Early Life and Education
Margaret Ann Richey was born in Maypearl, Texas on December 13, 1914. She attended Haskell High School and after graduation enrolled in a nursing program at Hendrick Memorial Hospital in Abilene. After completing her studies, Margaret relocated to Chicago where she continued her education at Cook County Hospital, going on to do surgical post-graduate coursework. After two years, she returned to Texas and was offered a position in the surgical ward at Wichita Falls State Hospital.
Bowman Field
In the spring of 1941, Margaret enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Force (USAAF) at Randall Field. Later that year, when World War II was declared, she was sent to Bowman Field in Kentucky for aeromedical evacuation training. At Bowman, Margaret received specialized instruction on how to be a flight nurse, learning about evacuating and transporting injured combatants. Among the many topics covered, flight nurses were instructed in aeromedical physiology, crash procedures, and were taught survival skills to prepare for all possible scenarios.
During the war, Bowman Field was where a number of bomber squadrons, flight surgeons, flight nurses, and technicians were trained. In 1942, the School of Air Evacuation was established there, and on February 18, 1943, the first class of thirty flight nurses graduated from the four-week program. By the end of the war, over 1,000 flight nurses had graduated from Bowman.
In 1942, prior to completing their training and officially graduating, a number of flight nurse trainees had already been sent to the front lines. In fact, because the need for their services was so great, in December of that year, the first group of flight nurses was deployed to North Africa. Like many before her, Margaret and the 801st Medical Air Evacuation Transport Squadron were sent overseas to the South Pacific on January 22, 1943.
USAAF Flight Nurses
Prior to World War II, the USAAF did not have the ability to regularly airlift injured soldiers and transport them to fully-equipped hospitals for treatment. However, by the 1940s, the advancements in military medical care and the expansion of evacuation routes allowed the USAAF to send out trained personnel in transport aircraft like never before.
Flight nurses were often at greater risk of injury or death because the medical transport planes used also carried military supplies, and therefore could not display a Red Cross on any aircraft to protect them from enemy fire. As a result, these were not mandatory assignments, and air evacuation squadrons consisted of volunteer flight nurses and medical technicians. It is estimated that of the 1,176,048 patients evacuated by air during World War II, only forty-six of these injured soldiers died as they were being transported.
By the time Margaret returned to the United States, she had completed 800 hours of combat flying. She spent eight months in New Caledonia with the 801st, was transferred to Vanuatu (formerly New Hebrides) and then spent one year with the 13th Troop Carrier Squadron. She would also go on to serve tours of duty in Germany and France. For her service, Margaret was awarded an Air Medal with five Oak Leaf Clusters.
Life After World War II
Margaret arrived back in the United States on March 11, 1944. She was next assigned to Memphis Municipal Airport in Tennessee. Shortly after, she was sent to the Transports Evacuating Coast Hospital. She married James E. Raffa and retired from nursing in 1968. Margaret Raffa died on January 7, 2003.
