If we are sick and require air transport, we expect a skilled flight nurse will assist us. Before 1936 this was far from reality. Air transportation of critically ill patients began sporadically during World War I, but they crammed the wounded behind the pilot's area with no one to attend to them—the sick and dying patients had to fend for themselves. Lauretta Schimmoler realized this and sought to change it. She thought nurses trained in the aspects of air ambulance transport would be val...