Women in World War II
Elsie S. Ott was the first woman to receive the U.S. Air Medal (11). She was a trained nurse when she joined the Army Air Corps, and in 1941 she was sent to Karachi, India (31). With only 24 hours notice, Elsie was assigned to the first evacuation flight though she had never flown before (31). The plane left India on January 17, 1943 and made several stops, picking up more patients, on its 6-day flight to Washington, D.C. (31).
Eileen Nearne joined the Special Operations Executive in Britain as a radio operator. Only 23 years old, She was dropped from a parachute into France to gather messages from the French resistance and to arrange weapons drops (12). She was sent to a labor camp and escaped during yet another transfer to a camp (32). After the war, Eileen was awarded the Croix de Guerre by the French. She was made a member of the Order of the British Empire by King George VI (12). She soon suffered some psychological problems and lived a very silent life with her sister (32). When Eileen Nearne died in 2010, her body was not discovered for several days. Her wartime exploits were only revealed after a search of her apartment, which uncovered her war medals (12). She was then given a hero's funeral.