This Week in Guard History: 11 July 2008

July 7, 1966: Honolulu, Hawaii — Female nurses of the 150th Aeromedical Flight, New Jersey Air National Guard, begin to treat troops injured or ill from duty in Vietnam during their return flights to stateside hospitals for convalesce. Nurses from several Air Guard units volunteered to staff these missions in a temporary duty status, usually lasting about a month. They were not allowed to enter the combat zone, so they would link up with evacuation flights staffed by Air Force or Navy nurses in Japan or Hawaii. The Guard nurses would take over the medical support the rest of the way, freeing up the other nurses to return to the theater.

No Guard units had yet been mobilized, but the Air Guard in particular was voluntarily playing an increasing role in supporting the war effort. Besides these evacuation flights, other Air Guard units, mostly those equipped with long-range C-97 or C-121 transport aircraft, were flying large amounts of cargo into Vietnam. As with the Air Guard women, these men were all volunteers and could not stay in Vietnam. They landed, off-loaded their cargo and took off again, hopefully before anyone got hurt, flying back to the Philippines to rest before returning home.

In January and May 1968, 13 Air Guard units were mobilized to support the war in Vietnam and the potential of renewed conflict in Korea. Among these units was a small number of women in Air Guard tactical dispensaries or hospitals. While four of the Air Guard fighter squadrons served in Vietnam and two more were based in Korea, as far as can be documented, none of their supporting units deployed with any mobilized female nurses.

Cross-posted @ Rosemary's News and Ideas.

May you walk with the LORD always, and when you cannot take another step, may He carry you the rest of the way until you can walk along side Him.