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WWII Flight Nurse
(May 30, 2010) |
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| | The movie Saving Private Ryan looked real to her, and Army Air Force
Flight Nurse Lieutenant Merilys Brown would know since she was one of
the first females on Omaha Beach just days after the June 6, 1944 D-Day
invasion of France.
As soon as the Allies got a toe-hold the combat engineers with their
bulldozer tanks started to blade out a crude airstrip just above the
beach. They laid down the metal interlocking Marston matting and the
first US combat runway was put into action on French soil. Because the
C-47s hauled in combat troops and equipment they could not paint red
crosses on the sides of the planes. So when the aircraft lifted off of
Omaha Beach they were not protected under the Geneva Convention as
non-combat medical planes.
The dreaded German 88mm artillery continued to fire onto Omaha Beach
even days after they had been routed from the waterline. A makeshift
tent hospital was set up next to the runway and the injured allies, as
well as German troops were triaged to determine who was seriously
wounded enough to be flown back to England, but not so serious that they
would die in transit. Medical evacuation from the battlefield by air was
brand new to the Army.
Prior to WWII the wounded were taken from the fight in trucks, field
ambulances, and even the venerable old two wheeled handcart. The primary
problem with these older forms of transport was the lack of speed in
getting the injured to the rear area. Moving the wounded to hospitals
that had surgeons, life saving drugs, and cleanliness – something that
could not be found in an active combat zone.
The first class of Army Flight Nurses completed training in February of
1943. Aeromedical Evacuation was used by the US military in North Africa
but the wounded troops were picked up from rear area hospitals out of
harm's way. The landings on Omaha Beach were the first time in the
European Theater that C-47s with one Flight Nurse and one medical
technician was flown into a hot combat zone to get the wounded out of
France and back across the English Channel. Some wounded were flown to
Allied hospitals in England but many of the airfields were too busy with
bomber and fighter missions being flown round the clock to deal with the
off loading of the injured.
A thousand-bed field hospital was established in Prestwick, Scotland and
the C-47s were flown directly to it after clearing French airspace. In
the first days after D-Day a single C-47 Air Evac crew could fly three
missions off Omaha Beach in a day. Lieutenant Brown was temporarily
posted at Prestwick to fly C-54 Air Evac missions out of Scotland using
that vital air bridge, transporting the wounded on a thirteen hour
flight back to New York. Many of these wound patients had never been
away from home before joining the Army, never been wounded in combat and
never been on an airplane. All three created increased stress factors
for the Flight Nurses on the long trip to the States.
Over one million patients were evacuated by air during WWII, with 4,707
wounded transported in one day. In WWI all the wounded returned to the
US on troop ships and actual military hospital ships. In WWII, one fifth
of all patients returned to the States by Air Evacuation.
Speed saves lives in combat. The Army Air Force had 500 Flight Nurses
and formed 31 Medical Air Evacuation Transport Squadrons to meet the
needs of the seriously wounded in WWII. They flew in all theaters of
operations during WWII. After Germany surrendered, the Evac Units in
Europe were re-directed to the Pacific to transport the wounded during
the impending invasion of the Japanese mainland.
I met now retired Captain (Army equivalent Colonel) Merilys Brown of the
US Public Health Commissioned Corps at the Labor Day weekend 2007
convention in Colorado Springs of the WWII Flight Nurses Association and
the Society of Air Force Nurses. There were seven combat tested, WWII
nursing aircrew members at the convention. They are always looking for
their fellow WWII Flight Nurses.
Adnilem49@aol.com or 248-623-7883 will put you in contact with this
wonderful veteran's organization. These Nurses aimed high before the
phrase was fashionable. They set the standard for today's Air Force
medical evacuation flying missions. If you were wounded in combat during
WWII or any conflict since and made it home, you most likely need to
thank a Flight Nurse. |
 By
Van E. Harl
Copyright
2007About Author:
Major Van E. Harl, USAF Ret., was a career police officer in the U.S. Air
Force. He was the Deputy Chief of police at two Air Force Bases and the
Commander of Law Enforcement Operations at another. Major Harl is a graduate of
the U.S. Army Infantry School, the Air Force Squadron Officer School and the Air
Command and Staff College. After retiring from the Air Force he was a state
police officer in Nevada. |
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