Elizabeth M. Norman (56 page)

12.
Undated correspondence from Alice “Swish” Zwicker to Terry Myers. Terry Myers Johnson personal files. Used with permission.

13.
Ullom, p. 276.

14.
Excerpt drawn from two stories: “Two Georgia nurses of Corregidor run into arms of happy families,”
Atlanta Constitution
, March 5, 1945, and “Bright jonquils and real bed spell nepenthe for Tomas nurse,”
Atlanta Journal
, March 5, 1945.

15.
“Philippine nurses return to homes of their dreams,”
St. Louis Star Times
, March 2, 1945.

16.
“Of all gifts Tupelo offers Bataan ‘Angel’ Lt. Inez McDonald chooses hair wave,”
Clarion Ledger
, March 7, 1945.

17.
Eleanor Garen, 1990 interview with Susan Sacharski.

18.
Bertha Dworsky Henderson, 1983 ANC interview.

19.
Hogan, R., pp. 80–82.

20.
“Lieut. Garen home; ‘Everyone looks fat,’ ” South Bend
Tribune
, March 1945.

21.
Ibid
.

22.
The series ran in the the South Bend
Tribune
from March 6 to March 9, 1945.

23.
Eleanor Garen, 1990 interview with Susan Sacharski.

24.
Waymire, K., p. 1. The story appeared on the lower left corner of the front page. The navy nurses were never imprisoned in Cabanatuan, a military POW camp. The were freed from Los Banos Internment Camp.

25.
Margaret “Peg” Nash used this term in a 1991 author interview.

26.
Mary Rose Harrington Nelson discussed her wedding in a 1991 interview with Sharon Eifried.

27.
Helen Cassiani Nestor talked about her homecoming in a 1990 author interview.

28.
Ross, L., “Bridgewater Army Nurse, Freed at Jap Prison Camp, Comes Home.”
The Boston Globe
, March 3, 1945.

29.
Helen Cassiani Nestor, 1990 author interview.

Chapter Seventeen: Aftermath

1.
According to her stepson, Maude Davison retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Official military biographies list her rank as captain and major.

2.
Robert Jackson, 1993 author interview. His comments form the basis for this section. Maude Davison’s husband, Charles, had two grown sons, Robert Jackson, a Red Cross field director, and Bill Jackson, a bibliographer at Harvard University. According to Robert, his brother, Bill, did not spend much time with his stepmother.

3.
Ibid
.

4.
Robert Jackson said that Maude Davison suffered a massive stroke that eventually killed her. A September 1965 official army biography lists her death from a myocardial infarction due to arteriosclerotic heart disease.

5.
On March 5, 1957, army officials dedicated a building in her honor—Davison Hall, a bachelor women’s officers quarters at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.

6.
In 1976, Lieutenant Colonel Pauline Maxwell, ANC (Ret.) wrote a multivolume history of army nursing. This unpublished typewritten manuscript,
History of the Army Nurse Corps, 1775–1948
, is filed at the Center for Military History, Washington, D.C. In Volume 14, page 57.1, Maxwell mentioned the dispute over Davison’s award. The memoranda concerning Davison’s award were found in 1993 after Maxwell’s death. Lieutenant Colonel Iris West, ANC historian, was searching Maxwell’s file cabinets when she discovered a folder with Maude Davison’s name written on it. The memoranda were inside.

7.
The Congressional Medal of Honor and the Distinguished Service Cross are the army’s highest decorations.

8.
Memorandum dated March 26, 1946, from Colonel Wibb Cooper to Awards and Decorations Board, Headquarters Fourth Army, Fort Sam Houston, Texas.

