In March 1945, 22-year-old Ensign Jane Louise “Candy” Kendeigh, a Navy flight nurse from Ohio, made history as the first U.S. Navy nurse to land on an active Pacific battlefield during World War II.
Born on March 30, 1922, in Henrietta Township, Jane graduated from nursing school in Cleveland before joining the Navy’s School of Air Evacuation in 1944. The intense training prepared her for high-altitude medical care, crash survival, and even hand-to-hand combat. Assigned to the Naval Air Transport Service’s medical evacuation squadron in Guam, Jane boarded a C-47 on March 6, 1945, heading to Iwo Jima amid fierce fighting. As her plane circled the island, dodging enemy mortar fire, she prepared to care for the wounded. Upon landing, she stepped onto the volcanic ash, greeted by the astonished whistles of Marines, and worked tirelessly to stabilize and evacuate 2,393 wounded servicemen over 15 days.
After a brief return to the U.S. for a war bond drive, Jane requested to return to the Pacific, landing on Okinawa on April 7, 1945, just days after the invasion, where she again braved combat to save lives. Her courage helped evacuate more than a million military patients during the war, with only 46 deaths en route. Jane’s quiet heroism—marked by “wan smiles” and nods of gratitude from her patients—left a lasting legacy. She passed away on July 19, 1987, in San Diego.
