Then National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with LaVergne Thomas. Thomas was born in Louisville, Kentucky 31 March 1921. After graduating from high school in 1939 she entered nurse training, which she completed at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Houston, Texas in 1942. Joining the US Army Nurse Corps 7 December 1942 she entered the service as a second lieutenant at Randolph Field, Texas and was sent to Bowman Field, Kentucky for training as a flight nurse. She trained in C-47 aircraft that could hold eighteen patients. She boarded HMS Queen Elizabeth 1 February 1944 with other members of the 814th Medical Air Evacuation Transport Squadron and landed at Firth, Scotland. Her unit flew to various points in Europe with gasoline and supplies and returned with wounded soldiers. She treated German prisoners of war as they were being taken to England. She also treated American casualties, injured during the Battle of the Bulge. After a year of traveling between England and the Continent, Thomas began flying to the United States in C-54 aircraft, which would carry twenty-four patients. These flights took twenty-six hours with an overnight stop in Newfoundland. She continued making these flights until Germany surrendered. …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Melvin Best. Best was born 10 February 1921 in Paducah, Texas. He received his private pilot’s license while enrolled at Texas Tech University. He joined the Army Air Corps on 13 January 1942 and reported to Kelly Field in San Antonio for training. He received his primary flight training at several locations, and then he transferred to Columbia, South Carolina for B-25 training. Upon graduating in October 1942, he was assigned to the 345th Bombardment Group and sent to Australia. His group initially flew missions to New Guinea dropping supplies to Australian troops in the mountains. Best was next sent to Townsville, Australia in August 1943 where he met Colonel Paul Irvin Gunn, a retired Navy pilot commissioned into the Army Air Forces at the start of the war and was instrumental in modifying the B-25 for strafing missions. His first strafing missions were conducted over Rabaul. The modified B-25s made three more strafing runs on Rabaul, resulting in the destruction of 140 Japanese aircraft. Best was escorted during more than half of his strafing raids by Richard Bong. Following the Rabaul raids he returned to Townsville, Australia …