Name and Rank, 1st Lt. Wilma (Dolly) R, Vinsant (Shea).
Unit/Placed in, 806th Medical Air Evacuation Squadron.
Wilma was born on Feb. 20, 1917 in Cameron County, Texas.
Father, William J. Vinsant.
Mother, Nelly M. Vinsant.
Husband, Walter L. Shea,(15-01-1945), Navigator in the AirForce.
She enlisted the Army Nurse Corps in 1942 at Texas .
Wilma R. Vinsant was a 1st Lt. (Flight Nurse) in the 806thth Medical Evacuation Squadron (1943).
1943-1945 she was with the 806th Military Air Evacuation Squadron and was promoted to 1st Lt.
Lieutenant Wilma R. Vinsant, Died of Wounds sustained during, was in a flight over Germany death came when the plane in which she was accompanying wounded military evacuees, crashed near Mühlhausen, on April 14, 1945, and she is honored with an Air Medal, Purple Heart.
And she is buried at the Netherlands American Cemetery
Margraten, Netherlands.
Thanks to the Website Fallen but not forgotten http://arietha.hubpages.com/hub/margraten
Jean Louis Vijgen, ww2-Pacific.com ww2-europe.com
Air Force Info, Rolland Swank.
ABMC Website, https://abmc.gov
Marines Info, https://missingmarines.com/ Geoffrey Roecker
Seabees History Bob Smith https://seabeehf.org/
Navy Info, http://navylog.navymemorial.org
POW Info, http://www.mansell.com Dwight Rider and Wes injerd.
Philippine Info, http://www.philippine-scouts.org/ Robert Capistrano
Navy Seal Memorial, http://www.navysealmemorials.com
Family Info, https://www.familysearch.org
WW2 Info, https://www.pacificwrecks.com/
Medals Info, https://www.honorstates.org
Medals Forum, https://www.usmilitariaforum.com/
Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com
Tank Destroyers, http://www.bensavelkoul.nl/
WordPress en/of Wooncommerce oplossingen, https://www.siteklusjes.nl/
Military Recovery, https://www.dpaa.mil/
The World War II Flight Nurses Association is proud to honor their lives and deeds.
Welcome to the Legends of the Flight Nurses of World War II, where many stories have never been heard. You will find a one of a kind resource on all Flight Nurse of that era. Let me give you a short story how and why this website was born. I am Melinda Errair Bruckman, daughter of the National President Dorothy White Errair of the World War II Flight Nurse Association. I became involved many years ago when Mother needed help in traveling to her meetings and reunions. When the Flight Nurse Members health started to weaken, I told them I would run their beloved association if they would hold the offices… and it began. I wrote their newsletters and accompanied them to reunions; they shared their stories and their wishes for their stories to be heard. As time went on and we started to loose officers the reality hit that I needed to come up with an idea to get their stories out there for the world to hear… I considered a filming crew to document the stories but they were not interested, I considered an author, but that didn’t work either. I also considered a single Museum to hold all the stories, but all would have to know the stories are housed in that one single town, so that wasn’t a good idea.
One day in the summer of 2010 while sitting at my kitchen table with my 2 grandsons, AJ 17 years old and Andrew 14 years old, AJ said “Grandma create a website and put all the stories there for the whole world to read” and Andrew said “and call it The Legend of the Flight Nurses of World War II, since they were the first ones”
So that is how this ongoing project started. If you find your family member’s name here on this site and you have updating information, please contact me. If you find incorrect information, please contact me. AND most important if your family member is a Flight Nurse from World War II and the name is not listed PLEASE contact me. Since we do not have a complete list of WWII Flight Nurses names, back in 1974 the government building housing their military records was destroyed by fire, so this list is complied by researching many lists, old books and old paperwork.
Lieutenant Wilma R. Vinsant, war nurse, was in a flight over Germany on April 14, 1945. Death came when the plane in which she was accompanying wounded military evacuees, crashed near Muhlhausen. The heroic nurse was buried first in a temporary U.S. cemetery in Germany.
Her nickname was ‘Dolly’. She was born in San Benito, graduated from San Benito High school and went to Brownsville Junior College. Her future was cast when she went into training at John Senly Hospital in Galveston where she was certicated as a registered nurse.
Dolly first took to the air as a hostess with Braniff Airways and was in commercial flight more than a year.
September 1, 1942 Dolly enlisted in the Army Nurse corps, and qualified as an air evacuation nurse. She graduated from the Army Air Force School at Bowman Field, two days before her 26th birthday. She went to England. In England Dolly fell in love and she and Major William L. Shea, Air Force navigator, married. Dolly came home the last time in November 1944.
Actually, Dolly had a day off, but because another nurse was invited to a party, Dolly told her she would take her place so she could attend the party.
