Jerry graduated from nursing school in Oklahoma, and trained as a surgical nurse. She soon volunteered for training to become one of the first U.S Army Air Force Flight Nurses. She would train and fly in un-marked combat C-47 transport aircraft, which could accommodate 14 stacked stretchers hanging from straps along both sides of the aircraft. The Flight Nurses were trained to care for the wounded soldiers during the C-47 medical evacuation flight from the forward combat zones to rear safe areas having hospital care. She graduated in the first class of Flight Nurses at the new Flight Nurse School at Bowman, Kentucky, and received her officer commission and Flight Nurse Wings.



In 1943, Jerry was assigned to the newly established 9th Air Force, 806th Medical Air Evacuation Squadron (MAES), based at Welford Park, England, to provide medical services for the large build-up of American forces staging, and to prepare for D-Day. Shortly after D-day, she would fly into the Normandy combat zone, in the same C-47s as the D-Day paratroopers, to care for and evacuate the wounded back to England.



WWII brought Vito Pedone and Jerry to England in 1943 to successfully prepare and execute a critical mission: "D-Day". The many months to build-up American forces and prepare for D-day provided the opportunity for them to meet and fall in love. They were stationed at different air bases, so Vito would pilot various aircraft to visit Jerry at her base! They were married in England in 1943. They both would successfully execute their assigned D-Day missions:

- Vito's : the Airborne Invasion of Normandy

- Jerry's: the Medical Air Evacuation of the wounded from Normandy back to England.



Their full story can be found in "The D-Day Pilot and Flight Nurse" by Stephen Pedone.