Mary L. Hester

Bio

Mary L. Hester was born in 1929 in Howe, Indiana. While in nursing school, recruiting officers visited her class and asked them to consider joining the service. After she passed her state boards, she entered the service and began her military nursing career at a veteran’s hospital stateside. She volunteered to go to the United States Air Force and on a base in Colorado, underwent flight nurse training, and from there, volunteered to go to Japan where she flew missions to Korea to evacuate injured soldiers. While in Japan, she met her future husband Kenneth, and they both returned home shortly before the Armistice was signed. In 1997, Mary and Kenneth returned to South Korea where they received a medal from the government.

Video Clips

Describing Flight School and Her First Incoming Soldiers

Mary Hester explains that after seeing a posting for volunteers for flight school, she signed up. She describes the month long course, she learned the differences between providing medical care on the ground and in the air. She recalls seeing that volunteers were needed to go to Japan and she quickly volunteered. She becomes emotional when she remembers the first plane of injured soldiers and how her chief nurse told her they came to work, not to cry. She recalls the quick on-the-job training she received that day.

Tags: Front lines,Women

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Duties as a Flight Nurse

Mary Hester speaks about her typical flight shift as a flight nurse, flying from Japan to Korea to evacuate injured soldiers, many of which were badly hurt. She explains that the size of the plane they took depended on the number of soldiers that were to be evacuated. She recalls that typically it was one nurse on a plane for eighteen to twenty injured soldiers, but at times they would take a C-54 that could hold thirty to fifty patients and required two nurses. She describes how soldiers were loaded based on their injuries with the worst injured going near the front of the plane and in the middle bunks. She explains that she had to fly 750 hours to rotate home, and she was sure she flew more than that.

Tags: Cold winters,Front lines,Women

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Revisiting Korea

Mary Hester reflects on her revisit to Korea in 1997, alongside her husband, Kenneth, who was also a Korean War veteran. She marvels at the progress South Korea has made and discusses how meaningful the trip was. She expresses how meaningful the gratitude from the South Korean people was to her and her husband.

Tags: Panmunjeom,Seoul,Impressions of Korea,Modern Korea,Pride,South Koreans

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Photos

Copy of Report of Separation for Mary Hester

Mary L. Hester Collection (AFC/2001/001/32449), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/resource/afc2001001.32449.pm0001001/?r=-0.842,0.093,2.684,1.274,0

An image of a painting by Kenneth Hester of a sailor kissing a woman

Mary L. Hester Collection (AFC/2001/001/32449), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/resource/afc2001001.32449.pm0003001/

[Front]: Portrait of Mary Hester in uniform Photo Album

Mary L. Hester Collection (AFC/2001/001/32449), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/resource/afc2001001.32449.ph0001001/?sp=1

[Front]: Mary Hester standing outside near an aircraft

Mary L. Hester Collection (AFC/2001/001/32449), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/resource/afc2001001.32449.ph0001001/?sp=2

[Front]: Kenneth and Mary Hester kissing aboard an aircraft

Mary L. Hester Collection (AFC/2001/001/32449), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/resource/afc2001001.32449.ph0001001/?sp=3

[Front]: Kenneth and Mary Hester sitting aboard an aircraft

Mary L. Hester Collection (AFC/2001/001/32449), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/resource/afc2001001.32449.ph0001001/?sp=4

[Front]: Kenneth and Mary Hester standing outside on an air base

Mary L. Hester Collection (AFC/2001/001/32449), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/resource/afc2001001.32449.ph0001001/?sp=5

[Front]: Mary Hester taking care of a patient in a bed aboard a C-47

Mary L. Hester Collection (AFC/2001/001/32449), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/resource/afc2001001.32449.ph0001001/?sp=6

[Back]: Mary Hester taking care of a patient in a bed aboard a C-47

Mary L. Hester Collection (AFC/2001/001/32449), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/resource/afc2001001.32449.ph0001001/?sp=7

[Front]: Mary Hester kneeling near some Asian children

Mary L. Hester Collection (AFC/2001/001/32449), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/resource/afc2001001.32449.ph0001001/?sp=8

[Front]: Children in a damaged building

Mary L. Hester Collection (AFC/2001/001/32449), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/resource/afc2001001.32449.ph0001001/?sp=9

[Front]: The outside of a damaged building

Mary L. Hester Collection (AFC/2001/001/32449), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/resource/afc2001001.32449.ph0001001/?sp=10

[Front]: A group of children standing outside near some trees

Mary L. Hester Collection (AFC/2001/001/32449), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/resource/afc2001001.32449.ph0001001/?sp=11

[Front]: Kenneth and Mary Hester's wedding photograph

Mary L. Hester Collection (AFC/2001/001/32449), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/resource/afc2001001.32449.ph0001001/?sp=12

[Front]: Kenneth and Mary Hester's fiftieth anniversary photograph

Mary L. Hester Collection (AFC/2001/001/32449), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/resource/afc2001001.32449.ph0001001/?sp=13

[Front]: Mary Hester attending patients aboard an airplane

Mary L. Hester Collection (AFC/2001/001/32449), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/resource/afc2001001.32449.ph0001001/?sp=14

[Front]: Kenneth Hester standing in uniform

Mary L. Hester Collection (AFC/2001/001/32449), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/resource/afc2001001.32449.ph0001001/?sp=15

[Front]: Kenneth Hester standing in uniform

Mary L. Hester Collection (AFC/2001/001/32449), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/resource/afc2001001.32449.ph0001001/?sp=16

[Front]: Kenneth Hester standing in uniform, standing near an airplane

Mary L. Hester Collection (AFC/2001/001/32449), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/resource/afc2001001.32449.ph0001001/?sp=17

[Front]: Mary Hester standing on a ladder to an aircraft

Mary L. Hester Collection (AFC/2001/001/32449), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/resource/afc2001001.32449.ph0001001/?sp=18

[Front]: Kenneth and Mary Hester standing next to each other near an aircraft

Mary L. Hester Collection (AFC/2001/001/32449), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/resource/afc2001001.32449.ph0001001/?sp=19

[Front]: Mary Hester standing outside near an aircraft

Mary L. Hester Collection (AFC/2001/001/32449), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/resource/afc2001001.32449.ph0001001/?sp=20

[Front]: Mary Hester standing in uniform outside

Mary L. Hester Collection (AFC/2001/001/32449), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/resource/afc2001001.32449.ph0001001/?sp=21

[Front]: Kenneth, in uniform, and Mary Hester, in civilian clothes, standing outside

Mary L. Hester Collection (AFC/2001/001/32449), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/resource/afc2001001.32449.ph0001001/?sp=22

[Front]: Mary Hester attending patients aboard an airplane

Mary L. Hester Collection (AFC/2001/001/32449), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/resource/afc2001001.32449.ph0001001/?sp=23

[Front]: Mary Hester kneeling near some Asian children

Mary L. Hester Collection (AFC/2001/001/32449), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/resource/afc2001001.32449.ph0001001/?sp=24

[Front]: Mary Hester holding an ID placard, possibly for an official identification photo

Mary L. Hester Collection (AFC/2001/001/32449), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/resource/afc2001001.32449.ph0001001/?sp=25

[Front]: Mary Hester, outside in civilian clothes

Mary L. Hester Collection (AFC/2001/001/32449), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/resource/afc2001001.32449.ph0001001/?sp=26

[Front]: Portrait of Mary Hester in nurse's uniform

Mary L. Hester Collection (AFC/2001/001/32449), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/resource/afc2001001.32449.ph0001001/?sp=27