Enlisting as soon as she graduated from nursing school, Evelyn Mae Gerdrum was ready and willing to enter the war.

Evelyn, from Grass Range, Montana[i], was the daughter of Magnus N. Gerdrum (Gjerdrum[ii]) and Ida Marie Anderson Gerdrum.[iii] She was born August 31, 1921[iv] and had an older brother, Harold Milo Gerdrum, 1916, and an older sister, Doris Gerdrum King, 1919, waiting for her arrival.[v]

Magnus was born in Norway and immigrated in 1907 at the age of 23. His language was Norwegian. Ida was from Minnesota but both her parents were born in Norway. In the 1920 census, Magnus is supporting the family as a farmer in Montana.[vi] By 1930, the census shows that they owned their own home on the farm.[vii] Evelyn grew up in Grass Range attending local schools and graduated from High School in 1939.[viii]

HER LIFE BEFORE MILITARY

As 1940 sees the war years building momentum, Evelyn joined the war effort by entering nursing school. She is living and studying in Great Falls, about 140 miles from home. Back in Grass Range, her dad is farming, Milo is operating a grain elevator and Doris is teaching school.

Evelyn received her nursing cap from the Columbus Hospital School of Nursing, located in Great Falls, Montana, on Sunday, January 14, 1940. The ceremony was decorated with palms, flowers and white candles.[ix]

With the war creating a demand for nurses, Evelyn became part of the largest class of graduate nurses to be examined for state certificates in September of 1942. Already many nurses had gone into the Army and Navy Nurse Corps from Montana.[x]

HER MILITARY STORY

After graduation, Nurse Evelyn Gerdrum worked at a hospital in Townsend, Montana despite having had enlisted right away in the Army Nurse Corps.[xi] She wasn’t called to active duty until January of 1943. She entered the Army at Walla Walla, Washington.[xii] Evelyn’s service number was N-783127.[xiii] Her basic training was done in Texas.[xiv]

It was a happy 4th of July in 1943 in Grass Range as Evelyn was home on leave. At the time, she was stationed over 600 miles away at Moses Lake, Washington.[xv] Her path then took her far away from home and around the world to Ledo, India.

The Ledo area of India, where Evelyn 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.[xvi]

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.”[xvii]

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.[xviii]

“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.[xix]

During her time in India, Evelyn Gerdrum served as a flight nurse[xx] with Army Nurse Corps in the 69th General Hospital.[xxi] Evelyn had served in India for about ten months. She’d volunteered for service in China and was expecting to be going there from her Ledo, India base, according to a letter she’d sent home.[xxii]

HER LAST DAY- March 4, 1945

On her last flight, 2nd Lt. Evelyn Mae Gerdrum was in route from a hospital along the Ledo road to a new assignment[xxiii] in the India-Burma Theater to care for wounded in Imphal.[xxiv] Her Douglas C-47 Skytrain (#41-18554), assigned to Air transport Command, 11th Combat Cargo Squadron,[xxv] 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 2nd Lt. Evelyn Gerdrum, plus the crew of two were killed. Most of the passengers were Army nurses and medical personnel.[xxvi]

Her parents, Magnus and Ida, were notified by the war department about a week later, on March 12th. According to the Great Falls Tribune newspaper, Evelyn was believed to be central Montana’s first woman war fatality.[xxvii]

She was 23.

COMMENDATIONS

World War II Victory Medal

Nurse Corps Badge

American Campaign Medal

Army Presidential Unit Citation

Army Good Conduct Medal

Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal

MEMORIALS

On the day before Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day in 1945, 2nd Lt. Evelyn Mae Gerdrum was remembered as one of the 460 Montana nurses who served in the war. In The Western News newspaper, she was remembered as a flight nurse who was killed in a plane crash.[xxviii]

HER FUNERAL AND GRAVE

A memorial service for 2nd Lt. Evelyn Gerdrum was held at Zion Lutheran Church, Lewistown, Montana, on March 22, 1945.[xxix]

With the war over, in May of 1948, Evelyn Mae Gerdrum was finally returned home from India. She was among the 2,024 American war dead returned on the Cardinal O’Connell ship.[xxx] Her body was taken to San Bruno, California for burial in the Golden Gate National Cemetery.[xxxi] She is buried in Section C, Site 616.[xxxii]

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

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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