9.
Memorandum dated June 19, 1946, from Brigadier General LeGrande Diller to the Awards and Decorations Board.

10.
Memorandum dated July 26, 1946, from General MacArthur to the chief of staff, United States Army.

11.
Memorandum dated April 24, 1946, from General Jonathan Wainwright to adjutant general, Washington, D.C.

12.
Wainwright, p. 81.

13.
Report of Awards and Decorations Board dated September 9, 1946.

14.
Memorandum dated October 1, 1946, from General H. Bull to General Paul.

15.
Memorandum dated January 14, 1946, from Captain K. E. Lowman to the secretary of the navy. Captain Lowman sent two proposed citations, one for a Bronze Star, another for the Legion of Merit. The memoranda about Cobb’s awards are in her personnel file. Records obtained from the National Personnel Records Center, St. Louis, Missouri, under the Freedom of Information Act.

16.
Memorandum dated January 25, 1945, from Dana Nance, M.D., medical director of Los Banos Philippine Military Internment Camp Number 2, to surgeon general, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Washington, D.C. Ann Bernatitus, the only navy nurse to be evacuated from the Philippines before surrender and the only navy nurse to serve on Bataan, was awarded the Legion of Merit for her service on Bataan. She was the lone navy nurse in World War II to receive the decoration. Like Davison, Cobb’s award reflected her wartime military service during the early days of the war in 1941 to 1942. Her citation does not mention her leadership or work as a POW.

17.
Davis, D. M., p. 153.

18.
Bruhn, pp. 24–25. “Happy” Bruhn is Mina Aasen’s niece. Used with permission.

19.
Bruhn, p. 28.

20.
Craighill, M. D., p. 226.

21.
EG book, pp. 122–23.

Chapter Eighteen: Across the Years

1.
Adams, J. T., p. 404.

2.
All quotations from Sally Blaine Millett, 1990 author interview and a December 1993 correspondence. The stories of the twelve women that follow are in some ways representative of the group; that is, they are as diverse as the culture at large. For the most part these are the women on whom some detail was available.

3.
Bertha Dworsky Henderson, 1983 ANC interview.

4.
All quotations from Eunice Hatchitt Tyler, 1990 and 1991 author interviews.

5.
Carolyn Armold Torrence, Dorothy Scholl Armold’s daughter, gave the author the news clippings without an identifying newspaper or date. Quotations from Carolyn Armold Torrence, 1992 author interview.

6.
Harold Armold Jr., 1992 author interview.

7.
Biographical information from Madeline Ullom, 1993 correspondence with author. Speech excerpts from Ullom, pp. 6–7; 10–11.

8.
Denny Williams, 1990 author interview.

9.
All quotations from Terry Myers Johnson, 1992 author interview.

10.
Helen Cassiani Nestor, 1994 author interview. After learning about Terry’s death, Cassie made a donation to the University of Nevada women’s softball team as a tribute to the days when the two of them played the sport in Santo Tomas Internment Camp.

11.
Josie Nesbit Davis, 1983 ANC interview.

12.
Nesbit’s message appeared in a dinner booklet at the 1992 “Gala salute to all United States of America military women prisoners of war.” Compiled by Ms. Alice Booher of the Southeast Business and Professional Women (SE/BPW).

13.
Ruby Bradley wrote a paper in the early 1960s titled “Prisoner of War in the Far East.” Uncataloged file, Army Nurse Corps archives, Center for Military History, Washington, D.C., pp. 22–23. Other quotations in this section from Ruby Bradley, 1989 author interview.

14.
Ibid
.

15.
This Is Your Life
aired live on NBC from October 1952 until September 1961. Host Ralph Edwards wanted his guests to have demonstrated charity, community spirit, conformity and patriotism. The show often ended with Edwards making a charitable donation or gift in honor of his guest. Ruby Bradley’s military career made her a logical subject for a show, as did Edwards’s establishment of a nursing scholarship in Bradley’s name.

16.
The other women awarded the permanent rank of colonel in the regular army were Inez Haynes, chief of the Army Nurse Corps, and Ruby F. Bryant.

