Salute to Logan County Veterans
Date: April 27, 2025
Time: 1:00 - 5:00 pm
This year’s spring open house, A Salute to Logan County Veterans, will feature exhibits throughout the History Center on U.S. military history and Logan County’s roles in this history. Georgia Insley Stamm is one of our featured veterans.
Georgia Insley was born on October 25,1917 to George and Margaret Insley. She graduated from Bellefontaine High School in 1935 and received a registered nursing degree from Miami Valley Hospital School of Nursing in May 1941. After graduation, she was an instructor and college nurse at Juniata College in Huntington, Pennsylvania. In 1942, she enlisted in the Army Nurse Corps.
The Army Nurse Corps sent Insley to Bowman Field in Kentucky to be trained as a flight nurse for the newly formed 803rd Air Evacuation Squadron with the ultimate mission “to evacuate injured soldiers from the front lines to immediate, extensive medical treatment.”
Training for the air evacuation doctors, nurses and staff was intense. They learned first aid, oxygen therapy, tropical diseases, nursing care in flight, arctic medicine and many other topics that they might experience in the field. They were also trained in chemical warfare, survival skills, ocean rescue, as well as participating in physical fitness exercises.
After they completed their training, the 803rd Medical Air Evacuation Transport Squadron went to California and boarded a ship that took them to the China-Burma-India Theater. Most of the 803rd Squadron’s rescue missions took place in Burma. They averaged well over 1,500 patient evacuations of wounded servicemen per month on their C-47 and other transport planes. The planes also transported men and equipment when they could not be transported by road or boat.
Lt. Insley was authorized to serve as a Chaplain and as a Junior Medical Officer on planes when a chaplain or doctor was not available.
The missions were very dangerous with members of the squadron being fired upon and sometimes injured. The success of the medical air evacuation transport squadrons in the Pacific Theater led the military to develop more of the squadrons to be used in the European Theater. General Eisenhower said of the importance of the Medical Air Evacuation Transport “…it has unquestionably saved hundreds of lives, thousands of lives.” While he was specifically talking about the European Theater, its use was even more effective in the Pacific Theater.
Lt. Insley spent fifteen months with the 803rd Medical Air Evacuation Transport Squadron in the China-Burma-India Theater during World War II logging 535 hours in the air. She and the other 803rd doctors, nurses and aids played a vital role in the U.S. armed forces and Allies’ victory. Lt. Insley was awarded the Air Medal, Presidential Citation and two Bronze Stars for her service.
Insley’s brother, Albert H. Insley, served in the Philippine Islands with the U.S. Navy Seabees during WWII. Two other Logan County natives, Earl C. Spain and James Matthews were in his unit.
After the war was over, Lt. Insley was assigned to the Romulus Army Airfield in Romulus, Michigan. On December 25, 1945, she returned to Bellefontaine and married Ralph Stamm. Ralph also served in WWII as a T/Sgt in the U.S. Army Air Corps. The Stamms had two children, Ray and Sylvia.
Mrs. Stamm continued in the nursing field working with area doctors, as a private nurse, and she spent nearly twenty years as the County Health Nurse for the Logan County Health Department, retiring in 1974.
The 803rd Medical Air Evacuation Transport Squadron always remained an important part of Georgia Insley Stamm’s life. She wrote a history of the squadron and remained active with the group’s reunions. The Stamms were also very active in the Harold Kerr Post 173 American Legion and other local veterans’ groups.
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