U.S. Army Air Forces World War II Flight Nurses

At the height of World War II, 500 flight nurses served with the U.S. Army Air Forces as members of 31 medical air evacuation squadrons. These worldwide missions were located on both the European and Pacific fronts. The first class of these dedicated volunteer flight nurses graduated from air evacuation training at Bowman Field in Louisville, Kentucky, on February 18, 1943. These women had to be in top physical condition for grueling medical evacuation missions. They were trained in crash procedures, survival training, and high-altitude physiology. More than one million patients were evacuated by air between January 1943 and May 1945, and only 46 died enroute.