Born: 19 August 1919, United States
Died: 26 January 1981
Country most active: International
Also known as: NA
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women creator Allison Tyra’s book Uncredited: Women’s Overlooked, Misattributed, and Stolen Work.
During World War II, Lieutenant Reba Whittle was a flight nurse with the 813th Medical Air Evacuation Squadron who logged more than 500 flight hours. On a September 1944 flight to pick up casualties, her plane went off course and was shot down over Germany. The few survivors were taken prisoner. Whittle was allowed to attend to the wounded prisoners in her camp, and she and 109 male POWs were released on January 25,1945. The injuries she had sustained prevented her from future flying. Although Whittle received the Air Medal and a Purple Heart and was promoted to lieutenant, she was denied disability or POW retirement benefits. Leaving the Army in 1946, she spent ten years applying for, and being denied, POW status and back pay, finally accepting a cash settlement in 1955. Her POW status was finally granted in 1983, two years after her death.