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Jerry Hayes sings "Thanks To Them" on his CD honoring Veterans so I chose to share it with you here.
After many years of thinking that USN AB3 Kay Sherill Platt, Dexter, NM, non-hostile death was a woman--I recently found out that this was a man. SORRY! If you want to check on any casualties of the Korean War I suggest you visit the Korean War Project Remembrance to verify names, dates, locations, etc. 22 Dec 52: USAF AN Virginia May McClure, Springfield, SD, non-hostile
air crash in Korea 13 May 51: USN SN Doris Frances Brown, Milwaukee,
WI, may have been a (HM) hospital-man if she was a member of the Medical Corps, non-hostile death 26 Sep 50: USAF Air Force Nurse Corps (AFNC) CPT Vera M. Brown, died at Ashiya Air Base, Japan when the plane she was assigned to crashed during a medical evacuation flight. 19 Sep 50: These women were identified in Doris Sterner's book In and Out of Harm's Way as well as in Marty O'Brien's Casualty Book Chapter III online. They were in a military transport plane enroute to the US Naval Hospital in Yokosuka, Japan. As the plane was departing Kwajalein Island it crashed into the Pacific Ocean. I appreciate receiving this particular information from COL Pat Jernigan. USN Navy Nurse Corps (NNC) Ensign (ENS) Eleanor Beste 25 Aug 50: USN NNC LT Wilma Ledbetter, drowned when the USS Benevolence sank after colliding with the SS Mary Luckenback near the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, CA. 5 Jul 50: USA Army Nurse Corps (ANC) MAJ Genevieve Smith, C-47 plane crash on way to her new assignment as Chief Nurse of the 8th US Army in the Korean Theater.
Reports say that more than 400 American military women lost their lives during World War II however I have only found a few names and dates for them so far: 24 Jul 45:
30 May 45: A C-47 transport plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of West Africa. WACs who had been stationed at the Army Airfield in Accra, British West Africa were onboard and enroute to their new assignments in Europe. No wreckage was ever found of the plane nor their remains. Pat Jernigan has provided the following names: USA PFC Rose Brohinsky from NY USA SGT Doris Cooper from IL USA PFC Flossie Flannery from IN USA PFC Frieda Friend from NY USA PFC Mary Gollinger from CA USA CPL Velma Holden from NC USA PFC Odessa Hollingsworth
from OK USA PFC Alice King from OR USA PFC Wilma Liles from TX USA PFC Evelyn McBride from TX
USA PFC Alice
Pauline McKinney from Big Bay (Marquette County) in the Upper
Peninsula of Michigan. Her brother Bill had been killed in Europe during the war
sometime in the Fall of 1944. Special thanks to Loraine Koski, Marquette/Alger
Co. WWII Gold Star Researcher who supplied this additional information. USA PFC Rose Puchalla from MN
USA PFC Mildred Rice from MO USA PVT Pearl Roomsburg from CA USA PFC Helen Rozzelle from
Washington, DC USA PFC Leona Seyfert from IL USA PFC Ruth Warlick from TX USA PFC Bonnie Williams from KS 15 May 45: USA SSG Laura Besley from PA was a passenger onboard a C-47A when it crashed into a mountain on 13 May in a remote area of New Guinea. She died 2 days later from her injuries. Pat Jernigan has provided this info. 14 May 45: USA PFC Eleanor Hanna from PA was a passenger onboard a C-47A when it crashed into a mountain on 13 May in a remote area of New Guinea. She died a day later from her injuries. Pat Jernigan has provided this info. 13 May 45: USA PFC Alethia Fair from CA was a passenger onboard a C-47A when it crashed into a mountain on 13 May in a remote area of New Guinea. Pat Jernigan has provided this info. USA SGT Helen Kent from CA was a passenger onboard a C-47A when it crashed into a mountain on 13 May in a remote area of New Guinea. Pat Jernigan has provided this info. USA PFC Mary Landau from NY was a passenger onboard a C-47A when it crashed into a mountain on 13 May in a remote area of New Guinea. Pat Jernigan has provided this info. USA SGT Belle Naimer from NY was a passenger onboard a C-47A when it crashed into a mountain on 13 May in a remote area of New Guinea. Pat Jernigan has provided this info. USA T/3 Marion McMonagle from PA was a passenger onboard a C-47A when it crashed into a mountain on 13 May in a remote area of New Guinea. Pat Jernigan has provided this info. 28 Apr 45: In the Pacific Theater a Japanese "kamikazi (suicide plane) bombed the hospital ship USNHS Comfort off Leyte Island, between Guam and Okinawa. The bombing completely destroyed the Operating Room area on the ship. In the attack 28 personnel were killed including 6 nurses and at least 48 others were wounded including medical personnel and 4 nurses. The women who died that day were: USA ANC 2LT Margaret Billings USA ANC 2LT Frances Chelsey--The Presque Isle high school that Frances graduated from in 1928 memorialized her with a plaque. USA ANC Evelyn Eckert
