Achieving her dream of becoming a nurse, Haydée Feliciano enlisted in the Air Force and was sent to serve in Desert Storm with an Aeromedical Evacuation Unit that brought wounded soldiers home. Supporting the No Fly Zone under Operation Southern Watch out of Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, she continued her Air Force career for 25 years and retired as a Major.
The Bronx native, now living in Babylon, worked as a dental assistant in high school and an EMT, with some time as a medical assistant at Winthrop Hospital. She earned her nursing degree from Queensborough College and also received a Bachelors in Science from St. Joseph’s. “When l went to enlist in the Reserves, l asked the recruiter what the toughest job was, and he brought me in as an Aeromedical Evacuation Technician,” the Major said. With her college experience, she started as an Airman First Class after a year and a half of training, and during the war, she received a line promotion to Sergeant. She retired as a Major.
Feliciano tells of her plane, a C-141 Strategic Starlifter, refueling in midair on its more extended missions, which included trips from bases in Germany, Iceland, Japan, and the Azores. When she wasn’t in the air, she lived in Tent City, noting how dusty everything was in the desert.
She was a compassionate soul comforting soldiers who were missing limbs and disfigured from battle. “You don’t hear much about these soldiers. They were sent over there in the prime of their lives, ready to conquer the world, and they come back traumatized,” said Feliciano, who, many times, was the only person they had to talk to on their long flights home. “They worried how they would be accepted, how their families would react to their injuries, if their wives would stay with them.”
She went on to say of the wounded soldiers, many suffering from PTSD, “They should get more recognition and support than they’re getting. They said yes to serve because they love their country, and you never hear about them. It’s just so sad. It makes me crazy.”
For her service, Major Feliciano received the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal. After returning home, she worked in the ICU and ER at Good Samaritan Hospital, as well as with a surgical ICU unit at North Shore University Hospital, and at a private surgical office. The decorated nurse had her own battles, having been hospitalized for a month with COVID. Now that she’s better, she helps her fellow veterans in any way she can, most recently participating in the Vet Fest hosted by the Veteran Suicide Prevention Coalition at the Pal-O-Mine Ranch in Islandia.