17.
A summary of Ruby Bradley’s career was found in her 1983 ANC Oral History folder at the Army Nurse Corps archives, Center for Military History, Washington, D.C. Dates of service, promotion record and list of awards taken from this summary. Her military awards include: Bronze Star Medal; World War II Victory Medal; American Defense Service Medal with one Bronze Star and Foreign Service Clasp; Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with two Bronze Battle Stars, Distinguished Unit Badge; Presidential Unit Emblem with two Oak Leaf Clusters on Blue Ribbon; Philippine Defense Ribbon with one Bronze Service Star; Philippine Liberation Ribbon with one Bronze Service Star; American Campaign Medal and American Theater Ribbon; Philippine Independence Ribbon; American of Occupation Medal with Japan Clasp; National Defense Service Medal; Korean Service Medal with one Silver Service Star (in lieu of five Bronze Service Stars); two Bronze Service Stars for participation in the UN Offensive, Chinese Communist Forces Intervention, UN Summer-Fall Offensive, Second Korean Winter, Korea-Summer-Fall 1952, Third Korean Winter and Korea Summer-Fall 1953; United Nations Service Medal; Legion of Merit with an Oak Leaf Cluster; Oak Leaf Cluster for Bronze Star Medal, Commendation Ribbon with Metal Pendant. She also received: the 1953 Virginia Distinguished Service Medal; the International Red Cross 1955 Florence Nightingale Medal; and an honorary Doctor of Science degree from West Virginia University.

18.
Ruby Bradley, 1991 interview with Sharon Eifried.

19.
All quotations from Mary Rose Harrington Nelson, 1989 author interview and a 1991 interview with Sharon Eifried.

20.
“Queen for a Day” was a radio show that aired first in 1945 under the title “Queen for Today.” The honoree received “feminine” merchandise, such as washing machines, clothes, underwear and hosiery. Host Jack Bailey continued with the show when it moved to NBC television in 1956.

21.
Quotations from Eleanor Garen, 1991 interview with Susan Sacharski.

22.
On December 31, 1945, there were 27,850 army nurses on active duty. By September
30, 1946, approximately 8,500 nurses remained in the Army Nurse Corps. Piemonte, R., and Gurney, C., pp. 19–20. After Congress passed the Army-Navy Nurse Act of 1947, the army upgraded nurses’ military status by awarding them permanent commissions. Eleanor was one of 894 nurses who were integrated into the regular army at that time.

23.
Eleanor Garen, 1992 correspondence with Susan Sacharski. Used with permission.

24.
Eleanor Garen, 1993 correspondence with Susan Sacharski. Used with permission. In 1993, Eleanor’s niece Doris Sante donated the possessions of the former army nurse to archivist Susan Sacharski at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago, Illinois.

25.
Information about Helen Cassiani Nestor’s postwar years from numerous interviews from 1990 through 1997 with the author. All quotations about her and her family in this section come from these interviews.

26.
Helen Cassiani Nestor, January 21, 1997, personal correspondence.

Afterword

1.
In October 1997, under the leadership of retired Air Force Brigadier General Wilma L. Vaught and “The Women in Military Service for America Memorial Project” (WIMSA), the massive stone arch at the entrance to Arlington Memorial Cemetery in Washington, D.C., was dedicated to honor servicewomen from the American Revolutionary War to the present day.

2.
Oberst and Thor Nelson’s quotations from the dinner booklet given to all participants at the 1992 gala. Compiled by Ms. Alice Booher, Southeast Business and Professional Women (SE/BPW).

3.
“American military women prisoners of war,” S5341.

Epilogue

1.
Gilligan, (1982).

2.
According to Bataan Death March survivor Sam Moody’s personal communication (1998), five men, all veterans of the Bataan and Corregidor battles, retired to Florida and regularly met for lunch. At one of their gatherings, they decided to find a way to honor the nurses. Moody, who was once a patient in Hospital #2 on Bataan, said, “I always felt the nurses never got any credit and I wanted to do something. I feel like they are my sisters.” The five men contacted other veterans from Bataan and Corregidor. “We got mostly $5 and $10 donations but we raised enough money.” Moody and his friends designed the plaque and wrote the inscription. They were present during the dedication ceremonies at the Altar of Valor on Mount Samat, Bataan.