The USAAF School of Air Evacuation

Our post for this week takes us to a different part of aviation history than the usual fighter pilots and Medal of Honor recepients. It begins with the onset of the Second World War when Japan bombs the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. At this time in history the United States was interested in remaining neutral, while the war in Europe raged on after Germany invades Poland.

 

 

As a sidenote, I often wonder if the attack on Pearl Harbor caused my mother to postpone my birth, as I was born in Toledo, Ohio, on December 11th, 1941. I am not so sure that today young people relate to what the world was like in the 1940s. Although President Roosevelt and Congress issed a declaration of war against both Germany and Japan, the initial focus of the war was on the vast Pacific Ocean and the Japanese.

 

World War II

 

To many American military nurses in the 1930s, the Philippines were a dream posting. A tropical paradise, American nurses spent their off hours enjoying the beautiful beaches and weather. This dream, however, turned into a nightmare in December 1941 when the Japanese invaded. To many of the nurses, what began as effectively a paid vacation became a fight to survive as prisoners of war held captive in Japanese camps.  

 

 

A truckload of US Army Nurses arriving in the Philippines.

 

 

As the United States began getting its footing and preparing for the now certain war, the U.S. Army knew it was going to require an enormus effort, and that it had to quickly build up and prepare the troops. So, in 1941 the U.S. Army Nurses Corp began advertising, encouraging young RNs to sign up with the Nurses Corp.

 

 

World War II-era Army Nurse Corps recruiting poster (National WWII Musemum).

 

 

As the war effort grew in the United States, and more and more young men were called to serve, many were injured in the growing scale of combat. When the Second World War started there were less than 1,000 nurses on active duty in the Army Nurse Corps. As the war began to speed up, these trailblazers faced harsh environments, intense shelling, and grueling hours, all to help the wounded. By the end of the war they had accomplished keeping the mortality rate of wounded American service members under four percent.

 

 

Wartime experience brought innovations that revolutionized medical services. Military nursing gained a greater understanding of the processes of shock, blood replacement, and resuscitation. These incredible healthcare professionals assisted in developing recovery wards for immediate postoperative nursing care.

 

 

Air evacuation from the combat zone by fixed-wing aircraft brought patients to urgent treatment quickly. To accomplish this goal required trained Army flight nurses who helped to establish an incredible low record of deaths in flight – only five per 100,000 patients. But how did this happen?

 

 

The School of Air Evacuation

 

 

The U.S. Army Air Forces officially organized and opened the first School of Air Evacuation at Bowman Field, Kentucky, on October 6, 1942. Shortly thereafter, on February 18, 1943, the school held its first formal graduation ceremony for the military's inaugural class of 39 flight nurses.

 

Graduation Ceremony at Bowman Field, 18 February 1943. (Courier-Journal)

 

 

The honor graduate of the first class was 2nd Lt. Geraldine Faye Dishroon, a member of the Army Nurse Corps, from Tulsa, OK. On this day Major General Dr. David N.W. Grant, Air Surgeon of the U.S. Army Air Forces, took off his own flight surgeon wings and pinned them on Lt. Dishroon as a sign of respect for her completing the four week course with a score of 96.5 out of 100. The wings were 3 inches long and made of 10K gold. 

 

 

 

Original World War II 3 Inch 10K Gold Fill on Sterling Silver U.S. Army Air Corps Flight Surgeon Wings.

 

 

Everyone who attended the first School of Air Evacuations already were already RNs (Registered Nurses), many of which came from the Army Nurse Corps like Lt. Dishroon, as well as a number who came from civilian practice. The next week another 45 RNs showed up to take the course at the school. By the end of the war more than 500 U.S. Army Air Force flight nurses had served with 31 medical air evacuation squadrons. Sadly, seventeen of them perished during World War 2.

 

 

On November 26, 1943, The Flight Nurse's Creed was written and first introduced by Major General David N.W. Grant, the Air Surgeon of the U.S. Army Air Forces, during a speech to the seventh graduating class of flight nurses at Bowman Field, Kentucky.

 

The Flight Nurse's Creed

 

"I will summon every resource to prevent the triumph of death over life.

I will stand guard over the medicines and equipment trusted to my care and ensure their proper use.

I will be untiring in the performance of my duties and I will remember that, upon my disposition and spirit, will in large measure defend the morale of my patients.

I will be faithful to my training and to the wisdom handed down to me by those who have gone before me.

I have taken a nurse's oath, reverent in man's mind because of the spirit and work of it's creator, Florence Nightingale. She, I remember, was called the "Lady with the Lamp."

