Delaware Air Guard flight nurse with almost four decades of military service to have surprise final flight celebration today Published Oct. 22, 2012 By 041012 NEW CASTLE AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Delaware -- Lieutenant Col. Shelia Carter, a flight nurse in the 142nd Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, Delaware Air National Guard, will be given a surprise "fini flight" water spraydown when about 50 members of her unit return from a cross-country training mission this afternoon, October 22. Her husband will be present to greet her, along with 166th Airlift Wing Commander Col. Mike Feeley and other base members, to witness the aviation tradition of "hosing" Col. Carter down on the ramp with water using a firefighter tanker truck when she departs the aircraft following her flight. Colonel Carter first joined the Army in 1972, where she was initially a corpsman and then a military policeman. She left the Army in 1977. In 1979, Lt. Col. Carter joined the Air Force Reserves at March Air Force Base, Calif. as an operating room technician. During Operation Desert Storm she received her commission as a nurse. She left the Reserves in 1994, but was interested in pursuing her nursing career in a different manner. She then joined the Delaware Air National Guard, and became a flight nurse in the 142nd Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron. The Delaware Air National Guard is a reserve component of the U.S. Air Force with 1,100 positions under command of the Governor of Delaware, or the President of the United States when mobilized. The Delaware ANG has been serving Delaware and the United States of America since 1946. This release is in the public domain, and any part may be used as written. - 30 -