U.S. Navy Ensign Jane Kendeigh
In my book, Flamethrower, I share how surprised wounded Marines were to see U.S. Navy Ensign Jane Kendeigh, the first flight nurse to land on Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Kendeigh was the first woman on an evacuation flight in an active battlezone. But she wasn’t the first woman on Iwo Jima. Reuters correspondent Barbara Finch got around restrictions against female journalists in combat zones by volunteering as a nurse’s aide, and arrived a few days ahead of Kendeigh. Kendeigh and her fellow flight nurses would go on to evacuate approximately 2,293 marines and sailors from Iwo Jima without ever losing a single life in the air.
Click here to learn more about Ensign Jane Kendeigh.
Bryan Mark Rigg, PHD
AUTHOR OF FLAMETHROWER: IWO JIMA MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENT AND U.S. MARINE WOODY WILLIAMS AND HIS CONTROVERSIAL AWARD, JAPAN’S HOLOCAUST AND THE PACIFIC WAR (FIDELIS HISTORIA PRESS, 2020)
