized citizen in 1918. Emma Ruth was born in Utah.[ii]

Two and a half years later, Dana is joined by a sister, Ruth King.[iii]

In 1920, when Dana was three, the family is living in Ogden, Utah with Dana’s maternal grandmother, Emma Dean Paine, who is widowed. Grandmother Paine is a fruit farmer and owns the house free and clear. The household includes the family plus a lodger, Lestie Alford, a 12-year-old boy, and servant, Amy Paull. William is working to support the family as an advertising sign painter.[iv]

By the time Dana is 12, the family has moved to Salt Lake City, about 40 miles south of Ogden. She’s attending the Longfellow School. In February of 1929, her school listens in to hear the inaugural ceremony of President Herbert Hoover, the first to be broadcast from coast to coast. Two hundred and sixty children listened in on a radio set Dana brought to school for the occasion.[v]

During the same school year, Dana had been taking dancing lessons. In May of 1929, she performs in a studio recital for the McCune School.[vi]

In 1930, they are living in a home owned by William and valued at $5,000. (About $78,000 in 2020 dollars) Little sister, Ruth, is 10 years old. Grandmother Paine, 76, has moved with them. William is still in the advertising industry but is now a salesman.[vii]

Dana is enjoying school and stays involved. In 1930, she’s mentioned as being a part of the committee to throw a school valentine party in a red and white decorated auditorium.[viii]

In the school news column of The Salt Lake Tribune, Dana makes the news in 1931 by being listed as one of the best basketball players at Bryant Junior High School. The girls of Mrs., Bryant’s second period class had a lot of success at the sport, the paper reported.[ix]

In the spring of 1933, Dana’s junior year of high school, she’s busy preparing for the school’s oratory competition. She is one of the six finalists chosen to compete. Her subject was “The Real American Character.”[x]

In high school she was like any teenager – seeing movies with friends and participating in all kinds of school activities.

In the fall of 1934,both Dana and her sister, Ruth, are at East High School. Dana’s mentioned in the paper as being part of a group to see the movie “The Bunny.”[xi] She was active in Latin Club and Library Club while participating in tennis, debate, archery, and riding. In 1934, she received the Stephens’ Medal, awarded for excellence in oratory.[xii] Dana graduated in 1934 from East High School in Salt Lake City as part of a class of 627 students.[xiii]

HER LIFE BEFORE MILITARY

After high school, Dana attended the University of Utah. As a freshman, in the fall she received a bid to join, then pledged and was initiated into The Spurs, a national women’s pep organization.[xiv] By spring of 1936, Dana is leading events for The Spurs, such as a tea for the public.[xv] In the spring, she also pledges a national literary sorority, Chi Delta Phi. In March, she is a featured reader sharing “Soprano Solo,” a short story and leading a discussion.[xvi]

In 1936, the Salt Lake Telegram, a newspaper, does a photo series about sisters. Featured in one edition are Dana and her sister Ruth, casually seated in their home.[xvii] In other editions, it is mentioned that she made a trip to Utah parks with the Brown family[xviii] and attended a “handkerchief shower,” a pre-wedding party for another friend.[xix] Ruth King is given a party in honor of her leaving for Portland, Oregon, to attend Reeds College.[xx] (It’s unknown if she did attend for later she is seen attending the University of Utah.)

A big change was anticipated when Dana made plans to leave Salt Lake City and the University of Utah. Under the October 18, 1937 headline “Enrolls in College,” her plans are shared in the Salt Lake Telegram. “Miss Alice Dana King, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William G. King, 1221 East South Temple Street, Monday was enrolled at Antioch College, Yellow Spring, Ohio in the second division,” the note on the local page read.[xxi] It’s not known if Dana did attend Antioch College. In 1935, around the time she would have attended, the college was known for a cooperative type of education. About 80 percent of the students studied for eight weeks then alternated with eight weeks of work experience. For most women, this meant serving as nursing or teaching assistants.[xxii]

The same month, William, her father, accepts the role of chief aid and vice chairman of the 1937 Community Chest in Salt Lake City. Part of his duties were to solicit funds from industrial businesses. He is working as the district manager of Electrical Products Consolidated.[xxiii] He’s active in all kinds of business endeavors, including the Rotary Club, as evidenced by many newspaper stories.[xxiv] He’s frequently a speaker at business functions such as speaking to the Salt Lake Executives Association about the use of neon signs in modern advertising.[xxv]

In July of 1939, William takes a company transfer to the west coast to develop a sales program in Oregon.[xxvi] The core family relocates to Oregon. Grandmother Paine returns to Ogden to live. The four are living in the city of Portland. The family is renting a home. Dana and Ruth are both adults. William is still in advertising, working as the manager of an electric sign company, Electrical Products Consolidated.[xxvii] Ruth is listed on the 1940 census as living with her family, presumably her permanent residence. In 1940, she is also attending the University of Utah, where she is in Chi Omega sorority.[xxviii] Just before the war, Ruth was working as a secretary to James Abbe, KGW, a Portland, Oregon radio station.[xxix] Meanwhile, Dana was working as a clerk.[xxx]

After living in Portland for four years, another change was to come as Ruth, Dana’s sister, enlisted. (A-906976) She enlisted in Portland, Oregon on November 27, 1943 and became a WAC. Six months later, Dana followed.

