After marrying Eric Verner Wahlberg in the early 1940s, the two formed a singing and dancing duo and tapped their way through the Midwest and parts of Canada. In 1943, they began visiting U.S. Army camps around the United States before leaving for the Philippines in 1945 on a mission with the United Service Organization. President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the USO in 1941 as an organization whose goal was to “lift the morale of the U.S. military and nourish support on the home front.”

The USO hired entertainers like the Wahlbergs to perform for the troops abroad. During World War II, 37 USO entertainers died. The most famous performer to die in the war was legendary big band leader Glenn Miller, whose plane vanished over the English Channel on the way to France while he was serving in the U.S. Army Air Forces.

Shortly before their trip, Wahlberg pulled a muscle in her right leg after a performance. Her husband begged her to remain stateside, but she insisted on making the trip. Her aunt, Eve King, told reporters at the Racine Journal Times that she also asked her niece not to go to the Philippines, but Wahlberg replied that she was going, “if it’s the last thing I ever do.”

Merry Madcaps

The Wahlbergs performed throughout the Southwest Pacific area with seven other USO performers in a group dubbed, “The Merry Madcaps.” When performing, the Wahlbergs both went by their stage names, “Evelyn and Vern Wahl.” For reasons of both safety and fuel-saving necessity, eleven military personnel from the Phillipines traveled with the entertainers.

The C-47 transport plane carrying the Wahlbergs and their entourage disappeared on February 5, 1946, en route from Iloilo City Airfield, Panay Island, to Cebu Island in the Philippines. After an extensive search, the U.S. Army determined the missing personnel non-recoverable in 1948.

A Remarkable Discovery

In 1964, more than 18 years after the crash, Evelyn’s mother, Mrs. Florence Cantwell, was notified of a remarkable discovery. Cantwell was told by the U.S. Army that students on a mountain climbing excursion in 1961 had found the wreckage and human remains of a C-47 transport plane on Mount Canalaon on Negros Island, which lies between the Panay and Cebu Islands.

According to an article in the Racine Journal Times, the U.S. Army initially declared that despite “extensive examinations…individual identification was impossible.” They also noted that while no “definite information” was available concerning what had caused the plane to disappear, they believed the aircraft was lost because of “inclement weather.”