Ruth Firsching Heckinger

June 19, 1923 - January 25, 2023 Bradenton, FL ? World War II Flight Nurse dies at 99

Heckinger - Ruth, 99 of Bradenton, Florida passed peacefully in her sleep on January 25, 2023.

Born 6/19/23 in Richmond Hill, Queens, N.Y. Ruth grew up in New York City where she attended Columbia University and St. Lukes Nursing School. After obtaining a B.S. in nursing in 1944 she joined the U.S. Army Air Corps and completed basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey. She was then stationed at the142nd General Hospital in Calcutta, India. Ruth was a 22 year old second lieutenant nursing wounded and sick soldiers in the China-Burma-India (CBI) theatre during World War II. Assigned as a flight nurse, her duties included medivacing wounded patients back to China in the unpressurized cabins of C-47 cargo planes. These planes were frequently required to fly over the treacherous eastern portion of the Himalaya mountains. This flight path known as the Hump or "Tin Trail" claimed 600 planes and over 1,000 lives due to severe weatherand attacks by Japanese fighter planes known as "Zeros."

After the war Ruth married fellow veteran Warren Heckinger and together raised two sons in the town of North Babylon, New York. Warren Heckinger's job as a U.S. Department of Defense contractor created a unique opportunity for the family. They accepted an assignment to spend three years living on Air Force bases in Chateauroux, France and Wiesbaden, Germany during the late sixties.

Upon returning to N.Y., Ruth's commitment to nursing remained a priority with jobs including: Director of the Babylon Red Cross disaster unit; emergency room nurse at the prestigious Long Island Jewish Hospital in Queens and running a nursing station at Robert Moses State Park on Fire Island. An avid writer, Ruth wrote numerous articles that were published in The Journal of Emergency Medicine and RN magazine. Her novel "Switched" was published in 1983 by Vantage Press.

After retiring in 1987 as chief medical officer for the William Iselin company in Manhattan, she relocated to Bradenton, Florida. Her past as an avid swimmer and springboard diver led Ruth to compete in the Florida Gulf Coast Senior Olympics, winning numerous gold medals until her mid 80's.

Keeping alive the memory and sacrifices of the greatest generation was a top priority in Ruth's retired life. She enjoyed speaking at local high schools, colleges , civic centers and VFW chapters, educating and delighting her audiences with her perspectives of the war as a young female veteran. She traveled to China in 2000 for a reunion of C.B.I. veterans and in 2016 participated in the honor flight to Hawaii to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor. Ruth was honored as a hero for her war time service during a half time presentation at a Tampa Buccaneers football game on December 6th, 2017. Ruth seemed to live her life based on one of her favorite expressions : "Life is a daring adventure....or nothing at all." She is survived by her son Glenn Heckinger and daughter-in-law Krista Weis. Ruth was predeceased by her son Bruce Heckinger and her partner of twenty years Gus Podd.