page_title: Aleda E. Lutz
section_title: World War II
hierarchical_section_title: Aleda E. Lutz / World War II
caption_attribution_description: English: Lt. Lutz helping patients off an airplane.
context_page_description: Aleda Ester Lutz was a United States Army flight nurse and one of the most celebrated women war heroes during World War II. Lutz was the first American woman to die in combat during World War II and, with the exception of Civil War era Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, the highest decorated woman in the history of the U.S. military.
context_section_description: Aleda became a staff nurse at Saginaw General Hospital, but with the advent of World War II, she began looking for a way to contribute to the massive war effort. She enlisted in the Army Nurse Corps on February 10, 1942 and was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant. Her army service number was N730648.
  Aleda spent her early months as a general duty nurse in the Station Hospital at Selfridge Field, in Mount Clemens, Michigan. Early letters describe her living quarters, her work at the base, and her thoughts about the service. In one letter she said she the only nurse on duty and had 25 patients. Furthermore, she expected the work load to increase as more nurses were being sent overseas.
  All nurses in at Selfridge Field were asked to volunteer for duty as an Air Evacuation Nurse if they could pass the pilot's physical. Only two percent of 59,000 nurses in World War II were qualified flight nurses. World War II had given rise to the first female flight nurses in the U.S. military. Just 6 of 22 nurses who applied passed the physical. Three of the six dropped out of the program. Only Lutz and two others, Clara Murphy and Veronica Savinski, were assigned to be flight nurses.
  On December 17, 1943, Aleda was promoted to 1st Lieutenant. Lutz was transferred to the 802nd Medical Air Evacuation Squadron of the United States Armys 12th Air Force, the first to depart for overseas duty. They were activated and sent to North Africa. The 802nd was a Medical Air Evacuation Squadron, the first unit of its kind. This highly classified unit consisted of C-47 cargo planes which flew to the battlefront with ammunition and supplies and then took wounded-emergency cases back to the hospitals. It should also be noted that these planes flew without the Red Cross insignia. She was first sent to Sarasota's Morrison Field in Florida. She and the other nurses were looking forward to spending the winter in the sunny south, but before their curriculum was in place, the unit was activated. In January 1943, the three nurses were en route to an oversees assignment as part of the evacuation squadron sent into active duty. It appears that they received their training on the job, in the middle of a war zone.
  Aleda was in the 1st landing in Africa and on every American operation that went on around there. Lutz participated in six separate battle campaigns over a 20-month period, accompanied air combat missions, and conducted all-weather medical evacuations in Tunisia, Italy and France.
  In June 1943, Aleda wrote that she was both amused and sometimes embarrassed at the attention she and her fellow nurses received from the soldiers. Oftentimes, Aleda and her fellow nurses were the first American women the soldiers had seen in six to eight months. It seemed the soldiers were all eager to talk to an American girl. The 802nd had gone farther into the combat zone than any other medic unit with nurses. Realizing what it would probably be like, Aleda wondered what the future had in store for her.
  They said that Lutzy, as she was called by her friends, tried to win the war all by herself. When the weather wasn't fit for humans and the overcast was so heavy a bird couldn't navigate, Lt. Lutz would fly. Any place a pilot would fly, Lt. Lutz would fly. People said when the weather was terrible, and the C-47s bounced around and sank into air pockets and thrust their way through the nasty fronts of mountain country, at those times Lt. Lutz was calmest and at her best.
  Not one of the 3500 she helped evacuate died under her hand. Through this demonstration of her value as a flight nurse, she soon became one of the best liked members of the unit. An army nurse colleague recalls, "Aleda was the most wonderful person - everyone loved her. She was full of wit and humor. She was the best nurse I ever came in contact with - before or after the war."
  As a flight nurse, Lutz flew in unmarked transport planes, which were used to carry supplies to front lines and transport patients backing out, making them legal targets for enemy fire. She once made four sorties in a single day onto the An
caption: Lt. Lutz helping patients off an airplane.
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