Interview with Linda S. Schwartz, Vietnam veteran. CCSU Veterans History Project

Interview conducted by Eileen Hurst. Linda Schwartz enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1967, after graduating from nursing school. One reason she joined was an article she had read in Reader's Digest about flight nurses. She went to Sheppard Field (TX) and Amarillo (TX) for training before being assigned to Tachikawa Air Force Base in Japan. This is where many of the wounded soldiers from Vietnam recuperated before being sent back to the United States. It was there, caring for the wounded, that she decided to make the Air Force a career. When she returned from Japan, she was stationed at Plattsburg Air Force Base (NY), and then later went to Brooks Air Force Base (TX) in 1971, to train to be a flight nurse. Schwartz then went to Germany where she was a flight nurse at Rhein-Main. From Germany they flew missions across Europe, the Middle East, and Russia, transporting up to 60 patients per plane. After eight years in Germany, Schwartz returned to the United States, and was recruited to work at McGuire Air Force Base (NJ)" It was there that she was injured while flying a training mission in 1983. She was medically discharged from the Air Force in 1986, and joined the Vietnam Veterans of America. She is now Commissioner of Veterans Affairs in Connecticut.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• CCSU
• VHP
• Vietnam war
• veteran
• interview
• oral history