It is now my privilege to lift this lamp of hope and faith and courage in my profession to heights not known by her in her time. Together with the help of flight surgeons and surgical technicians, I can set the very skies ablaze with life and promises for the sick, injured, and wounded who are my sacred charges.

... This I will do. I will not falter in war or in peace." 

 

The Philippines 

 

Within hours of the attack on Pearl Harbor the Japanese attacked U.S. bases in the Pacific, including Clark Field in the Philippines. Without warning the nurses' daily routines were suddently disrupted by falling bombs, filling the hospitals with casualties, and nurses and doctors struggled to keep up with the wounded men rapidly filling beds, hallways, prorches, and anywhere they could find room to place them.

 

 

Unfortunately, the island's medical supplies were inadequate to deal with so many soldiers who kept comining, almost without end. The days raced by in a blur of mangled flesh and bloody limbs as the Allied forces fought in vain to stop the Japanese. 

 

 

A crowded hospital on Bataan. US. Army photo.

 

 

General McArthur promised reinforcements to the weary and battered troops in the Philippines, but soon they realized that relief was not coming to their rescue. McArthur had been ordered to withdraw to Australia and abandon the Philippines, including the Army and Navy nurses on Bataan and Corregidor who continued to care for the sick and wounded. Even many of the nurses were sick themselves.

 

 

The nurses were warned of the brutality they faced if they remained at Clark Field, but their commander, Capt. Maude C. Davison ordered them to leave their makeshift hospitals in the jungle, and move to the Malinta Tunnel on Corregidor. However, the Navy nurses at Bataan were caught by the Japanese and sent to the Los Banos Internment Camp. while their patients were forced into what became known as the Bataan Death March.

 

 

Army nurses after being captured on Corregidor, 1945. Naval History and Heritage Command photo.

 

Meet Juanita Redmond

 

On July 1, 1912, Ms. Juanita Redmond Hipps was born in Swansea, South Carolina. As she grew up she decided to become a nurse, and attended the South Carolina State Hospital for nurses's training. In 1936 she decided to join the United States Army Nrse Corps, and in 1939 was posted to Clark Field, Manila, Philippines in 1939 as a 2nd Lt. 

 

 

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor Lt. Redmond was posted to Bataan and Corregidor. Redmond dove headfirst into the chaos, tending to the waves of wounded soldiers as they came to the makeshift jungle open-air hospitals that were constantly under the unrelenting enemy fire. Dodging shrapnel from the Japaneses bombs, and fighting against malaria, she and her sister nurses performed miracle after miracle with limited supplies, operating by flashlights during blackouts, and evacuating the wounded through treacherous terraing as the front lines fell. 

 

 

In the almost unbearable heat of the jungles in the Philippines, where the constant roar of Japanese bombers shattered the tropical calm, Lt. Juanita Redmond emerged as an example of unyielding courage. In a daring escape just before the fall of Corregidor in 1942, Lt. Redmond and a handful of colleagues were airlifted to Australia, sparing her the fate of many of her fellow sisters-in-arms.

 

 

From there she returned to the United States, becoming a trailblazer who inspired a nation. In 1943 she wrote a gripping best-seller titled "I Served on Bataan." The book not only boosted morale but also sparked the Hollywood film "So Proudly We Hail!" - fueling a surge in nurse enlistments. Redmond pioneered the U.S. Army Air Corps flight nurse program called The School oif Air Evacuations.

 

 

For her innovative work in aerial evacuations she earned the first gold flight wings at the school, and inspired young nurses to join the U.S. Army Air Corps. She became known as one of the "Angels of Bataan." Her valor earned her the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star, as well as multiple Presidential Unit Citations.

 

 

In 1946 Redmond married U.S. Army Air Forces office William Grover Hipps, and they went on to have a son and two grandchildred. Hipps was later promoted to general rank, and Juanita followed him on postings around the US, Iran and the Far East. By 1958 they were living in Redlands, California, and in 1969 retireming as a Lt. Col. after decades of service. 

 

 

She passed away at her home in St. Petersburg, Florida, on February 25, 1979, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors. Today, her legacy endures through the Juanita Redmond award which honors fellow nurses who emody her fearless spirit. 

 

 

I hope you enjoyed this trip through some of the history of aviation. If you enjoyed story, please share it with all of your friends. And, if you are new to this blog, sign up to receive your own weekly blog post here: Subscribe here!

 

 

Until next time, keep your eyes safe and focused on what's ahead of you, Hersch!

 

 

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