Elizabeth Luce.
Elizabeth and Richard Luce. / Provided photo
Elizabeth Luce
Age: 87
Born: March 28, 1923
Hometown: Seattle
Residence: Indian Wells
Military branch: U.S. Army
Years served: 1945-1948
Rank: Unknown
Family: One child, Joseph Ingram of Mountain Center; one grandchild.
About this series
Staff writer Denise Goolsby will profile desert veterans from World War II through the end of 2010 — the 65th anniversary of the end of the war. Contact her at (760) 778-4587 or via e-mail at denise.goolsby@thedesertsun.com
Coming tomorrow
U.S. Army Air Corps veteran Eugene Key of Palm Desert
LEARN MORE: Read about other Coachella Valley residents who served in World War II at www.mydesert.com/WWII
More
Longtime desert dweller Elizabeth Luce signed up for the Women's Army Corps soon after receiving word that her husband, Lt. Richard Luce, a P-38 pilot, was killed in action during World War II.
In 1943, Richard Luce, a member of the 23rd Photo Reconnaissance Squadron, a unit of the 76th Reconnaissance Group, was stationed at Thermal Army Airfield — now Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport.
The squadron, trained in aerial reconnaissance and air support techniques, participated in maneuvers with ground forces based in the desert.
Elizabeth Luce first set foot in the Coachella Valley in May 1943. She came to join her husband while he was stationed in Thermal.
He later was assigned to the 55th Reconnaissance squadron, flying missions in Africa, Corsica and Italy.
In July 1944, while making a low-altitude photo sweep in a Lockheed F-5 — a supercharged version of the P-38 — Richard Luce was shot down, taken prisoner and died about a month later from his injuries.
Luce was originally reported missing, but four months later, the family was informed that he was a POW.
Elizabeth Luce and her family were not aware of her husband's death until she received a telegram in April 1945.
Soon after, she enlisted in the Women's Army Corps and was put to work as a CAF 3 steno clerk at Letterman General Hospital, where casualties were pouring in as the war in the Pacific Theater was winding down.
She put her energy into the task at hand, processing the thousands of men returning from battle.
“The sick, wounded and dying were coming off of the ships,” she said. “I was on that line. It was terrible. They were putting men in the hospital — they had a place for the ones that were dying and they had a place for the ones that were getting better.”
Later, she went aboard the USS Anderson — a troop and supply transport ship — for overseas duty. She was stationed near the medical field hospital at Harmon Field in Guam.
“It was the end of the war, and everything was a disaster,” she said.
A nearby city was totally destroyed, except for one standing wall, she said.
Luce was assigned to the medical administrative corps, living with about 40 other women in Quonset hut-type housing.
“We had to go outside to take a shower or pee,” she said. “I was a Girl Scout in Seattle so I was ready for that.”
At one point, a freak storm tipped over a temporary building, whipping up all of the medical files and blowing them into the jungle.
“For 11 days I was picking up papers out of the jungle,” she said.
She would end up dedicating the rest of her life — and thousands of volunteer hours — to many local veterans organizations.
Luce later remarried, to U.S. Navy veteran James Oliver Ingram, who had been injured in the Battle of the Coral Sea aboard the USS Chicago (CA-29) in May 1942.
The couple had a son, Joe Ingram, in 1948. Joe Ingram, who graduated from Palm Springs High School in 1966, now lives in Mountain Center.
Luce, who only lived a short time with her second husband, said he got sick when her son was still a baby.
Her husband was struggling with mental health issues that may have been triggered by his combat experience, she said. He went to stay at the VA hospital in Los Angeles.
“He never fully got well again,” she said.
James Ingram went back to live with his family in Oklahoma City. He died in a VA hospital there in 1995, his son said.
Following her military service, Luce returned to the desert in 1949 with her parents and her son.
Her first job was at Torney General Hospital at the El Mirador Hotel, now Desert Regional Medical Center. She worked as a medical secretary.
According to the California State Military Department, Torney General Hospital came into being during the summer of 1942, when the Army purchased the El Mirador Hotel and converted it into a 1,600-bed, general hospital where wounded troops were treated.
“Torney General Hospital housed a large number of Italian war prisoners who worked as orderlies and at other jobs around the facility,” the late Palm Springs Mayor Frank Bogert wrote in his book, “Palm Springs: First Hundred Years.”
Luce, who was Indian Wells' 2009 Senior Inspiration Awards honoree, was a charter member of California Women for Agriculture and is an active member of the Desert Veterans Memorial Association.
