A pioneer of air evacuation medicine, Yetta Moskowitz received an air medal for flying over 100 hours through combat zones in New Guinea and the Philippines to evacuate wounded soldiers in World War II. Moskowitz was fresh out of nursing school when she enlisted in the Army Nurse Corps in June of 1943 as a flight nurse. She trained in the Air Force School of Air Evacuations before deploying to the Philippines, where she helped extract seven thousand troops from enemy territory and keep them alive until they could reach area hospitals. Her courage under fire earned her a promotion to first lieutenant and chief nurse of the 804th Medical Air Evacuation Squadron. While nurses were technically noncombatants, they had to carry revolvers in case they were shot down over enemy territory. While Moskowitz finished her service without serious injury, her best friend was killed while rescuing wounded soldiers.