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Rosanne DeFelippo Transcript.pdf

Rosanne DeFelippo, Captain, US Air Force

Nursing and evacuating the wounded at Balad Air Force Base, Iraq, 2004 is not for the faint of heart. Yet Captain DeFelippo applied the same dedication, grit, and humor to her mission, that she had observed from watching M*A*S*H tv series as a pre-teen.

Rosanne DeFelippo was born on January 30th, 1970, in Lockport, New York. She lived in Youngstown, New York until she was nine, and then moved to Durham, North Carolina for ten years. DeFelippo had two older sisters and was a member of her high school marching band where she played tenor and baritone saxophone.

DeFelippo studied for her Associate Degree in Nursing at Niagara County Community College. After her graduation in 1995, she entered the Air Force Reserves. DeFelippo was sworn in as a second lieutenant and was commissioned to the Nurse Corps on October 3rd, 1995. While in service DeFelippo completed her bachelor’s degree in nursing at Daemon College, in Buffalo, New York, in 1998. She then attended medical officer’s training in Montgomery, Alabama.

After medical officer’s training, DeFelippo attended flight nurse training with the 911th Air Medical Evacuation Squadron in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania where she was assigned to a C-130 for medical tactical air evacuations. In 2001, DeFelippo transferred to a new unit, 932nd, at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois where she trained to work in critical air transport. After September 11th, 2001, DeFelippo volunteered to mobilize and was transferred to Lackland Air Force Base, in San Antonio, Texas where she worked in the military ER.

DeFelippo deployed to Kuwait in 2001 for a short time. In 2004, DeFelippo volunteered to mobilize into a CASIF [Contingency Air Staging Facility] at the Balad Air Base in Iraq. In the four months DeFelippo was stationed at Balad Air Base it came under attack 143 times and 2,100 patients were shipped out, half with traumatic injuries. DeFelippo earned many medals in her ten years of service.

After she was discharged from the Air Force, DeFelippo worked at the VA hospital before giving birth to three girls. DeFelippo is a member of the DAV [Disabled American Veterans]. Although she has suffered from PTSD, she has no regrets about her service:

“… when you join the military, you really become part of something that's so much bigger than yourself, and you… you will work with the greatest people in the world, under the worst conditions in the world.”