USA ANC 1LT Florence Grewer USA ANC 2LT Dorothy Stanke 13 Apr 45: USA ANC 1LT Christine A Gasvoda from Michigan apparently died onboard a medevac which crashed during WW II. She was assigned to the 816th Medical Air Evacuation Squadron. She is buried in the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, Netherlands. 31 Mar 45: USA PFC Emma Jane (Burrows) Windham from TX died while assigned to a B-17 "Flying Fortress" as a flight engineer. The plane was landing in England when it was struck by another plane. Pat Jernigan has provided this info. 25 Jan 45:
4 Dec 44: CIVILIAN Nurse Helen Corra from West Virginia is listed as killed in action according to Pioneer Nurses of West Virginia. 15 Nov 44: CIVILIAN Nurse Beatrice Glasco
from West Virginia is also listed as dying according to Pioneer Nurses of West Virginia
but not where or why. 1 Nov 44: USA ANC 1LT Aleda Lutz from Freeland, MI is one of the most celebrated war heroes of World War II. As an Army Flight Nurse, she flew 196 missions in an air ambulance, losing her own life in an evacuation effort over Lyon, Italy. Supposedly she was the first US military woman to die in a combat zone during World War II. 22 Oct 44: USA ANC 2LT Sara B Vance from West Virginia was serving with the 33rd General Hospital when she died. She is buried in the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery in Nettuno, Italy. 21 Oct 44: USA ANC LT Frances Slanger was with the 45th Field Hospital—one of four units that arrived in Normandy on 10 June 1944—just four days after D-Day. She was one of four nurses who waded ashore at the Normandy beachhead on D-Day. The 45th became the target of a German artillery barrage. She was mortally wounded when one of the shells burst nearby. Frances and three other nurses were hit by shell fragments. She died two hours later. Frances became the only Army nurse killed by enemy action in the push from Normandy to the Rhine. Frances was buried in the American military cemetery of Henri Chapelle (Belgium). Some years later, her family had her remains removed and interred in a Jewish cemetery in Roxbury, MA. In Boston, the Jewish women Veterans of World War II formed an all women chapter of the Jewish War Veterans of the USA and named it the “Lieutenant Frances Slanger Memorial Post." 27 Jul 44: USA PVT Marjory L Babinetz from PA, died while onboard a RA-24 "Banshee" when it crash possibly in OK as she was stationed at Tinker Field. Pat Jernigan has provided this info. 18 May 44: USA Army Nurse Corps 2LT Eloise Richardson,
24, from Marseilles, IL was on a routine flight between the western
coast of Bougainville and Guadalcanal in the South Pacific. She was a flight
nurse aboard a C-47 which was transporting wounded troops, but never arrived at
it’s destination. No evidence of it’s whereabouts has ever been recovered.
Eloise graduated from Ryburn-King School of Nursing and had worked in Chicago’s
Cook County Hospital prior to joining the Army in 1942 as a nurse. She later
transferred to the Army Air Force division of nurses in 1943. Eloise was
officially declared dead on 19 May 1945; in August she was posthumously
awarded the Purple Heart. During the battle on Anzio, the German bombing and strafing of the tented hospital area killed six Army nurses. Four Army nurses among the survivors were awarded Silver Stars for extraordinary courage under fire. 16 Feb 44: USA ANC LT Ellen Ainsworth, 24, from Glenwood City, WI was on duty in a hospital ward near the Anzio beachhead on 10 February 1944. She was severely wounded on 10 Feb 44 during the Battle of Anzio in Italy. During an enemy artillery bombardment, a shell hit the hospital. Despite the severe damage to the hospital, Ellen calmly moved her patients to safety. She “instilled confidence in her assistants and her patients, thereby preventing serious panic and injury. Her courage under fire and her selfless devotion to duty were an inspiration to all who witnessed her actions.” She died 6 days later and was the only Wisconsin woman to die from enemy fire during World War II. She was awarded the Silver Star, the nation’s third highest award for bravery, and the Purple Heart. In her honor, a nursing care building at the Wisconsin Veterans Home at King, WI is named Ainsworth Hall. A dispensary at Fort Hamilton, NY and a conference room in the Pentagon also are named in her honor. 9 Feb 44: Two nurses were killed when the 33rd Field Hospital at Anzio was hit by artillery. Approximately 200 Army nurses took part in the Anzio campaign. Two of them became the first women to receive the Silver Star for meritorious duty. During the Anzio campaign they cared for 33,128 patients (10,809 battle casualties; 18,074 sick; 4,245 other injuries). USA ANC LT LaVerne Farquar USA ANC LT Gertrude Spelboug 7 Feb 44: Three nurses died when the 95th Evac Hospital was bombed during the Battle of Anzio (Italy). USA ANC LT Marjorie Morrow USA ANC 1LT Carrie Sheetz USA ANC LT Blanche Sigman--A hospital ship was named in her honor during the war.
