Page 82 - JSOM Fall 2022

6­week course was designed to make the nurses largely
self­sufficient during the flight, and they were trained ALEDA ESTER LUTZ
to treat pain, bleeding and shock, attending to patients
in the absence of a physician. Whittle graduated with ALEDA ESTER LUTZ was a US Army
excellent grades and departed for England aboard the flight nurse. She was the first Ameri­
RMS Queen Mary with 25 other flight nurses of the can woman to die in combat during
813th Medical Air Evacuation Transport Squadron. Be­ World War II and, with the exception
tween January and September 1944, Whittle flew on 40 of Civil War era Dr Mary Edwards
missions, logging over 500 hours flight time. Walker, the highest decorated woman
in the history of the US military.
On September 27, 1944, Whittle left England on a
mission to collect casualties from Advanced Landing Aleda became a staff nurse at Saginaw
Ground A­92 at St. Trond, Belgium. However, her C­47 General Hospital (Michigan), but with the advent of
was hit by German flak and crashed. The aircraft usu­ World War II, she began looking for a way to contrib­
ally carried military supplies and sometimes troops on ute to the massive war effort. She enlisted in the Army
the outward flight, and then casualties on the return, Nurse Corps on February 10, 1942, and was commis­
so it was not marked with the Red Cross. In the crash, sioned as a 2nd lieutenant. Lutz was transferred to the
her surgical technician was wounded in the arm and leg, 802nd Medical Air Evacuation Squadron of the US Ar­
one of the pilots was killed, the other pilot was badly my’s 12th Air Force, the first to depart for overseas duty.
hurt, and Whittle suffered from a concussion and lac­ The 802nd was a Medical Air Evacuation Squadron, the
erations to her face and back. The crew crawled from first unit of its kind. This highly classified unit consisted
the wrecked and burning aircraft and were captured by of C­47 cargo planes that flew to the battlefront with
German soldiers. ammunition and supplies and then took wounded­emer­
gency cases back to the hospitals. As these were cargo
After her release from captivity, Whittle continued to planes, they flew without the Red Cross insignia.
suffer from an assortment of physical and psychiatric
problems. She sought compensation from the Veterans On November 1, 1944, Lutz was fatally injured in a
Administration and in 1950 began a series of appeals for Medevac C­47 crash near Saint­Chamond, Loire,
military medical retirement. Despite diagnoses of post­ France. The Medevac was transporting 15 wounded
traumatic encephalopathy, chronic severe anxiety reac­ soldiers (6 German POW and 9 American soldiers)
tion, and early lumbosacral arthritis, her appeals were from Lyon, France, to a hospital in Italy when the plane
denied. Finally, in January 1954, the Army Physical Dis­ crashed. Lutz was 28 years old, and the only female on
ability Appeal Board agreed that she was relieved from the plane.
active duty by reason of physical disability and thus el­ Lutz was one of only 16 American military females to
igible for retirement pay benefits, but as her disability die in combat in World War II. At the time of her death,
was not “combat incurred,” it was backdated only to Lutz was perhaps the most experienced flight nurse in
the time of her application: April 1952. Her retroactive the US military service. She had the most evacuation sor­
pay amounted to $3,780. After another review of her ties (196), most combat hours flown by any flight nurse
case, an additional $999 was added. Had she received (814) and the most patients transported by any flight
retroactive pay from the date of her discharge in 1946, it nurse (3500+).
would have totaled $13,760. In 1960, she appealed for
the full amount of retroactive pay, but this was rejected. Lutz was buried with full military honors in the Rhone
Whittle made no further attempts to pursue her case. Af­ American Cemetery and Memorial in Draguignan,
ter her death, her husband wrote to the Department of France. Lutz is the only woman buried there. Lutz is
the Army following the announcement of the honoring also one of the most highly decorated women in the
of the Army and Navy nurses captured and imprisoned US Military. Lutz was awarded the Purple Heart, the
by the Japanese, which stated that the Department of Air Medal with four Oak Leaf Clusters, the Euro­
Defense and the Veterans Administration knew of no pean–African–Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, and
other American military women to have been taken pris­ the Red Cross Medal. Lutz earned six battle stars: Tu­
oner of war. In 1983, Reba Z. Whittle was finally given nisia, Sicily, Rome­Arno, Southern France, and North
official prisoner of war status. In 1997, she was posthu­ Apennines. Lutz was the first army nurse to receive the
mously awarded the Prisoner of War Medal. Distinguished Flying Cross (posthumously, from Presi­
dent Franklin D. Roosevelt) and the second woman to
receive the decoration (after Amelia Earhart), awarded
for distinguished performance in an aerial flight.
On April 3, 1945, at the insistence of General George
C. Marshall, Lutz was honored with an 800­patient
hospital ship the USAHS Aleda E. Lutz. The Aleda E
Lutz was the largest mercy ship afloat. On February 13,
1945, Aleda E. Lutz was designated a US Army hospital

78 | JSOM Volume 22, Edition 3 / Fall 2022