Ruth V. Penn

97, of Aurora, former resident of Heather Gardens, passed away on December 28, 2012. She was a WWII flight nurse and first allied women into Germany. Survived by her children, Pat Penn and Bob Penn. A Funeral Service will be held on Friday, January 4, 2012 at 10:30 AM at Horan & McConaty Family Chapel 11150 East Dartmouth Avenue (at Parker Road), Aurora, Colorado 80014. Interment will also be on Friday, January 4, 2012 at 12:30 PM at Fort Logan National Cemetery, 3698 South Sheridan Boulevard, Denver Colorado 80227. Memorial Contributions may be made to International Chapter P.E.O. Sisterhood, Ms. Fran Fisher, treasurer, P.E.O., ED Chapter. PO Box 4605, Parker, Colorado 80134. WRITTEN BY RUTH PENN FOR AN ANNIVERSARY OF FLIGHT NURSING: February 18, 1943 marked in important date for registered nurses embarking on a new field of patient care management. They were the first class to be trained as flight nurses at the 349th air evacuation school at Bowmen Field, Kentucky. Five classes graduated by October 1943. It was World War II when this new field of military nursing made its mark. Over 69 thousand Army and Navy nurses gave care to the wounded in front line situations, field hospitals, evacuation hospitals, base hospitals, ships, trains, and in the air. More than 16 hundred nurses were decorated for meritorious service and bravery under fire. The Army and Navy instituted a program to train flight nurses to be a part of the medical crew performing air evacuation of wounded soldiers. The program prepared nurses to rapidly convert cargo planes into flying ambulances. Flight nurses preformed under great pressure and were instrumental in providing quality care under dangerous circumstances. Young, single nurses were being urged to sign up for service in the armed forces. I read in the American Journal of Nursing that a program was being organized to fly wounded soldiers out of war zones, and nurses were being trained to care for them. I wanted to fly..... I enlisted and requested service at an Air Force hospital. I was accepted and sent to Sioux Falls, SD in November of 1943. A few months later, another notice appeared for signing up to train at Bowman Field, Louisville, Kentucky. I passed the same strict physical that pilots were required to pass, and I was on my way to becoming a flight nurse. After several months of vigorous training, I was assigned to a squadron. A medical air evacuation squadron consisted of five flight surgeons, twenty-five nurses, twenty-five technicians, cooks, motor pool maintenance, and records personal. Each nurse was assigned a medical technicians. My squadron left for England, crossing the north in a convoy, arriving in Scotland and went by train to an air base in the midlands of England. Eventually there were 10 air evacuation squadrons in England. With the enormous troop build-up in England, there were the usual accidents and illness. In an effort to clear out all the hospitals these people were to be flown back to the United States. My squadron was flown to Scotland to fly the Atlantic for a month. On June 5, 1944, I was assigned to a flight to leave Prestwick, Scotland at 10pm. We flew to Iceland and stopped to refuel. A storm over the Atlantic necessitated a change in the regular flight pattern. We landed early morning, north of the Arctic Circle in Greenland. The plane was refueled and the patients were fed. We then took off for Newfoundland, arriving there early evening of June 6, 1944. As the plane door was opened, the ground personal rushed up asking ""What's happening over there and how's it going""? To my amazement, I learned the invasion of France was underway. Back in England, in July, I began flying into France and Belgium bringing wounded to England. One wet and foggy morning I was on one of ten planes headed for Germany. We dropped off our cargo and supplies in France and headed for a landing strip across the Rhine River. The weather was really bad with very low clouds and poor visibility, and five of the aircraft returned to England. I was on one of the planes that made it to the landing strip. We picked up soldiers right from a first-aid station, still in their battle uniforms, and flew them back to England. Sometime later I was made aware of an incident, and will read from an article that appeared in a hometown paper (see below). So that was a first in my life. I returned home in November 1945 with quite a list of accumulated leave time and was discharged from the United States Air Force in 1946, with 39 1/2 months of service. AN ARTICAL FROM HER IOWA HOME TOWN PAPER DURING WWII: Lt. Ruth Speidel, daughter of John Speidel of Bondurant, Iowa, and granddaughter of Mrs. N. M. Speidel, has the distinction of being the first American flight nurse to arrive in Germany in the first C-47 transport plane, the air service command of the U.S. strategic forces in Europe has announced. Lt. Speidel, a graduate of Iowa Lutheran hospital, Des Moines, joined the army nurse's corps in November 1942, received her overseas training at Bowman field, Kentucky and sailed for England in January 1944. Her landing in a C-47 was her 80th air evacuation flight. On her return trip to England, she brought back patient No. 35, 815 for hospitalization. Lt. Speidel graduated from Washington high school and attended Junior college. She has two brothers serving in the Pacific, 1st Lt. John Archer Speidel and Mark Speidel, petty officer, first class. The above information was taken from the Des Moines Tribune. Mrs. Speidel said yesterday, when called by this editor, that Lt. Ruth Speidel was on the east coast two weeks ago for two days telephoning her grandmother for a short visit. She makes frequent trips to the states with patients and always telephones her grandmother her grandmother. Lt. Archer writes that he had just arrived on a South Pacific island where it was nice and green and warm. Please share memories of Ruth and condolences with her family by sigining the guestbook below.