Ruth M. Gardiner
{{short description|U.S. Army nurse killed in action}}
{{Infobox person
|name = Ruth M. Gardiner
|image = Ruth Gardiner.jpg
|image_size =
|caption = Gardiner, c. 1943
|other_names = Ruth Gardiner
|birth_date = {{birth date|1914|05|20}}
|birth_place = Calgary, Alberta, Canada
|death_date = {{death date and age|1943|07|27|1914|05|20}}
|death_place = Naknek, Alaska, United States
|occupation = Nurse
}}
Ruth M. Gardiner (May 20, 1914 – July 27, 1943) was a nurse in the United States Army Nurse Corps. She served in the Alaskan Theater and rose to the rank of Second Lieutenant. Gardiner was the first Army Nurse Corps' flight nurse killed while serving in World War II. She was one of a group of six nurses in Alaska that assisted in medical evacuations by plane. Gardiner was killed while on one such evacuation, when the aircraft on which she was traveling crashed.
The Ruth M. Gardiner General Hospital in Chicago was named in her honor; it was the first Army hospital named for a woman or nurse.
Career
File:Gardiner Hospital wounded soldier.jpg
Gardiner trained in nursing at the White Haven, Pennsylvania, sanatorium and graduated from there in 1934.{{cite news |author= |title=White Haven Nurse Honored |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4719418/white_haven_nurse_honored/ |newspaper=The Plain Speaker (p. 17) |location=Hazleton, Pennsylvania |date=November 18, 1943 |via=Newspapers.com {{open access}}}}
Gardiner was assigned to the 349th Air Evacuation Group at Bowman Field, Kentucky. She became a Second Lieutenant and served in Alaska with Flight A of the 805th Medical Air Evacuation Transport Squadron.{{cite journal |title=Flight nurse firsts: the first flight nurse killed in action. |author= Barger J. |date=1985 |quote=The first flight nurse killed in action was Second Lieutenant Ruth M. Gardiner. A graduate of the first organized course for flight nurses of the 349th Air Evacuation Group, Bowman Field, KY, Lieutenant Gardiner served in the Alaskan Theater of Operations with Flight A of the 805th Medical Air Evacuation Transport Squadron. Lieutenant Gardiner was killed in an aircraft accident on July 27, 1943, while en route for the purpose of evacuating patients. Gardiner General Hospital in Chicago was named in her honor posthumously |pmid=3888170 |volume=56 |issue= 4 |journal=Aviat Space Environ Med |pages=376–377}} Gardiner was killed when the aircraft crashed near Naknek, Alaska, while on a medical evacuation mission on July 27, 1943. Gardiner was part of a group of nurses that "covered 3,500,000 air miles, evacuating over 2,500 cases, all without injury or loss of a single patient", according to the U. S. Army Medical Department.
{{cite web |url=http://www.alaska.amedd.army.mil/about/About_Gardiner_Hall.htm |title=Gardiner Hall – "Behavioral Health Building" |date=20 December 2010|website= U.S. Army Medical Department |publisher= U.S. Army|access-date=January 5, 2015 |quote=On 9 July 1944, Gardiner General Hospital, Chicago, Illinois was dedicated to Lieutenant Ruth M. Gardiner. Though no longer in use, this was the first Army hospital named for a woman or nurse. |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110312121301/http://www.alaska.amedd.army.mil/about/About_Gardiner_Hall.htm |
archive-date= March 12, 2011 |url-status= dead}}
Hospital
File:Gardiner General Hospital.jpg
The Army General Hospital, a former Chicago hotel, was named in honor of Gardiner who was the first Army Nurse Corps' flight nurse killed while serving in World War II. It was the first Army hospital named for a woman or nurse. Gardiner was killed in July 1943 and the hospital was dedicated in July 1944. The Army General Hospital of Chicago became known as the Ruth M. Gardiner General Hospital.{{sfn|Sarnecky|1999|p=262}}
References
{{reflist|30em}}
Sources
- {{cite book|last=Sarnecky|first=Mary T. |title=A History of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofusarmyn00mary|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofusarmyn00mary/page/262 262]|date=4 October 1999|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|isbn=978-0-81-2235-02-9|quote=}}
Further reading
- {{cite news |author= |title= Ruth Gardiner, Air Force Nurse, Dies in Service |url= https://www.newspapers.com/image/140360572/?terms=%22Ruth%2BM%2BGardiner%22%2Bhospital|newspaper= Indianapolis Star, page 9 |location= Indianapolis, Indiana |date= 8 August 1943 }}
- {{cite book|last1=Feller|first1=Carolyn M. |last2=Moore|first2=Constance J. |title=Highlights in the History of the Army Nurse Corps|url=https://history.army.mil/html/books/085/85-1/CMH_Pub_85-1.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150920100011/http://www.history.army.mil/html/books/085/85-1/CMH_Pub_85-1.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 20, 2015|year=1996|publisher=U.S. Army Center of Military History|quote=Gardiner General Hospital was dedicated 9 July 1944 to the memory of 2nd Lt. Ruth M. Gardiner, the first Army nurse to be killed in a theater of operations during World War II. Lieutenant Gardiner, a flight nurse, was killed in a plane crash near Naknek, Alaska, on 27 July 1943, while on an air evacuation mission. }}
- {{cite book|last=Society|first=Chicago Medical|title=The Bulletin of the Chicago Medical Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9UAsAQAAIAAJ|year=1944|publisher=The Society}}
- {{cite book|last=Stiehm|first=Judith|author-link=Judith Stiehm |title=It's Our Military, Too!: Women and the U. S. Military|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=INNDi8ONLJwC&pg=PA104 |date=1996 |publisher=Temple University Press|isbn=978-1-4399-0147-2|quote = The first Army nurse killed in the war, 2nd Lt. Ruth M. Gardiner, died in an air evacuation plane crash in July 1943; a hospital was named after her in Chicago. }}
- {{cite book|last=US Government|title=A Contemporary History of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HMhA82JtgHUC&pg=PA187|publisher=Government Printing Office|isbn=978-0-16-086913-6}}
External links
- [https://ancexplorer.army.mil/publicwmv/#/arlington-national/search/results/1/CghHYXJkaW5lchIEUnV0aA--/ Arlington National Cemetery]
- {{cite web|url= https://airforce.togetherweserved.com/usaf/servlet/tws.webapp.WebApp?cmd=ShadowBoxProfile&type=PersonAircraftExt&ID=39522|title=Gardiner, Ruth M., 2ndn Lt |publisher=TogetherWeServed.com |date=2011 |access-date=September 4, 2021}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gardiner, Ruth M.}}
Category:People from Indianapolis
Category:United States Army Nurse Corps officers
Category:Female United States Army nurses in World War II
Category:United States Army personnel killed in World War II
Category:Canadian emigrants to the United States
Category:Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in the United States
Category:Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1943