Ruth M. Gardiner

The 1,250-bed hospital received a portrait of Gardiner by Chicago artist Edmund Giesbert at its official dedication on July 9, 1944, in front of a crowd estimated at around 3,000. The Gardiner hospital was already in operation at the time with a quarter of its patients from overseas.

Gardiner entered the army nursing service in January 1943. Her first assignment was with the 349th Air Evacuation Group at Bowman Field, Kentucky. She served in the Alaskan Theater with Flight A of the 805th Medical Air Evacuation Transport Squadron and rose to the rank of Second Lieutenant. Gardiner was killed while traveling in a C–47 military aircraft when it accidentally crashed into the sea near Naknek, Alaska, while on a medical evacuation mission on July 27, 1943. During this time the group of six nurses Gardiner was in charge of covered 3,500,000 air miles and evacuated over 2,500 sick and wounded without injury or death to any of their patients during the April 1942 to July 1943 campaign.

The Army General Hospital, a former Chicago hotel, was named in honor of Gardiner who was the first Army Nurse Corps' nurse killed while serving in World War II. Major General H. S. Aurand selected her to be honored this way. It was the first Army hospital named for a woman or nurse. Gardiner was killed in July 1943 and the hospital was officially dedicated in July 1944. The Army General Hospital of Chicago became known as the Ruth M. Gardiner General Hospital. The hospital was one of the medical installations in the Sixth Service Command.

Ruth M. Gardiner (May 20, 1914 – July 27, 1943) was a nurse in the United States Army Nurse Corps. She was the first American nurse to lose her life in the line of duty during World War II. She served in the Alaskan Theater and rose to the rank of Second Lieutenant. She was one of a group of six nurses in Alaska during the campaign of World War II that assisted in medical evacuations by plane. The group covered 3,500,000 air miles and evacuated over 2,500 sick and wounded without injury or death to any of their patients. Gardiner was accidentally killed while on one such evacuation, when the aircraft on which she was traveling crashed. A 1,250-bed hospital was named in her honor and was the first Army hospital named for a woman or nurse.

Gardiner was born on May 20, 1914, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She moved to the United States with her family when she was three years old. She attended Sacred Heart High School in Indianapolis. Gardiner trained in nursing at the White Haven, Pennsylvania, sanatorium and graduated from there in 1934.