An Army nurse, 2nd Lt. Ann Lee Merrill lost her life far away from home, leaving behind her mother and brother.

The daughter of Charles Clifford “C.C.” Merrill and Nell Lee “Nelle” Merrill, Ann grew up in Illinois and Indiana.

Before Ann was born, her family was living in Forrest, Illinois. Her father, C.C., and her mother, Nelle, lived in a home that they owned. Her older brother, Robert Lewis Merrill, was born in 1917. C.C. was supporting the young family as a professor and her mother worked as a housekeeper.[i]

By the time Ann was 9, the 1930 census showed the family had moved to Joliet, Illinois. They lived in a home that they owned as C.C. worked for Curtis Publishing Company[ii] and her mother worked in sales for a security company.[iii] Nelle had completed three years of college.[iv] C.C. had a M.A. Degree from the University of Illinois.[v]

In 1936, the family of four moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, about 3 hours south of their home in Joliet. C.C. continued working for Curtis Publishing Company but was now the district manager.[vi]

Ann was a teenager when she received grave news in 1938. Her father was killed in a car crash.[vii] He was on a business trip and collided with a train near Muncie, Indiana.[viii]

She graduated from Shortridge High School in Indianapolis in June 1939.[ix] Ann was a member of First Congregational Church.[x]

HER LIFE BEFORE MILITARY

In 1940, the family of three lived in an apartment with her mother supporting the family with a sales position at a printing company and her brother, Robert, worked as a male nurse.[xi] Ann was studying nursing at Methodist Hospital.[xii] That same year, Robert married Marion Frances Lane.

Ann graduated from the Methodist Hospital School of Nursing in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1942.[xiii]

HER MILITARY STORY

Ann Lee Merrill joined the Army Nurse Air Corps on April 23, 1942. She was sent overseas in April of 1943 where she served in England.[xiv] Later, she sailed for India on April 13, 1944. First, she spent three months in India and then did time at a front-line hospital in Burma. It was there she caught malaria, like so many of the fighting men. The condition sent her back to India in September of 1944.[xv]

That same year, 1944, her brother, Robert, also entered the Army. He was in the Medical Corps in Fort Lewis, Washington.[xvi]

Ann served as a Second Lieutenant for the Army Nurse Corps in the 69th General Hospital.[xvii]

The Ledo area of India, where Ann eventually died, was known to be one of the worst areas of malaria in the world. In addition, there was ward after ward of typhus patients. Lice, tape worms, maggots and other parasites were common. Horribly wounded men would arrive from all over and many amputations were done due to gangrene developing over their days-long journey to get care.[xviii]

In an oral history record, “Voices of the Past,” Brigadier General Anna Mae Hays recalled “… our nurses were well prepared. We had a fair amount of equipment and supplies… And has history has proven, the whole theater was sadly neglected. But, as I said, we did the very best we could.”[xix]

At the time of the war, Hays was a nurse in the operating room in India. In 1970, she was the first woman in the United States Armed Forces to wear the stars of a general officer when promoted to Brigadier General.[xx]

“Of course, the heavy rains would pour in seven to eight inches of water in 24 hours in the monsoon season. You can imagine the mud problems. Each building was made of bamboo and our roofs were palm fronds so when it rained, water came through the roofs,” she said in her oral history. Without secure doors, snakes, sacred cows or wild jackals would run or slither through the wards or nurses’ quarters. They also cared for ill and wounded Chinese soldiers, American allies, which brought language and cultural differences for the nurses in trying to provide the best care.[xxi]

While Ann served at the 69th, Ann was also a member of a medical task force opening an advanced Army Hospital near Calcutta, India.[xxii] She nursed wounded Chinese soldiers, our allies in WWII, who flew with Merrill’s Marauders.[xxiii] Unrelated to Ann Merrill, the Merrill’s Marauders were named for General Frank Merrill, their commander.[xxiv]

The Marauders worked in the China-Burma-India Theater behind enemy lines with the Chinese to attack the Japanese from the rear. Their treacherous march and battles through jungles and swamps often led to wounding, injuries and tropical diseases that were not able to be adequately treated on site. Often the injured had to ride a pack animal to a clearing to be flown out to get care.[xxv]

HER LAST DAY- March 4, 1945

On her last flight, 2nd Lt. Ann L. Merrill was in route from a hospital along the Ledo road to a new assignment[xxvi] in the India-Burma Theater to care for wounded in Imphal.[xxvii] Her Douglas C-47 Skytrain (#41-18554), assigned to Air transport Command, 11th Combat Cargo Squadron,[xxviii] took off from Dinjan Army Airfield in Assam, India on a mission to ferry passengers. The plane came in too low during the last turn in the process of landing and crashed. Twenty-five passengers, including Ann, plus the crew of two were killed. Most of the passengers were Army nurses and medical personnel.[xxix]

Ann’s mother, Nell, was notified by telegram a week later.[xxx]

She was 24.

HER FUNERAL AND GRAVE

On April 8, 1945, a memorial service was held for 2nd Lt. Ann L. Merrill at the First Congregational Church. The ad interim pastor, Dr. Orien W. Fifer conducted the service.[xxxi]

On May 4, 1945, a second memorial service was held in the Mary Hanson Carry Memorial Chapel of Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis, Indiana with the hospital minister officiating.[xxxii]

After the deadly accident, 2nd Lt. Ann L. Merrill was buried in Kalaikunda, India. Three years later, her body was back home aboard the transport ship, Cardinal O’Connell into the port of San Francisco.[xxxiii] She was buried on June 24, 1948 at New Albany National Cemetery, New Albany, Indiana. Her grave is in Section D, Site 19.[xxxiv]

Her mother did not live to see Ann’s body returned home. Nelle had died on September 4, 1946.[xxxv]

LIST OF THOSE KILLED IN THE MARCH 4, 1945, LEDO, INDIA AIR CRASH

Capt. John J. Lukaszczyk, Co-Pilot
Capt. Nicholas J. Mandoukos, Pilot
1st Lt. Walter S. Amsler, Jr.
2nd Lt. Francis W. Blalock
2nd Lt. Julia S. Barnes
2nd Lt. Jane M. Blevins
2nd Lt. Evelyn M. Bruton
2nd Lt. Thomas E. Dellinger
2nd Lt. Rita F. Erard
2nd Lt. Evelyn M. Gerdrum
2nd Lt. Lyndell A. Glisson
1st Lt. Henry D. Hammack, Jr.
2nd Lt. Eathel L. Harris
2nd Lt. Helen J. Henley
1st Lt. Catherine M. Larkin
2nd Lt. Joseph R. Launier
1st Lt. Kathryn L.Lloyd
Capt. Charles W. Loucks
1st Lt. Grady A. Masters
2nd Lt. Kathryn L. McCarthy
2nd Lt. Ann L. Merrill
2nd Lt. Genevieve R. Monahan
Capt. Edward R. Moore
2nd Lt. Mayo C. Onken
Lt. Col. Jack P. Scott
Leona A. Thomey, Civilian, Red Cross
1st Lt. Robert W. Tibbetts

ABOUT THIS STORY

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen saved on Together We Served and Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smartphone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

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