Flight Nurse

by Georgia Craig

Shirley Andrews becomes a flight nurse during WWII. She is sent to an island in the Pacific. While she is performing her nursing duties admirably, she can't stop thinking about the man she loves, Rick Chambers. When last she saw him, all her hopes of winning his heart was dashed by a selfish girl. The last thing Shirley expects is to see Rick on that island. He is a pilot,

256 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1945

About the author

AKA Peggy Dern, Georgia Craig

Reviews

[Rebecca]

This is a very good argument for reading primary source documents. Flight Nurse may fall prey to a lot of the stereotypes of the time and use some racist language we're not comfortable with today, but it also shines a light on how people of the day might have thought. Most striking is that Shirley thinks multiple times throughout the book how war isn't doing anyone any good, no matter what their nationality. She grieves for the German and Japanese mothers and wives who are in the same position as the American ones. She's angry on behalf of the boys sent to war by the enemy, because they're not to blame - their leaders are. It's a remarkably human novel that never loses sight of the fact that war is not glorious. It is a tragedy, and one that nurses like Shirley are simply doing their best to make a little less tragic, one wounded soldier at a time.