Air evacuation in war : the role of RAAF nurses undertaking air evacuation of casualties between 1943-1953

Air transportation of Australian casualties in World War II was initially carried out in air ambulances with an accompanying male medical orderly. By late 1943 with the war effort concentrated in the Pacific, Allied military authorities realised that air transport was needed to move the increasing numbers of casualties over longer distances. The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) became responsible for air evacuation of Australian casualties and established a formal medical air evacuation system with trained flight teams early in 1944. Specialised Medical Air Evacuation Transport Units (MAETUs) were established whose sole responsibility was undertaking air evacuations of Australian casualties from the forward operational areas back to definitive medical care. Flight teams consisting of a RAAF nursing sister (registered nurse) and a medical orderly carried out the escort duties. These personnel had been specially trained in Australia for their role. Post-WWII, the RAAF Nursing Service was demobilised with a limited number of nurses being retained for the Interim Air Force. Subsequently, those nurses were offered commissions in the Permanent Air Force. Some of the nurses who remained were air evacuation trained and carried out air evacuations both in Australia and as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan. With the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950, Australia became responsible for the air evacuation of British Commonwealth casualties from Korea to Japan. With a re-organisation of the Australian forces as part of the British Commonwealth forces, RAAF nurses were posted to undertake air evacuation from Korea and back to Australia from Iwakuni, Japan. By 1952, a specialised casualty staging section was established in Seoul and staffed by RAAF nurses from Iwakuni on a rotation basis. The development of the Australian air evacuation system and the role of the flight nurses are not well documented for the period 1943-1953. The aims of this research are three fold and include documenting the origins and development of the air evacuation system from 1943-1953; analysing and documenting the RAAF nurse’s role and exploring whether any influences or lessons remain valid today. A traditional historical methodology of narrative and then analysis was used to inform the flight nurse’s role within the totality of the social system. Evidence was based on primary data sources mainly held in Defence files, the Australian War Memorial or the National Archives of Australia. Interviews with 12 ex-RAAF nurses from both WWII and the Korean War were conducted to provide information where there were gaps in the primary data and to enable exploration of the flight nurses’ role and their contributions in war of the air evacuation of casualties. Finally, this thesis highlights two lessons that remain valid today. The first is that interoperability of air evacuation systems with other nations is a force multiplier when resources are scarce or limited. Second, the pre-flight assessment of patients was essential and ensured that there were no deaths in-flight.

Book review: Ford, R.C., & Peeper, W.C. 2008. Managing Destination Marketing Organizations. Orlando: ForPer Publications

This volume represents the proceedings of the 13th ENTER conference, held at Lausanne, Switzerland during 2006. The conference brought together academics and practitioners across four tracks, which were eSolutions, refereed research papers, work-in-progress papers, and a Ph.D. workshop. This proceedings contains 40 refereed papers, which is less than the 51 papers presented in 2005. However, the editors advise that the scientific committee was stricter than in previous years, to the extent that the acceptance rate was 50%. A significant change in the current proceedings is the inclusion of extended abstracts of the 23 work-in-progress presentations. The papers cover a diverse range of topics across 16 research streams. This reviewer has adopted the approach of succinctly summarising the contribution of each of the 40-refereed papers, in the order in which they appear...

Hugo Rothenberg Collection 1919-1944

Photocopies of correspondence between Hugo Rothenberg and Hermann Goering (1919 and 1938-1944) relating to emigration of Jews from Nazi Germany. Report by Helle Rothenberg on situation of Jews in Germany under Nazi regime. Swedish letters + German translation of letters by Thomas Kantzow to Hugo Rothenberg.

Boris Guerrit being thanked in Jerusalem for having sheltered in his mother-in-law's home in Soisy-sur-Seine his cousin Sonia and her husband Jacob Judey-Barosin from September 1943 until the liberation of Paris in August 1944 Portraits Groups

Early in 1943 the Barosins were arrested and sent to the deportation camp in Gurs. They were freed by French authorities and went into hiding until their liberation in 1944 in Paris. In 1947 they emigrated to the United States.

Hans Friedrich Kayser Collection 1877-1893

Photocopies of birth certificate (1877) and release from citizenship certificate (1893), Berlin.

The biology of Australian weeds, Limnocharis flava

The genus name Limnocharis is derived from the Greek limno (meaning marsh or pond) and charis (meaning grace) (Haynes and Holm-Nielson 1992) and flava is Latin for yellow. The genus is generally accepted to have two species, Limnocharis flava (Linneaus) Buchenau 1868 and L. laforestii (Duchass. ex Griseb) 1858. L. flava was first named Alisma flava by Linneaus in 1753 (Haynes and Holm-Nielsen 1986). Since then, other synonyms have included Damasonium flavum Mill. 1772, Limnocharis emarginata Humb. and Bonpl. 1808, Limnocharis plumieri Rich. 1815, Limnocharis laforestii Duchas. ex Griseb (1858) and Limnocharis mattogrossensis O. Ktze. (1893) (Woodson and Schery 1943).

Anfang - Mitte - Ende 1893-1914

Childhood in traditional Jewish atmosphere; description of general and Jewish life in Frankfurt am Main; family life; education in Jewish school "Philantropin"; university education in Heidelberg, Leipzig, Munich, Berlin and Marburg; military service prior to World War I.

Hermann Falck's Erdenweg und tragisches Ende 9. April 1943 1917-1943

Biography of Hermann Falck and story of his execution; contains copies of various letters.

