“When I was flying, I had a boyfriend in every port, because if I didn’t, I wouldn’t have anything to do.”

F. Rosalind Westfall Sellmer

F. Rosalind Westfall War: World War, 1939-1945 Branch: Army Air Forces/Corps Unit: 820th Squadron Service Location: Fort Knox, Kentucky; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Azores; Paris, France Rank: First Lieutenant Place of Birth: Dunbar, WV

Advances in aviation created a new kind of medical career in World War II: the flight nurse who accompanied severely wounded patients back from the front lines to the United States for treatment. Usually working with only one corpsman, nurses like Rosalind Westfall cared for patients’ needs during the long flights that made their way from Paris to the Azores, then to either Bermuda or Newfoundland, and finally to New York or Miami. Westfall always packed a ball gown for every trip, because once she touched down, there was a dance to attend to help ease the tensions accumulated from her stressful duties.