Class Year
2017
Document Type
Student Research Paper
Date of Creation
Fall 2016
Department 1
History
Abstract
The Navy Nurse Corps was created in 1908, when President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Naval Appropriations Bill. Twenty women were selected to become the corps’ first members. These women were referred to as the “The Sacred Twenty.” On December 7, 1941, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the Navy Nurse Corps, was one of the first groups to respond. These women were important in preventing further deaths following the attack. However the experiences of Navy nurses during World II are often left untold because their story is overshadowed by the Army Nurse Corps, which doubled in size during the war. However, not one person’s experience is typical. This paper tells the stories of the women in the Navy Nurse Corps during World War II, through the experiences of Dora Cline Fechtmann, Dorothy Still Danner, Mary Rose “Red” Harrington and other Navy nurses.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Thibault, Amanda L., "Home Front to War Front: The Navy Nurse Corps During World War II" (2016). Student Publications. 472.
https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/student_scholarship/472
Comments
Written for HIST 421: Seminar: The U.S. and World War II.