“Jeffrey Copeland explains the complicated origins of something that most military members now take for granted—the promise of swift evacuation from the battlefield if wounded. Lt. Elsie Ott and her NCO Sam Rigazzi were two Army Air Forces medical professionals who made the first long-distance aerial medical flight, from India to Walter Reed Army Hospital in 1943. They were ordinary soldiers called on to do the extraordinary, and their experience set the standard for today’s highly complex medical evacuation system. Telling their story for the first time, this book brings the two to life fully and completely. I couldn’t put it down.”—Lt. Colonel Michael Burke, U.S. Army, retired.
“Her story reads as an inspiring testament to the belief that one devoted person can not only save lives but change the world. Without her we may not have seen those helicopters flying in the wounded for M.A.S.H. a decade later in Korea, or today’s massive transports bringing casualties from the Middle East and other locations.”— Jerome Klinkowitz, author of Their Finest Hours: The RAF and the Luftwaffe in WWII, With the Tigers Over China,1941-42, Yanks Over Europe, and Pacific Skies: American Flyers in World War II.
“Copeland straps readers alongside Ott and her five patients in the belly of the Able Mabel, a re-fitted Douglas DC-3 plane, as they attempt the first long-distance, medical air evacuation. Details from Ott’s flight log and personal notes help re-create their harrowing six-and-a-half day journey from India to the United States.” —Sally M. Walker, author of Secrets of a Civil War Submarine and Boundaries: How the Mason-Dixon Line Settled a Family Feud and Divided a Nation.
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