RN Mary Wiggins served her country well
Chattanooga native Mary Louise Wiggins went on to become a highly decorated nurse in World War II and the Korean War.
Mary Wiggins was born in Chattanooga on Sept. 1, 1910, to Nina and Oscar Wiggins. She graduated from Marion County High School and the Newell Hospital School of Nursing. Early on, she worked as a doctor’s office nurse in Chickamauga. In 1940, she joined the Army Nurse Corps and was stationed at a Civilian Conservation Corps camp. When war was declared and Corps camps were closed (as the men joined the armed forces), she was transferred to Fort McPherson, Atlanta, and then Hunter Army Air Force Base in Savannah.
In 1944, she was assigned to the Pacific Theater as a flight nurse. A 1960 Chattanooga Times article quotes her: “I assisted in evacuating the wounded from New Guinea. I moved from island to island — Leyte, other islands in the Philippines, Okinawa — with the combat troops.”
A later Times article describes Wiggins’ actions in March 1945. “She flew with a severely wounded soldier from an outlying district to Leyte in the Philippines, giving artificial respiration throughout the flight, to a base where he could be placed on a respirator, thus saving his life.” She received an official commendation stating, “Your skill … and willingness to risk your own life to save one of your fellow soldiers is worthy of the highest standards and traditions of the medical air evacuation personnel.”
Promoted to captain, she was on Okinawa when the war ended. Serving as the chief nurse of the Air Evacuation Group, she was on the first flight into Japan bringing out American prisoners.
Electing to remain in the military, Wiggins was assigned to several stateside hospitals. When the Air Force became a separate branch of the armed services in 1947, she was assigned to the Air Force Medical Corps.
Stationed in Japan in 1950, she was assigned to a unit evacuating the wounded from Korea. Of her time with the 801st Medical Air Evacuation Squadron, she recalled, “Of all the service time I put in, I liked best being a flight nurse during the Korean conflict. I felt more a part of it, because I was closer to it … . I felt I was part of the fighting force, though there was no gun in my hand … . We’d go as far north as there was an airstrip. Sometimes, the wounded were brought to us in trucks with only rough bandages on them. They hadn’t even been to an aid station … . Usually, our plane carried 18 or 20 litter cases. On some there were 36 liter cases.” The 801st Squadron received a presidential citation for its evacuation of wounded Marines at Chosin Reservoir.
For her service in World War II, Wiggins was awarded the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with two Bronze Service Stars and later the Korean Service Medal with three Bronze Stars among other service ribbons.
Returning to the United States in 1952, the now-Major Wiggins became the assistant chief nurse at Sampson Air Force Base’s 1,000-bed hospital in Seneca, N.Y. Her dream assignment came several years later with a transfer to a Royal Air Force hospital near London, England. She said of her three years there: “I loved every minute of it.”
Her last assignment, from 1959 to late 1960, was as chief nurse at Patrick Air Force Base, Brevard County, Fla.
During her 20-year career, she used her leave time to travel extensively, including China, Hong Kong, Morocco, Algeria, Turkey, Thailand, Australia, Greece and much of the rest of Europe.
She returned to her mother’s home in Chattanooga in 1960. She said in an October 1960 Times article: “I want to do private duty now. But I want to continue my travel, too. I’ve got a 20-year long list of people who’ve asked me to visit them … . That’s one of the best things about the service — the wonderful people you meet. I’d love to work in Berlin and Switzerland for a while. [The] best way to learn a country is to live there.”
Unfortunately, this is where the story ends. I could only find the report of her death on Jan. 20, 2001, in Concord, N.C., at age 91. I hope she continued her nursing and travels in her later years.
Any friends or relatives of the remarkable Mary Wiggins are encouraged to contact me through the website listed below.