Without the protection of a red cross emblazoned on the plane, flight nurses, an all-volunteer service, stepped up to care for the wounded all the while knowing they were the target of the enemy. One of those brave nurses, Thelma LaFave, left her small town in Michigan, endured rigorous training and flew into enemy territory to save as many men as she could. On one mission, Thelma just disappeared.

A large farm family, the LaFave’s lived in the country on their farm in Elmwood, Michigan. Thelma’s parents, Herbert Edward LaFave and Myrtle Alice Rocheleau LaFave had six children by 1920. They were Murl Edward LaFave, 1908, Robert W. LaFave, 1913, Melva Alice LaFave Bidigare, 1915, Frank LaFave, 1918, and John “Jack” Vern LaFave, 1919. [i] They also lost a son, John, who was born and died in 1914.

Thelma Myrtle LaFave was born on July 31, 1920, into the farm home owned by her parents. Her dad and mom were farming to support the family. The oldest two children attended school. The youngest three, ages four, two and one, plus the new baby are at home. Both Herbert and Myrtle are Michigan natives with Canadian roots. They had been 28 and 22 respectively when they married in 1911.[ii]

Thelma’s family continued to grow. She ended up in the middle of the birth order of the 13 surviving LaFave children. After Thelma was born, the younger brothers and sisters who followed were Elizabeth A. LaFave Bryant, 1922, Patrick Herbert LaFave, 1923, Catherine Mildred LaFave Rick, 1924, Virginia Magdelyn LaFave Sirbaugh, 1925, Paul Joseph LaFave, 1926, Ruth Marie LaFave, 1929 and Ted Joseph LaFave, 1933.[iii] The family continued to be a farm family and live in the home on the farm through the 1930s and into the war years.

HER LIFE BEFORE MILITARY

After high school, Thelma left home and moved to Pontiac, Michigan, about 75 miles south of where she grew up. She attended the Mercy College of Nursing of Detroit.

In 1940, as the war years arrive, Thelma is still a nursing student in Pontiac, Michigan. Now 19, she’s living with many other nurses, according to the census of 1940. She’s working 48 hours per week as a student nurse at a private hospital for zero pay.[iv] In 1941, she is still at St. Joseph’s Mercy Hospital in Pontiac.

In 1942, she’s working as a nurse, as listed in the city directory, and is living in an apartment in Pontiac.[v] In the summer, she took a vacation and made The Knoxville News Sentinel newspaper. On June 10, the newspaper reported Thelma, along with her friends Betty Gerzanics and Ferne Larion, drove south from Pontiac. In Tennessee, they met up with former classmates Louise Carr and Frances Tener. The young women toured the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Cumberland Mountains, The Cherokee Indian Reservation and several scenic dams.

Just before joining the army, she was working as a private practice nurse.[vi]

HER MILITARY STORY

Thelma joined the army to serve in WWII. She was assigned to serve as a nurse for the 820th Medical Air Evacuation Squadron for the U.S. Airforce. Her service number was N-7313636.[vii]

Thelma did her Army nurses’ training at Carlsbad, New Mexico. Following that, she did her flight nurse training at the School of Air Evacuation[viii] at Bowman Field, Kentucky and graduated in January of 1944, earning her flight nurse wings.[ix] As part of her flight nurse training, Thelma would have learned procedures to follow in the event of a crash, studied survival training and have been taught the effects of high altitude on her patients. These flights were very rigorous and flight nurses had to be in excellent physical shape.[x]

All flight nurses were volunteers. In doing so, they had accepted a dangerous assignment. Aircraft used to evacuate wounded men were also used to bring in military supplies. Because of the dual duty of these planes, they could not display a bright red cross. Without any markings to show they were noncombat; the flights could be attacked by the enemy.[xi]

THE FLIGHT NURSES CREED

I will summon every resource to prevent the triumph of death over life.

I will stand guard over the medicines and equipment entrusted to my care and ensure their proper use.*

I will be untiring in the performances of my duties and I will remember that, upon my disposition and spirit, will in large measure depend the morale of my patients.*

I will be faithful to my training and to the wisdom handed down to me by those who have gone before me.*

I have taken a nurse's oath, reverent in man's mind because of the spirit and work of its creator, Florence Nightingale. She, I remember, was called the "Lady with the Lamp."*

It is now my privilege to lift this lamp of hope and faith and courage in my profession to heights not known by her in her time. Together with the help of flight surgeons and surgical technicians, I can set the very skies ablaze with life and promise for the sick, injured, and wounded who are my sacred charges.*

…This I will do. I will not falter in war or in peace.*[xii]

By February of 1944, Thelma is among the many nurses aboard the U.S.S. West Point as it sailed from San Francisco.[xiii] In March of 1944, she was serving in the Southwest Pacific.[xiv]

As one of the flight nurses serving in the Pacific, Second Lieutenant Thelma LaFave would have outranked the male surgical technicians on her flights. At the time, only doctors could start IVs and oxygen on a patient, but war changed that. Flight nurses were doing those tasks as well as handling extreme emergencies of shock, hemorrhage and sedation all under very dangerous circumstances.[xv] It is said the flight nurses’ skills are one of the reasons that of the 1,176,048 patients air evacuated throughout the war, only 46 died in transit.[xvi]

HER LAST DAY

On January 24, 1945, Thelma was part of a crew on a medical mission to evacuate wounded soldiers.

Her flight was comprised of a crew of seven. They included Captain Cecil C. Comer, pilot; 2nd Lt. John A. Lahrman, co-pilot; T/Sgt Joseph P. Weeks, engineer; and S/Sgt Glenn K. Sampson, radio operator. There were three medical personnel aboard. Those included Thelma plus Corp. Orla Billiter and Sgt. Robert E. Oliver, both medics. The seven were a part of the 58th Squadron, 375th Troop Carrier Group.

Flying a C-46D, #44-77339, Captain Comer took off from Biak ,Island, part of Papua, Indonesia at 11 a.m. They were headed to get the wounded soldiers at Tacloban, Eastern Visayas in the Leyte Province, Philippines. Around 2:30 in the afternoon, the plane made a stop on Peleliu Island where they spent the night.

Early the next morning, on January 25, at 5:15 a.m., the crew resumed their journey. The weather conditions were good that day. The plane was never heard from again.

According MilitaryHallofHonor.com, there was an unofficial report of an SOS being intercepted but there was no confirmation of that report. Over time, there have been various explanations speculating on the cause of the plane’s disappearance. Perhaps an onboard fire or an explosion is one possibility as another plane in the squadron returned from a mission having had a fire under the wing tank.

Searches were conducted by aircraft, but nothing was found.[xvii]

The entire crew was declared Missing in Action on January 25, 1945. After being missing more than a year, Thelma and the others were declared dead on January 26, 1946.[xviii]

COMMENDATIONS

Purple Heart

World War II Victory Medal

Nurse Corps Badge

American Campaign Medal

Army Presidential Unit Citation

Army Good Conduct Medal

Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal[xix]

MEMORIALS

Second Lieutenant Thelma Myrtle LaFave is remembered at Fort William McKinley at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in Manila, Philippines.[xx]

There is a Cenotaph, which is a memorial to someone buried elsewhere, at the Saint Agatha Cemetery, Gagetown, Michigan.[xxi]

RESEARCH NOTES

Thelma LaFave was one of four children of the LaFave family to serve their country. Patrick LaFave served with the Marines in China. Robert LaFave was in the Army, serving in Africa and Italy. John “Jack” Vern LaFave served in the Aleutian Islands.[xxii]

ABOUT THIS STORY

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen saved on Together We Served and Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smartphone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

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