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 entrusted to my care and insure their proper use.

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

I have taken a nurse's oath, reverent in man's mind because of the spirit and work of its 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 promise for the sick, injured, and wounded who are my sacred charges.

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

With the incorporation of the School of Air Evacuation with the School of Aviation Medicine the course in aviation nursing was extended from 8 to 9 weeks, the 9-week course being divided into three phases of 3 weeks each. During the first two phases (6 weeks), instruction covered subjects required of all medical personnel, plus material peculiar to air evacuation. The course was designed to provide special training in aeromedical nursing with extensive training in emergency medical treatment. Some hospital duties were carried on in flight just as on the ground, such as pulse and thermometer check, and the keeping of records which would later be turned over to the flight surgeon waiting at the port of debarkation. The nurse was required to use the equipment and medical supplies provided on the plane for treatment to relieve pain, to prevent hemorrhage, to care for shock, to administer oxygen, and in every way to meet circumstances that might be encountered. Every plane was equipped with portable oxygen tanks, blood plasma equipment, chemically treated pads to counteract cold at altitude, hypodermic medi

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cation, bandages and splints, and facilities for in-flight feeding. Only in rare instances did the flight surgeon accompany the patient in the airplane, since his duty was to choose the patients who would be benefited by this rapid evacuation, to prepare the patient for flight and to brief the nurses regarding patients who required special care. The flight nurses would thus be responsible for the care of the patient until hospital destination was reached. A course in aeromedical physiology was a prerequisite for instruction in aeromedical nursing and therapeutics. The trainee learned the use of oxygen equipment and participated in two chamber flights in which treatment of patients at altitude was demonstrated. Transportation of neuropsychiatric casualties, always a problem, was thoroughly covered in the program. The student learned both tropic and arctic medicine. The AAF Convalescent and Rehabilitation Program and the ASF Convalescent Program were described to enable the flight nurse to indicate to the wounded soldier the probable nature of his future medical care. The course in air evacuation tactics covered the organization and operation of the evacuation service of the Army Air Forces in relation to the Army Field Medical Service. Recognition features, operational characteristics, patient capacity, litter facilities, and conversion for evacuation of all aircraft commonly used for the transportation of patients were studied. Instructions governing the loading procedures for aircraft stressed the fact that the nurse must be able quickly to get together teams for loading and unloading patients.62 Simulated problems of evacuation from medical installations to aircraft, and from aircraft to medical installations were presented, using mock-ups of a C-47, a C-46 with web-strap litter supports, a C-54 fuselage, and a C-53 fuselage with metal-bracket litter supports, and a CG4A glider. Finally, the duties and responsibilities of an officer were fixed in the mind of the student nurse. She reviewed military courtesy, customs of the service, logistics, and organization of the Army. She learned to safeguard military information, and to understand the provisions of the Geneva Convention as it pertained to medical personnel and to the treatment of prisoners of war.64

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Since advanced bases were located in the forward areas, often under primitive conditions, physical fitness and a knowledge of field living conditions were stressed. The student was issued field equipment, instructed in tent pitching, given practical military hygiene and sanitation, made proficient in the use of camouflage, and taught map reading. Recent developments in diagnosis, nursing care, and treatment of chemical warfare casualties were presented. Regular marches of increasing length for training and conditioning were utilized in the practical application of individual defense against attack. The nurse prac

ticed to maintain herself in deep water with minimum effort and learned rescue procedures. Ditching procedures for the flight nurse were taught as part of the course in survival, including a knowledge of lifeboat equipment. For survival on land, the general characteristics of the desert, arctic, and tropics were studied in association with the use of emergency equipment, kits, and safety devices present on evacuation aircraft. The practical value of this instruction proved its worth in the number of lives saved among air evacuation personnel. After a four-day bivouac, the student flight nurse was ready to undertake the final three weeks of her training. She participated in the actual evacuation of the sick, and wounded, and injured within the continental United States.65

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Because of the immediate need for flight nurses for redeployment and to accomplish a marked increase in the domestic air evacuation in June 1945, the class was increased from 10 to 137 nurses. Of this number 97 were trained to fulfill the Air Transport Command requirements for continental air evacuation. Those trained for the Air Transport Command were given 6weeks' didactic training at the School and were then ordered to the various Air Transport Command stations to undergo the 3-weeks' flying training. Arrangements were made with the Surgeon, Air Transport Command, for the close observation and grading of these nurses during this period so they could be evaluated by the faculty board to determine their fitness for graduation from this School.67

In August 1945 the Air Transport Command augmented the air evacuation from the Pacific, whereupon the Flight Nurses' Course was changed to accelerate the training schedule and increase the number of nurses ready for assignment. Effective 20 August 1945 the Flight Nurses' Course consisted of three phases, each phase of two weeks' duration instead of three weeks.68 Six Philippine Army nurses, veterans of the Japanese occupation of their homeland, graduated from this abbreviated Flight Nurses' Course and were to become the nucleus of the Philippine Air Evacuation Service.

Upon the termination of hostilities much of the field work was no longer found to be necessary. With the class of potential flight nurses starting in February 1946, instruction was limited to one class at a time, and the program of two phases, didactic and practical, was instituted. The newer course covered a period of nine weeks, the first five of which dealt with medical subjects related to aviation nursing and other subjects pertinent to tactical air evacuation, while the last four weeks consisted of participation in actual air evacuation flights within the Zone of Interior. Upon successful completion of the course, to which she was sent on temporary duty, the nurse returned to her proper sta

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tion to await call for air evacuation duty. The designation flight nurse was not automatic, but upon successful completion of the course a request could be made to the Commanding General, Army Air Forces, by whose authority such a designation was granted. Upon certification the nurse was then permitted to wear the flight nurse's wings.70

During the period December 1942 to October 1944, 1,079 flight nurses graduated from the AAF School of Air Evacuation, Bowman Field, Kentucky." This included squadron personnel and replacements for squadrons in the field. A total of 435 student nurses was graduated at the AAF School of Aviation Medicine during the period November 1944 to June 1946. Fifteen student nurses failed to graduate with their classes during this period for the following reasons: lack of desire to fly, three; academic failure, four; airsickness, one; physical disqualification, three; relieved at their own request, three; and held over to a succeeding class, one.72

Enlisted Personnel. A fourth type of training was that given air evacuation medical technicians. During the period when air evacuation training was given at the AAF School of Air Evacuation, enlisted men recruited from medical installations all over the country underwent a basic three-week course in the elements of field work, first aid, camouflage, and other basic subjects necessary to the medical soldier. After this first period of training the enlisted man engaged in a five-week specialized training program. Cooks and bakers attended one school; drivers another; and clerks still another."

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Surgical technicians were given their practical medical work for later application in air evacuation in three cooperating hospitals in Louisville, where the nurses and technicians were assigned for two weeks. Each nurse was assigned a surgical technician and instructed him in the elements of nursing care, intravenous technique, catheterization, oxygen administration, and other emergency procedures. The enlisted man was then given a didactic course in emergency medical treatment, conversion of the cargo plane to an ambulance plane, loading of patients, and use of equipment. The fifth week of the second period of training was devoted to training flights, field maneuvers, and the practical study of psychotic patients." The surgical technician worked with a nurse as a member of an air evacuation team in training flights.

The training of medical technicians (409) to perform the special duties required in the air evacuation of patients by aircraft varied depending on the previous training of the enlisted personnel assigned to the course. In November 1944, qualified skilled medical technicians were placed in a two-week program and received instruction in subjects related primarily to air evacuation. At the