Reception: 4:30 p.m. CT | Event: 5:30 p.m. CT 
This event is free and open to the public. Register today to join us in person or to view the event online.

Join us for a presentation by historian Leah Garrett for the official launch of her latest work, The Flight Nurses’ War: The American Women Who Saved Thousands of Lives at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. This extraordinary story of heroism brings to life the remarkable women who risked everything to save lives and assure America’s success in the Pacific war.  

A reception from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. will precede the event, and Garrett will sign copies of her book following the presentation. Preorder your signed copy from the Museum Store. 

For additional information, please email Connie Gentry, Conference and Programs Manager, at connie.gentry@nationalww2museum.org.

About The Flight Nurses’ War

The Pacific theater was the setting for some of World War II’s bloodiest battles, and yet much of its history remains untold. As the war in Europe was winding down, fierce resistance and mounting casualties slowed the United States' advance toward Japan. The terrible death toll of doctors, medics, and corpsmen forced the US Navy to deploy combat nurses to contested airfields, where they triaged desperately wounded men and evacuated them to safety. In The Flight Nurses’ War, award-winning historian Leah Garrett traces the lives of a team of nurses from their small-town origins to the devastation of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. They risked their lives on rickety, unpressurized aircraft and braved constant enemy assaults. As the battles intensified, Army nurses were also deployed to hospital ships and infantry front lines, where they endured disease, snipers, and kamikazes. Successfully evacuating thousands of wounded men from danger, the combat nurses freed up troops to secure both islands and help win the war.

About the Author

Leah Garrett is a professor at Hunter College, City University of New York. She is the award-winning author of five previous books, most recently X Troop: The Secret Jewish Commandos of World War Two Who Helped Defeat the Nazis (Harper Collins, US/Penguin Books UK), which was also launched at The National WWII Museum.