HER MILITARY STORY

Alice Dana King, service number A-907300, served in the Women’s Army Corp, WACS. Dana enlisted on May 11, 1944 in Portland, Oregon as a private.[xxxi] 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, Dana 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.[xxxii]

In Accra, Dana was doing personnel work for the air transport command and conducting classes in literature and other subjects for enlisted men, according to The Ogden Standard-Extra newspaper.[xxxiii]

HER LAST DAY

PFC Alice Dana King was with 17 other women of the Women’s Army Corp on a normally routine 776- mile[xxxiv] flight from Accra, British West Africa to Robert’s Field[xxxv], 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.[xxxvi]

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

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

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.[xl] A search was conducted by aircraft and surface craft over a wide area of the French Ivory Coast.[xli] 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.[xlii] The Chicago Tribune reported the “[xliii]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.[xliv] News of the missing plane made newspapers across America on June 6th, 1945. The newspaper from where she grew up, The Salt Lake Tribune, reported with the headline “Utah’s First WAC Casualty: Ogden Woman Missing in Africa Air Crash” on June 14, 1945.

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.

Alice D. King was 27.

**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[xlv]

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.[xlvi]

PFC Alice Dana King is remembered on the Tablets of the Missing, an American Battle Monument, North Africa American Cemetery in Carthage Tunisia.

AFTER THE WAR

Dana’s sister, Corporal Ruth King, served in the WACs until she was discharged on February 23, 1946. She married cartoonist Norman Nelson on August 17, 1948.[xlvii]

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] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/family-tree/person/tree/106492803/person/190099525912/facts?_phsrc=Zvj240&_phstart=successSource

[ii] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/6061/images/4390823_00755?pId=37104944

[iii] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/6061/images/4390823_00755?pId=37104944

[iv] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/6061/images/4390823_00755?pId=37104944

[v] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/542264656/?terms=%22dana%2Bking%22

[vi] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/288700041/?terms=%22dana%2Bking%22

[vii] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/6224/images/4547819_00719?pId=5752697

[viii] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/598383021/?terms=%22dana%2Bking%22

[ix] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/598213155/?terms=%22dana%2Bking%22

[x] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/599036244/?terms=%22dana%2Bking%22

[xi] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/598626254/?terms=%22dana%2Bking%22

[xii] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/1265/images/40807_634221_0164-00059?usePUB=true&usePUBJs=true&pId=462237322

[xiii] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/598605268/?terms=%22dana%2Bking%22

[xiv] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/290024113/?terms=%22dana%2Bking%22

[xv] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/290030266/?terms=%22dana%2Bking%22

[xvi] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/289322231/?terms=%22dana%2Bking%22

[xvii] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/289309994/?terms=%22dana%2Bking%22

[xviii] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/288934336/?terms=%22dana%2Bking%22

[xix] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/288955054/?terms=%22dana%2Bking%22

[xx] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/598541477/?terms=%22ruth%2Bking%22

[xxi] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/289184739/?terms=%22dana%2Bking%22

[xxii]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antioch_College#:~:text=Antioch%20College%20is%20a%20private,Mann%20was%20its%20first%20president.

[xxiii] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/598203381/?terms=%22william%2Bg%2Bking%22

[xxiv] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/598534777/?terms=%22william%2Bg%2Bking%22

[xxv] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/289085013/?terms=%22william%2Bg%2Bking%22

[xxvi] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/598203381/?terms=%22william%2Bg%2Bking%22

[xxvii] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/2442/images/m-t0627-03389-00745?pId=63597487

[xxviii] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/1265/images/40392_B075346-00179?usePUB=true&_phsrc=Zvj258&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&pId=240837109

[xxix] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/598119081/?terms=%22dana%2Bking%22

[xxx] https://search.ancestryinstitution.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=8939&h=6623794&tid=&pid=&queryId=1df38ad897969eadd854fc339d9b9b14&usePUB=true&_phsrc=Zvj234&_phstart=successSource

[xxxi] https://www.honorstates.org/index.php?id=103489

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

[xxxiii] https://basic.newspapers.com/image/598119081/?terms=%22dana%2Bking%22

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[xlv] https://www.honorstates.org/index.php?id=103489

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

[xlvii] https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/61677/images/48910_302022005598_0065-00662?treeid=&personid=&hintid=&queryId=0a6cff44c8f09d2dbcb8866b38ad9b6b&usePUB=true&_phsrc=Zvj265&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&pId=90050853

Alice Dana King East High School Debate Team 1934.jpg

Alice Dana King East High School 1934.jpg

PFC Alice D. King in Uniform - Find A Grave.jpg

Alice Dana King University of Utah 1936.jpg

Alice Dana King headshot The_Salt_Lake_Tribune_Thu__Jun_14__1945_ (1).jpg

Alice Dana King _The_Salt_Lake_Tribune_Thu__Jun_14__1945_.jpg

Alice Dana King and Ruth King, Sisters in Salt_Lake_Telegram_Sat__Feb_1__1936_.jpg

1945 WAC Memorial Service for WACS Missing in Action.jfif

WAC Pin.jpg

Alice D King