Home > War in the Persian Gulf > Rhonda Cornum Biography

Born October 31, 1954

Dayton, Ohio

U.S. Army flight surgeon who was held prisoner in Iraq during the Persian Gulf War

"I remember very distinctly thinking as I was crashing, 'I have had a great life,' because I thought it was ending then."

Rhonda Cornum in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Rhonda Cornum served as a doctor in the U.S. Army during the Persian Gulf War. On the final day of the conflict, she took part in a helicopter search-and-rescue mission to locate an American pilot who had been shot down behind enemy lines. The helicopter she was flying in was shot down as well. Cornum survived the crash but suffered severe injuries. She was captured by Iraqi soldiers and held for eight days as a prisoner of war (POW). Upon her safe return to the United States, she wrote a book about her experiences and became an unofficial spokesperson for expanding combat roles...