2nd Lt. Helen Jeanette Henley volunteered for the Army Nurse Corps. Around the world from her Greensboro, North Carolina hometown, she died in the line of duty. An air crash took her life in the Burma-India Theater.

When Helen Jeanette Henley was born, she became the second daughter to her parents, Edger Lee Henley and Beulah Sarah Montgomery Henley Spencer. Big sister, Flora Lucille Henley, was three when Helen was born on March 8, 1919. The young family lived in a home they owned in Greensboro, North Carolina, where their families had deep roots. Edger was supporting them by working as a brakeman for the railroad. [i]As a brakeman, his job would have been to slow the train down as needed and to stop at the stations.

Just five days after celebrating Helen’s first birthday, her father was tragically killed in a train accident as he was working for Southern Railroad.

Four years later, Helen’s mother, Beulah, then 27, remarried to Charles Vernon Spencer. They had three children – Helen’s half-sisters- Frances J. Spencer Virtes, 1925, Wanda Lee Spencer Campbell, 1927, and Alda Jo Ann Spencer Gottschalk, 1929.

As the Great Depression Years are under full swing, the 1930 census finds the combined family living in Greensboro in a rental home. There are the two Henley girls, three Spencer girls, mother, father and Beulah’s brother, Brooks Montgomery, in the household. Charles Spencer is also a railroad man, working as a car inspector, Helen and Flora are in school.[ii]

But the railroads had their say again in the five sister’s futures. At age 39, Charles Spencer was run over by a boxcar and lost his life.[iii] Trains made Beulah a widow twice.

A native of Greensboro, North Carolina, Helen attended Greensboro public schools.[iv]

HER LIFE BEFORE MILITARY

After high school, she attended Greensboro College. She went on to receive nurse’s training at the St. Leo’s Hospital School of Nursing in Greensboro. Following nursing school, she worked in public health service.[v]

As the war years roll around, Helen, 21, is living at home with her mother, Frances, Wanda and Alda. Her mother is a salesclerk in a retail store and Helen is working as a nurse.[vi]

In 1940, Helen relocated to Washington D.C. She worked at Doctors’ Hospital in Washington, D.C.[vii] The hospital opened in 1940.[viii]

HER MILITARY STORY

Lt. Helen J. Henley volunteered for the Army Nurse Corps in October 1943.[ix] She was first stationed in Deerfield, Florida.[x] Following that post, she served at Will Rogers Field in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It was there that she was voted most popular nurse.[xi] In September of 1944, she was one of ten nurses transferred to Borden General Hospital.[xii]

While serving in the Army Nurse Corps, Helen was able to visit her mother and sisters in Pennside, Pennsylvania in November of 1944.[xiii] Shortly after that visit she headed around the world.

She was sent overseas in December of 1944 and was attached to the 172nd General Hospital.[xiv] She served at Kurachi before moving on to the Ledo area of India. It was there that she had volunteered for extra evacuation service.[xv]

The Ledo area of India, where Helen 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]

HER LAST DAY- March 4, 1945

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

Helen was the first member of the Army Nurse Corps from Delaware to die in the line of duty.[xxiv]

She was 26.

MEMORIALS

2nd Lt. Helen J. Henley is remembered in North Carolina Nursing History on Appalachian State University’s webpage. https://nursinghistory.appstate.edu/biographies/helen-j-henley

HER FUNERAL AND GRAVE

In May of 1948, 2nd Lt. Helen J. Henley’s remains returned to her country aboard the United States Army Transport Cardinal O’Connell.[xxv] She is buried at Green Hill Cemetery in Greensboro, North Carolina, where both her father and her stepfather were laid to rest.[xxvi]

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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