Reba Z. Whittle

Edit links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Reba Zitella Whittle
First Lieutenant
Service numberN734426
Unit813th Medical Air Evacuation Transport Squadron
Battles/warsWorld War II
AwardsAir Medal
Purple Heart
Prisoner of War Medal

First Lieutenant Reba Zitella Whittle (August 19, 1919 – January 26, 1981

European Theater after her casualty evacuation
aircraft was shot down in September 1944.

Biography

Background and military service

Whittle was born in

Mather Field, Sacramento, California.[3]

On August 6, 1943, Whittle was accepted by the Army Air Forces School of Air Evacuation to train as a flight nurse.[3] She arrived at the school at Bowman Field, Kentucky, in September.[5] The six-week course was designed to make the nurses largely self-sufficient during the flight, and they were trained to treat pain, bleeding and shock, attending to patients in the absence of a physician. Whittle graduated with excellent grades on November 26, 1943, and on January 22, 1944,[6] she departed for England aboard the RMS Queen Mary with 25 other flight nurses of the 813th Medical Air Evacuation Transport Squadron.[2] The 813th MAETS was initially based in RAF Balderton, Nottinghamshire, and later at RAF Grove, Oxfordshire. Between January and September 1944 Whittle flew on 40 missions logging over 500 hours flight time.[6]

Prisoner of war

World War II U.S. Army Air Forces flight nurse badge

On September 27, 1944, Whittle left England on a mission to collect casualties from

red cross.[8] In the crash, Sergeant Hill, her surgical technician, was wounded in the arm and leg, one of the pilots was killed, the other badly hurt, and Whittle herself suffered from concussion, and injuries and lacerations to her face and back.[7] The crew crawled from the wrecked and burning aircraft and were captured by German soldiers. They were taken to a nearby village and treated for their immediate injuries,[9] then driven to a hospital nearby where a German doctor told Whittle that it was "Too bad having a woman as you are the first one and no one knows exactly what to do."[10]

The crew was then taken to Auswertestelle West ("Evaluation Office West"), the main Luftwaffe interrogation center at Oberursel, just to the north of Frankfurt.[11] Whittle was separated from the rest of her crew and lodged at the nearby Hohemark Hospital, part of Auswertestelle West designed to provide immediate aid for wounded prisoners.[12]

On October 6, she was transferred to Reserve Lazarett IX-C(a) at

repatriated, leaving Stalag IX-C on January 25, 1945. She was transported by train to Switzerland along with other prisoners who were being returned on medical or psychiatric grounds, then flew back to the United States.[17]

Return to the U.S.

On February 7, 1945, Whittle received the Purple Heart for the injuries she received during the crash, and on the 17th was awarded the Air Medal, "For meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flights...in unarmed and unarmored aircraft." On March 2, she was promoted to first lieutenant.[18]

After a medical assessment and treatment at the

Hamilton Field, California, from June 15, 1945. On August 3, 1945 she married Lieutenant Colonel Stanley W. Tobiason at Hamilton Field, and then applied to be released from active duty.[19] On August 31, 1945, she appeared before a Disposition Board which determined her to be fully qualified for military service. Her orders stated, "Relief from Active Duty is not by reason of physical disability." She was discharged on January 13, 1946.[20]

Post-war life

Whittle continued to suffer from an assortment of physical and psychiatric problems. She sought compensation from the

Vietnam. Reba Whittle Tobiason died of cancer on January 26, 1981.[24]

In April 1983, Colonel Tobiason wrote to the Department of the Army following the announcement of the honoring of the Army and Navy nurses captured and imprisoned by the Japanese, which stated that the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration knew of no other American military women to have been taken prisoner. On September 2, 1983, Reba Z. Whittle was finally given official prisoner of war status.[24] In 1997, she was posthumously awarded the Prisoner of War Medal.[25]

See also

  • Women's roles in the World Wars

References

Notes
  1. ^ "Surnames To-Ty – San Francisco County, California". San Francisco National Cemetery. 2011. Retrieved 25 April 2012.
  2. ^ a b Page (1989), p.84
  3. ^ a b c Frank (1990), p.7
  4. ^ Frank (1990), p.6
  5. ^ Frank (1990), p.8
  6. ^ a b Frank (1990), p.9
  7. ^ a b Frank (1990), p.10
  8. ^ Frank (1990), pp.7–8
  9. ^ Frank (1990), p.11
  10. ^ Frank (1990), p.14
  11. ^ Frank (1990), p.17
  12. ^ Frank (1990), p.19
  13. ^ "German POW Camps with 303rd BG(H) Prisoners". 303rdbg.com. 2012. Retrieved 25 April 2012.
  14. ^ Frank (1990), p.20
  15. ^ Frank (1990), p.24
  16. ^ a b Frank (1990), p.25
  17. ^ Frank (1990), p.27
  18. ^ Frank (1990), p.29
  19. ^ Frank (1990), p.30
  20. ^ a b Frank (1990), p.31
  21. ^ Frank (1990), p.32
  22. ^ Frank (1990), p.33
  23. ^ Frank (1990), p.34
  24. ^ a b Frank (1990), p.35
  25. Newspapers.com
    .
Bibliography

Further reading

  • Monahan, Evelyn & Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee. And If I Perish : Frontline U.S. Army Nurses in World War II. New York: Knoph, 2003.
  • Sarnecky, Mary, Colonel, U.S. Army Nurse Corps, (Ret.). A History of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999.
  • Tomblin, Barbara. G.I. Nightingales: The Army Nurse Corps in World War II. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1996.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reba_Z._Whittle&oldid=1156312145"