1 Oct 43: Civilian Nurses Martha Thurmond and Virginia L Link, both from West Virginia, are listed as killed in action according to Pioneer Nurses of West Virginia. Virginia died in North Africa, perhaps Martha did also.
A lesser-known fact is that thirty-eight members of the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS), Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) Trainees and WASPs lost their lives during WW II and yet those who served as WASPs were not given full military status until many years later: Though they died in 1943 and 1944 I decided to keep them all together here. 9 Dec 44: WASP Class
44-W-8 Mary Louise Webster
It is reported that at least 111 Army nurses died overseas and around 186 died stateside during WW I. In the Navy it is said that at least 22 Yeoman (F) died while at least 27 members of the Navy Nurse Corps died along with those serving as Dieticians, telephone operators, YMCA volunteers, Red Cross and Salvation Army women as well as those in the military intelligence field. Naturally this is all very hard to track so many years later. Thus far I’ve only been able to come up with the following names: Mar 1918: CIVILIAN YMCA Volunteer Marion G. Crandall,
Alameda, CA during shelling at Ste. Menehould, France 20 May 1917: Six base hospitals that included more than 400 Army nurses sailed on five ships headed to France for service with the British forces. At least two women, nurses with Base Hospital 12 from Chicago, died aboard the USS Mongolia as it headed for France. According to an article dated 22 May 1917 in the "Chicago Tribune" many of the nurses were from Evanston Hospital and associated with Northwestern University Medical School. These two women were on the deck of the Mongolia observing the firing of various weapons. They were struck by fragments of the 6-inch gun's propellant caps which had ricocheted off a stanchion. USA Army Nurse Corps Edith Ayers,
Attica, OH
Twenty-two women died as a result of service in Puerto Rico. All but one were Army Contract Nurses (some were nuns) who died from Typhoid Fever unless otherwise noted below:
9 Dec 1898--Ellen May Tower, of Byron, MI was the first US
Army Contract Nurse to die on foreign soil of Typhoid Fever and was the first
woman to receive a military funeral in Michigan. The following women also died during this time frame but so far I have been unable to come up with their dates of death:
Lurecia Bailey,
Typhoid Fever I'd like to thank Marianne Hughes and Donna Brizendine for providing some of the info about these women of the Spanish American War!
Some historical records verify the fact that over 60 women were either wounded or killed at various battles during the Civil War. Perhaps one of the most poignant stories about women in the Civil War is told in Women in War 1866, by Frank Moore: In 1863, at age 19, a woman known only as Emily, ran away from home and joined the drum corps of a Michigan Regiment. The regiment was sent to Tennessee and during the struggle for Chattanooga a mini-ball pierced the side of the young soldier. Her wound was fatal and her sex was disclosed. At first she refused to disclose her real name but as she lay dying she consented to dictate a telegram to her father in Brooklyn. “Forgive your dying daughter. I have but a few moments to live. My native soil drinks my blood. I expected to deliver my country but the fates would not have it so. I am content to die. Pray forgive me......Emily.” Hannah A Ropes, 54, died on 20 January 1863 of Typhoid Pneumonia after contracting it at the Union Hotel Hospital in Washington, DC where she volunteered to work as a nurse along with Louisa May Alcott. Hannah was originally from New Gloucester, ME and that is where she is buried. After the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1863, the bodies of two
Confederate women, in uniform, were found. A Union flag bearer, also a woman in
uniform, was killed on the hill near Picketts Charge. Another young woman named
Frances Day was mortally wounded while serving as SGT
Frank Mayne in the Western Theater. Use the buttons below to go to another page.
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USA
ANC 2LT Nancy J Leo, 23, from Cumberland, MD was assigned to the
216th General Hospital. She was enroute to visit her sister, who was also in the
Army, when she was killed in a jeep accident in Paris. Nancy was buried in the
Luxembourg American Cemetery, where GEN Patton is buried, and is the only female
buried there.
USA ANC 2LT Ida Greenwood--She
On
this same day American Red Cross hospital field worker
CIVILIAN Esther Richards from San Francisco, CA died somewhere on the
beach at Anzio. This photo might be of her--it was posted on the American Red
Cross Museum site that honors women in war.