A Hero to Remember

Mary Louise Hawkins Was born in Denver, Colorado, on May 24th, 1921. She became an Air Evacuation Flight Nurse during World War II. She was evacuating 24 patients from fighting at Palau to Guadalcanal on September 24, 1944. The C-47 carrying them ran low on fuel and was forced to make a rough emergency landing on Bellona Island. During the landing a propeller tore through the fuselage and severed the trachea of a patient. Hawkins made a suction tube from various items she found on the plane, including the inflation tube from a “Mae West” life jacket. She kept the soldier's throat clear so he could breathe for 19 hours until help arrived. All of her patients survived. First Lt. Mary Louis Hawkins, for her heroic action and quick thinking, received the Distinguished Flying Cross. She moved to Californina, and in 1960 She Married Bill Lambert and continued her work as a nurse both in the Middle East and the United States.