| Summary: | Primarily documents Virginia Russell Reavis' service in Europe with the Army Air Forces' 810th Medical Air Evacuation Squadron during World War II and her nursing career and personal life following the war." Discussion of Reavis' early military service includes deciding to join the army and joining a unit from Duke Hospital; her parents' reaction to her enlistment; and treating patients at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. She also describes her air evacuation training at Bowman Field, Kentucky, including the difficulty of the physical activity; marching; pulling a prank on her drill instructor; sleeping in tents; obstacle courses; live ammunition courses; and jealousy of civilian women. " Reavis also describes her trip to England, discussing traveling in a convoy of ships; blackout at sea; detecting a submarine on depth charge; a welcome by a Scottish band; riding a train to England; a girl's attempts to save her lipstick when her purse broke; and staying in British Royal Air Force bachelor's quarters. Most talk focuses on Reavis' time flying air evac operations. Topics include: transatlantic flights transporting wounded soldiers and supplies; stopovers in Iceland and the Azores; flying in converted cargo planes; calling groups of rescued soldiers "litters" riding with soldiers who had just been in combat; rescuing Germans because one couldn't tell who was who; reactions to flying with German soldiers; and a German doctor aiding the Allied troops on the battlefield. " Of particular interest are Reavis' recollections from around D-Day, including the view from the plane of ships in the English Channel; details of who rode in each air evac plane; rescuing a soldier she had grown up with; being unable to recover troops when the field was being strafed; and the dangers of flying in air evacuation planes. She also shares a lengthy story about her plane crashing when attempting to drop paratroopers during the Battle of the Bulge, and being stranded in France on Christmas Day 1944 and New Years Eve due to weather. Reavis ...
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