Michaelson family papers, undated, 1892-1920, 1943-1944, 1965, 1992, 1994, 1999-2000.

The Michaelson family papers include early family correspondence, documents, and ephemera; genealogical research conducted by Ms. Appleby, Anna’s granddaughter; copies of New York City marriage certificates kept by Louis B. Michaelson, Rabbi, between 1906-1907; and Anna Michaelson’s copies of original birth records that she kept as midwife in the Lower East Side in New York City between 1892-1916.

Dewey Stone papers, 1916-1983.

Contains papers and photos including correspondence and other materials relating to work as Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Palestine (and Israel), as National Chairman of the United Jewish Appeal, as a leading campaigner for Israel Bonds, and as co-founder of and Chairman of the Board of the Weizmann Institute of Science; 2 texts of radio broadcasts made in 1948 informing America about the Israeli war for independence and the new Israeli republic; a list of military equipment supplied by Mr. Stone to Israel in 1948; letters and biographical material relating both to pressure applied by Mr. Stone and others on Pres. Truman to recognize and support the new Jewish state and to Mr. Stone's financial support of Truman's campaign and the Democratic Party in 1948; materials on associations with Boston University (including the dedication of the Dewey D. and Harry K. Stone Science Building), and the Truman Library; tributes and awards; biographical material; memorials; misc. speeches, presentations, and essays; misc. press clippings; and various photographs. Among the correspondents are: Chaim Weizmann, Vera Weizmann, Abba Eban, David Ben Gurion, Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, the Rothschilds, Hubert Humphrey, Adlai E. Stevenson II, Teddy Kollek, Golda Meir, Richard Cardinal Cushing, Jacob Fine, Henry Ford II, Solomon Goldman, John M. McCormack, Meyer Weisgal, and Stephen S. Wise.

Elihu Stone collection undated, 1913-1962.

Collection contains materials pertaining to the life and work of Stone.

Isadore Breslau papers undated, 1938-1975

This collection consists primarily of correspondence, notes and memoranda relating to his work with the American Zionist Bureau (1939-40) and the Zionist Organization of America (1941). Also includes correspondence as U.S. Army Chaplain (1943) stationed in Daytona Beach, Florida. Among the more important correspondents are Louis D. Brandeis, Stephen S. Wise, Solomon Goldman and Robert Szold.

Beate Block Collection 1887-1943

The collection holds primarily the trans-atlantic correspondence of Irma Sondhelm and various family members, 1894-1943. Also included is a fashion pamphlet, 'Die gutgekleidete Dame : Ein Modenbrevier, Luxemburg, 1930.

Supistamista, rationalisointia vai kehittämistä? : Valtiovarainministeriön järjestelyosaston järjestämän henkilöstökoulutus- ja tutkimustoiminnan rakentuminen osaksi valtionhallintoa vuosina 1943-1971

The study examines the personnel training and research activities carried out by the Organization and Methods Division of the Ministry of Finance and their becoming a part and parcel of the state administration in 1943-1971. The study is a combination of institutional and ideological historical research in recent history on adult education, using a constructionist approach. Material salient to the study comes from the files of the Organization and Methods Division in the National Archives, parliamentary documents, committee reports, and the magazines. The concentrated training and research activities arranged by the Organization and Methods Division, became a part and parcel of the state administration in the midst of controversial challenges and opportunities. They served to solve social problems which beset the state administration as well as contextual challenges besetting rationalization measures, and organizational challenges. The activities were also affected by a dependence on decision-makers, administrative units, and civil servants organizations, by different views on rationalization and the holistic nature of reforms, as well as by the formal theories that served as resources. It chose long-term projects which extended to the political decision-makers and administrative units turf, and which were intended to reform the structures of the state administration and to rationalize the practices of the administrative units. The crucial questions emerged in opposite pairs (a constitutional state vs. the ideology of an administratively governed state, a system of national boards vs. a system of government through ministries, efficiency of work vs. pleasantness of work, centralized vs. decentralized rationalization activities) which were not solvable problems but impossible questions with no ultimate answers. The aim and intent of the rationalization of the state administration (the reform of the central, provincial, and local governments) was to facilitate integrated management and to render a greater amount of work by approaching management procedures scientifically and by clarifying administrative instances and their respon-sibilities in regards to each other. The means resorted to were organizational studies and committee work. In the rationalization of office work and finance control, the idea was to effect savings in administrative costs and to pare down those costs as well as to rationalize and heighten those functions by developing the institution of work study practitioners in order to coordinate employer and employee relationships and benefits (the training of work study practitioners, work study, and a two-tier work study practitioner organization). A major part of the training meant teaching and implementing leadership skills in practice, which, in turn, meant that the learning environment was the genuine work community and efforts to change it. In office rationalization, the solution to regulate the relations between the employer and the employees was the co-existence of the technical and biological rationalization and the human resource administration and the accounting and planning systems at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s. The former were based on the school of scientific management and human relations, the latter on system thinking, which was a combination of the former two. In the rationalization of the state administration, efforts were made to find solutions to stabilize management ideologies and to arrange the relationships of administrative systems in administrative science - among other things, in the Hoover Committee and the Simon decision making theory, and, in the 1960s, in system thinking. Despite the development-related vocabulary, the practical work was advanced rationalization. It was said that the practical activities of both the state administration and the administrative units depended on professional managers who saw to production results and human relations. The pedagogic experts hired to develop training came up with a training system, based on the training-technological model where the training was made a function of its own. The State Training Center was established and the training office of the Organization and Methods Division became the leader and coordinator of personnel training.