Mary White Gaunt Air Evacuation Nurse Materials

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of approximately 0.39 cubic feet of material relating to Mary White Gaunt and her World War II service in the US Army Air Forces (USAAF) as an air evacuation nurse. Types of materials in the collection include copies of her military records, two small pocket notebooks where Gaunt kept notes on her missions, a scrapbook documenting Gaunt's time stationed in the United States, and a second scrapbook documenting her time stationed in England. The scrapbooks contain mainly captioned photographs, but they also include some news clippings and ephemera. The collection also includes a packet of material sent to Gaunt by astronaut Alan Bean following his post-surgery recovery at Wilford Hall medical facility at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, where Gaunt was his nurse. The packet includes a letter from Bean to Gaunt thanking her for her excellent care; a signed photo of Bean inscribed, "To Mary Gaunt -- The best nurse ever...anywhere;" some photos of other astronauts; and some National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) publications.

Arrangement

Collection is arranged by type of material.

Biographical / Historical

Mary White Gaunt served in the US Army Air Forces (USAAF) during World War II as an air evacuation nurse. She had worked as a night supervisor nurse at Midway Hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota for a little over three years before joining the military in March 1941. Gaunt completed training at the Army Air Forces School of Air Evacuation and served in the United States including time in Colorado, at Camp Grant, Illinois, and as assistant chief nurse at Truax Field, Wisconsin. Gaunt was sent overseas in December 1943 where she was stationed at USAAF Station 489 (Royal Air Force Cottesmore), England and later transferred to USAAF Station 486 (Royal Air Force Greenham Common), England. During her service with the USAAF, which included assignment to the 811th and 816th Medical Air Evacuation Transportation Squadrons, Gaunt completed 99 combat sorties and 6 transatlantic air evacuation missions and participated in the following battles and campaigns: Normandy, Northern France, Ardennes, Rhineland, and Central Europe. Gaunt separated from the USAAF in February 1946 at the rank of captain. In the 1960s, Gaunt was a nurse at Wilford Hall medical facility at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, where she cared for National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronaut Alan Bean following surgery he had there.