Women in
Military Service
Nurses Corps:
The Army Nurse Corps, established in 1901, and Navy Nurse Corps, established in 1908, sprang into action as nurses stationed in Pearl Harbor rushed to treat the wounded on shore and aboard hospital ships. At the time, the military included 8, 000 nurses. By the end of the war, army nurses had grown to 59, 000 and navy nurses to 11, 000.
In the image to the left an army nurse Ernestine Koranda instructs Army medics on the proper method of giving an injection, Queensland, Australia, 1942.
Some of the first prisoners of war (POWs) were military nurses and civilian civil servants who were stationed in the Philippines, which was then a U.S. territory.
Members of the Nurse Corps served in the United States and throughout the world wherever American soldiers were. A serious shortage of military and civilian nurses throughout the war prompted continuing recruitment advertising.
Jergen's Lotion advertisement for nurses in The Saturday Evening Post, May 26, 1945, focused on women as caregivers on the job and at home.
Photo Credits: #1: USA Photos, #2: Army Nurse Corps Collection, Office of Medical History, Office of the Army Surgeon General,