Amazing Alumna

Sara (Lechner ’85) Taylor, College of Nursing

Current life role: Nurse and retired Lieutenant and Flight Nurse, United States Air Force

Sara (Lechner) Taylor says nothing strengthens your faith like pulling on a gas mask and chemical suit and racing to a desert bunker for cover from weapons of mass destruction. As a flight nurse in the Air Force Reserves, Taylor was stationed in Kuwait at the start of the current war in Iraq, making it through 26 “Alarm Red” alerts and 100 days worth of challenging, often harrowing medical flights. 

Military career

Taylor’s path to a U.S. military base in Kuwait City started with her commissioning as an active duty officer in the United States Air Force after graduation from Valpo. She began her military career at Lackland, Air Force Base in San Antonio, and then volunteered for overseas duty, drawing an assignment in Misawa, Japan. Taylor met her husband, Kevin, in Japan, and their first child also was born there. With the birth of twins in 1995, Taylor switched from active to reserve status. But her most challenging assignment would come as a reservist: deployment to Kuwait as a medical flight nurse.

“That assignment was definitely the highlight of my military career because it put into practice everything I had been trained for as an officer and a nurse,” says Taylor. “But it was also the scariest experience of my career and life.” 

She flew numerous combat missions into Iraq to pick up and care for wounded soldiers. During the first month of the war, all missions were flown at night, in blackout conditions to avoid being targeted by the enemy. “This made charting, patient assessments, and communication difficult,” Taylor says. “We also flew with loaded weapons and our flack vests, helmets, and chemical protection suits, in case we came under attack while we were on the ground. The equipment was very heavy and bulky and, in combination with everything else, made for a highly challenging situation.”

Taylor flew the first strategic (long-range) aeromedical mission of the war, transporting patients from Iraq to Germany on a 10-hour flight. “When we landed in Germany it was a media frenzy,” Taylor says. “Still, it was a relief to spend a few days in Germany, escaping the austere tent conditions of the desert.” She celebrated her 40th birthday on the flight back to Kuwait.

Real life heroes

As a result of her service, Taylor was awarded both a Meritorious Service Medal and an Air Medal and retired with the rank of Major. While this arguably qualifies her for hero status, she deflects the praise. “The courage and pride of the seriously ill or injured patients we transported throughout my deployment was impressive. I believe they are the unsung heroes of this war.”