The Flight Nurses’ War

The unsung story of heroic World War II combat nurses sent into the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa to save thousands of American soldiers and Marines.

“Impeccably researched, The Flight Nurses’ War provides new insights into female military service. A moving and important book.” —Clare Mulley, author of Agent Zo

The Pacific Theater was the setting for some of World War II’s bloodiest battles, and yet much of its history remains untold. As the war in Europe was winding down, fierce Japanese resistance and mounting casualties slowed the US advance toward Japan. The terrible death toll of doctors, medics, and corpsmen forced the United States Navy to deploy combat nurses to contested airfields, where they triaged desperately wounded men and evacuated them to safety.

In The Flight Nurses’ War, award-winning historian Leah Garrett traces the lives of a team of nurses from their small-town origins to the devastation of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. They risked their lives on rickety, unpressurized aircraft and braved constant enemy assaults. As the battles intensified, Army nurses were also deployed to hospital ships and the infantry front- line, where they endured disease, snipers, and Kamikazes. Successfully evacuating thousands of wounded men from danger, the combat nurses freed up troops to secure both islands and help win the war.

Uncovering an extraordinary story of Second World War heroism, The Flight Nurses’ War powerfully brings to life the remarkable women who risked everything to save lives and assure America’s success in the Pacific campaign.

• “Leah Garrett’s latest is a wonderful, important look at the women who served with incredible compassion and courage in the hell of the Pacific in 1945. Unsung, until now forgotten, these true angels showed that women were not only essential to victory but also the difference between life and death for so many wounded and dying warriors of the Greatest Generation. A fabulous book! I loved it!”
  Alex Kershaw, New York Times bestselling author of The Longest Winter
• “As personal as a confessional, these incredible stories of WWII flight nurses pull us onto the rocking planes, into the crowded hospitals, and across the bloody beaches. To the soldiers, marines, and sailors on Iwo Jima and Okinawa, these young women were the light of life itself. This heartfelt tribute to their courage and dramatic efforts to save their patients is a story that echoes down through the generations; we need to hear their truth.”
  Major General Mari K. Eder, US Army, retired, USA Today bestselling author of The Girls Who Stepped Out of Line
• “The Flight Nurses’ War is incredibly fascinating and moving. As I devoured the book, I occasionally paused to reflect on what these remarkable women who saved and improved so many lives must have experienced. As Leah Garrett demonstrates in her skilled narrative, the cost to them, in terms of trauma, peace of mind, and so much more, was incalculable. Put simply, this book has soul, and it shines a long overdue spotlight on an overlooked aspect of World War II in the Pacific.”
  John C. McManus, author of To the End of the Earth: The US Army and the Downfall of Japan, 1945
• “This is a terrific book. Compelling, detailed, moving, honest, with wonderful portraits of a group of courageous and deeply admirable women. I defy readers not to be moved by the moment when the grievously wounded marines on Iwo Jima find themselves being comforted by the first fight nurses caring for them on their way back to the navy hospital in Guam. They were truly angels in hell, with the added bonus of bravery, solid medical training, and the practical values so widely instilled among the Greatest Generation.”
  Tim Brady, author of Three Ordinary Girls
• “Impeccably researched, The Flight Nurses’ War provides new insights into female military service. A moving and important book.”
  Clare Mulley, author of Agent Zo