Ruth M. Gardiner
Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army Air Forces

Ruth M. Gardiner was born on 20 May 1914.

Gardiner was 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. She was the first Army nurse to be killed in a theater of operations during World War II when an aircraft on which she was a passenger crashed in July 1943, near Nannek, AK, while on an air evacuation mission.

Honors

Gardiner General Hospital in Chicago, IL, was named in her honor.

Death and Burial

Second Lieutenant Ruth M. Gardiner died on 27 July 1943 in Alaska. She is buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, VA.