Maureen Hunt, Air Force nurse

Air Force Col. Maureen Hunt, handled medical evacuations in Vietnam and invented evacuation devices.

The St. Paul native retired in 1986, after she was diagnosed with lymphoma and was compensated for exposure to Agent Orange, a defoliant used in Vietnam.

Hunt, 75, died of pancreatic cancer Nov. 2 in Minneapolis.

During the GOP convention in St. Paul, she celebrated the election season at her brother-in-law's downtown antique store. She wore red, white and blue, plus her Air Force cap, said brother-in-law Wally Wescott.

"A big cop from Milwaukee told her 'it's nice you would come down here and greet the Republicans,'" reported Wescott.

She said to the officer working convention duty: "I am here to greet the Democrats, the Republicans and the independents. They're all Americans," said Wescott quoting her.

In 1950, she graduated from the old St. Joseph's Academy, received her RN from the College of St. Catherine, and by 1960, had earned a bachelor's degree and a master's degree from the University of Minnesota.

Around 1970, she was assigned to the Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine in Texas, where she invented one medical device and co-invented another that are used on air evacuation airplanes.

She also continued to fly to the Far East, testing new equipment and working with wounded soldiers.

She rose to the rank of colonel in 1978, and in the late 1970s and 1980s, she supervised air base nursing staffs.

Retired Lt. Col. Kathleen Casey of Rye, N.H., who served with her, said she sought and won policy changes with facts and figures.

"Maureen could get you to do anything," said Casey.

She was "humble" and a very caring nurse who kept in touch with many of her patients, said her sister Claudia Danneker of West St. Paul. "She gave 100 percent in everything that she did."

In addition to Claudia, she is survived by her other sisters, Diane Thibodeau of Sarasota, Fla., Rosalie Wescott of St. Paul, Sharon Reid of St. Paul, Sheila Hunt of Roswell, N. M., and Mary Noelle Mastel of Fridley, and brothers, Warren of Lakeville, Dennis of Detroit Lakes, Minn., and Roger of Forest Lake.