Mary Mackie 
Wards in the Sky 
The RAF’s Remarkable Nursing Service

This is the eventful story of the nurses who since 1918 have worn the grey-blue uniform of the RAF, from the Great War to D-Day; through the Falklands, in Bosnia and on to Afghanistan. These brave professionals dealt with snakes, malaria, desert dust and Arctic ice. Their main field of expertise is their skill for in-flight nursing, caring for very sick patients while flying back to hospitals in the UK. Over time, the caring, white-veiled ‘angels’ of fond memory have transformed into multi-skilled technicians, female and male, whose work has helped to advance medical knowledge and practice for all of humankind. Wards in the Sky traces their history and brings to life the drama, romance, hardship and, often, the hilarity, as told in the words of the nurses themselves.