During WWII, the Army Medical Corps provided doctors, nurses, and other medically-trained personnel to the armed forces. On December 7, 1941, there were less than 7,000 Army Nurses on active duty. By 1944, 6,000 nurses were on duty in Army Air Force hospitals, while some 500 were acting as flight nurses, aiding in the air evacuation of the wounded. Army nurses were also assigned to hospital ships, field hospitals, aid stations, and regular hospitals. Flight nurses held the record of only five deaths in flight for 100,000 patients transported. The Navy Nurse Corps and the American Red Cross also provided trained nurses to the war effort.
Army and Navy nurses were taken prisoner by the Japanese in the Philippines and held as POWs. Army nurses dug foxholes outside their tents and under their cots, and cared for patients under heavy German shellfire at Anzio. By the end of WWII, 215 Army nurses were killed in the line of duty.
|
