Sarah Sundin

🇺🇲 She helped evacuate more than 3,500 men. On her last flight, no one survived. Her name was Aleda Lutz. An American flight nurse from Michigan. She was 28 years old. Serving with the 802nd Medical Air Evacuation Squadron, she cared for wounded men as they were flown away from the battlefields of World War II. 196 missions. More than 3,500 men evacuated. On November 1, 1944, she was aboard a C-47 carrying fifteen wounded soldiers when the aircraft encountered a violent storm over France. It crashed near Saint-Chamond. There were no survivors. Eight days later, Aleda would have turned 29. She was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. Today, she rests at the Rhône American Cemetery in Draguignan, France—the only woman buried there. Look at her face. Remember her name. Aleda Lutz spent her war helping wounded men get another chance at life. She never got to live the rest of hers. Share her story so others remember her. Follow @Vanguard_WW2 for the human stories behind WWII.