Answering the Call: The Army Nurse Corps

Oh, they are fine! One need never tell me that women can’t do as much, stand as much, and be as brave as men. 

Julia Catherine Stimson. Finding themselves: the letters of an American army chief nurse in a British hospital in France. Macmillan, 1918.

Four hundred nurses were already serving in Europe when the U.S. declared war on Germany in 1917. By war's end over 22,000 nurses had served in the Army and Navy Nurse Corps. Their service was indispensable and continued beyond Armistice as the world battled the influenza pandemic of 1918. Nurses in the American Expeditionary Forces served in France, Belgium, England, Siberia, Italy, Serbia, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. They worked in 58 field hospitals, mobile units, evacuation camps and convalescent hospitals; on troop trains and transport ships; and helped staff 47 ambulance companies which operated on the Western Front.

Of the nurses who served during World War I, nearly 300 died while in service. Many were themselves victims of influenza, as well as tuberculosis and pneumonia. Three Navy nurses were awarded the Navy Cross posthumously for their service during the epidemic. Three members of the Army Nurse Corps were awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and 23 received the Distinguished Service Medal. Numerous nurses also received meritorious awards from the allied nations where they served including the French Croix de Guerre  and the Military Medal from Great Britain.

The Progressive Era brought about a rise in professionalization for many occupations including nursing. Recruitment posters called for graduate nurses to fill the ranks, women who had received formal training at a nursing school with a curriculum that included theoretical and practical nursing. Initially nurses were required to be U.S. citizens, unmarried Caucasian women between 25 and 35 years of age.

"War service was hard, uncomfortable and heartbreaking. Overseas the nurses faced raw, cold weather and shortages of water for bathing and laundry, long hours at work and little privacy or time off. They treated shrapnel wounds, infections, mustard gas burns, exposure and medical and emotional trauma." (Military Nurses in World War I)

Even with the recruitment of thousands of nurses, the number of patients far exceeded the 10:1 ratio initially planned. Base hospitals built to house 800-1000 beds routinely had double the number of patients. Base Hospital 50 was initially expected to be 500 beds but was quickly expanded to 1,000, with a staff of 250 and 100 nurses. Shifts of 14-18 hours were common at Base Hospital 50 as nurses cared for surgical patients and mustard gas cases. Overwork and fatigue was a common theme in the unit's history.

It is important to remember "the women who served in the Army Nurse Corps "rendered service ‘beyond expectations' at a time when women were not even allowed to vote" in the U.S. (Vane)  Nurses could have no expectation of a military rank or commission and still they served tirelessly. (As did equally disenfranchised women physicians.) Many extended their service after the war to go to war-torn areas of Serbia, Montenegro and Albania to help rebuild communities. By World War II – because of 'Rosie's Mom' and the groundwork laid by thousands of women who served during World War I – women's wartime roles would be expanded even more.

Read more about nursing service during World War I:

1. Brown, Carrie. Rosie's Mom: Forgotten Women Workers of the First World War. Northeastern University Press, 2002.
2. Budreau, Lisa M. and Richard A Prior. Answering The Call: The U.S. Army Nurse Corps, 1917-1919: A Commemorative Tribute to Military Nursing in World War I. Washington, DC : Office of the Surgeon General, Borden Institute, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 2008.
3. Feller, Carolyn M., and Cox, Debora R. Highlights in the History of the Army Nurse Corps. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Army Center of Military History, 2000. 
4. Gavin, Lettie. American Women In World War: They Also Served. University Press of Colorado, 2006. 
5. Jensen, Kimberly. Mobilizing Minerva: American Women in the First World War. University of Illinois Press, 2008. 
6. Sarnecky, Mary T. A History of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999. 
7. Stimson, Julia C. The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War. Volume XIII, Part Two, The Army Nurse Corps. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1927.
8. Vane, Colonel Elizabeth A. P. Contributions of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps in World War I. Soins: La revue de référence infirmière, June 2014.

Learn more about women and the Progressive Era:

Kimberly Jensen, PhD, recommended the following reading in her 2011 interview discussing her book Mobilizing Minerva:

1. Kennedy, Kathleen. Disloyal Mothers and Scurrilous Citizens: Women and Subversion during World War I. Indiana University Press, 1999.
2. Nielsen, Kim J. Un-American Womanhood: Antiradicalism, Antifeminism, and the First Red Scare. Ohio State University Press, 2001.
3. Steinson, Barbara J. American Women's Activism. New York : Garland Publishing, 1981. 
4. Zeiger, Susan. In Uncle Sam's Service: Women Workers with the American Expeditionary Force, 1917-1919. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004.