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Heroic Texas woman graduates from flight-nurse school
On this day in 1943, Dolly Shea graduated with the first flight-nurse class of the United States Army Air Forces at Bowman Field, Kentucky. The San Benito, Texas, native served in the European Theater during World War II. She was killed on April 14, 1945, when her evacuation plane, ferrying wounded Americans to hospitals behind the front line, was shot down over Germany. She was one of three women in the Army Nurse Corps known to have been killed by direct enemy action and the only one from Texas. Her awards include the Air Medal, the Red Cross Medal, a Special Citation from President Harry Truman, and a posthumous Purple Heart.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- SHEA, WILMA [DOLLY] VINSANT
- WORLD WAR II, TEXANS IN
- SAN BENITO, TX
- WORLD WAR II
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- Frenchman flies first plane in Texas (1910)
- Secessionist fire-eater dies (1874)
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