Janice Feagin Britton
Bio
Janice Britton, after receiving her nursing degree, was encouraged by her father to join the military towards the end of World War II. Originally wanting to join the United States Air Force due to an interest in aviation, she joined the US Army instead due to the Air Force not accepting nurses. After basic training, she worked with psychiatric patients who would today be considered as having post-traumatic stress disorder and later taught nursing on a base in Georgia. Still desiring to fly, she was admitted to the Army Air Corps and went to flight nurse school. Towards the end of World War II, her unit was sent to the Pacific, and she was stationed in Japan, even spending time in Korea. After the end of the war, she returned Stateside but was given orders to go to Korea when the Korean War began. During her service in Korea, she helped evacuate injured soldiers to station hospitals. After her service in Korea and honorable discharge, she taught nursing at the college level, and at the age of seventy-eight, she volunteered for the United States Peace Corps, serving in Africa for two years.
Video Clips
Duties as a Wartime Flight Nurse
Janice Britton explains the role flight nurses played in the Korean War and how they needed to work together to meet the various patients' needs. She discusses the types of patients they treated aboard the flights and what a typical flight looked like. She recalls being almost surrounded by the Chinese at the Jangin (Chosin) Reservoir and the work they did to evacuate as many patients as possible.
Share YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUuz5LvogyY&start=2300&end=2485
Share from this page:
https://koreanwarlegacy.org/interviews/janice-feagin-britton#clip-1
Embed:
Describing Her Job as a Flight Nurse
Janice Britton elaborates on what her duties as a flight nurse looked like. She recalls being featured in a newspaper article as the first nurse to fly over the 38th parallel. She shares the flight nurses would bring patients to station hospitals for further care. She reflects on the role she played and shares she did not regard her job as being dangerous, although they would fly as close as possible to evacuate patients. She offers a notable story about having to find food for her patients as they were waiting for an airplane.
Share YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUuz5LvogyY&start=2497&end=2787
Share from this page:
https://koreanwarlegacy.org/interviews/janice-feagin-britton#clip-2
Embed:
Experiences in Korea after World War II
Janice Britton discusses her time in Japan and Korea at the end of World War II, during which she helped transport patients from Korea to the station hospital in Japan. She marvels at the progress that has been made in Korea from the first time she went there, throughout her service during the Korean War, and modern day.
Share YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUuz5LvogyY&start=1426&end=1706
Share from this page:
https://koreanwarlegacy.org/interviews/janice-feagin-britton#clip-3
Embed: