Browse Items (12 total)

After working so hard to find a place in the US Army Corps, African American nurses were either confined to serving in segregated hospitals, or were forced to provide treatment at home and overseas to German prisoners of war. This photo is of Lt.…

Serving as a nurse in World War II was exhausting, as is shown by the image here of this navy flight nurse, Lt. Mae Hanson, taking a quick nap on board an evacuation craft. This plane was transporting wounded troops from Okinawa to a Marianas Base…

This is a photograph of Lt. Aleda E. Lutz, a flight nurse, tending to a patient on board a C-47 in North Africa in 1943. Lutz was a member of the 802nd Medical Air Evacuation Squadron, and was killed in a plane crash in France in 1944. The stakes…

US Flight Nurse Ensign, Jane Kendeigh, is shown in this photo tending to a wounded marine, William J. Wycoff. She is holding his hand tightly and seems to be speaking to him in earnest. William's head is heavily bandaged, making his face completely…

This is a picture taken of the medical crew, including navy nurses, aboard the USS Comfort, AH-6 hospital ship headed to the Pacific Theater in 1944. Built by the US Navy, this ship could hold up to 400 patients at once. Ships like this one were just…

This group of Navy nurses is working to organize and distribute mail at Pearl Harbor in 1944. They wear the traditional spotless white uniforms of Navy nurses. These women had multiple duties they had to perform, and some of their daily tasks were…

This is a snapshot of a group of army nurses coming ashore in Normandy, circa 1944. They are dressed almost exactly like the men in combat, and clearly their helmets, bags of gear, and determined faces relay the challenge ahead of them.

Contrary to popular belief, American nurses in World War II had to deal with imminent danger not only for troops, but for themselves as well. These women were trained in keeping themselves safe, and had to use methods such as the one shown in the…

American nurses had to be ready to treat wounded soldiers in any conditions, including the cramped, constantly moving, dangerous location of an evacuating aircraft. Just as Lt. Katye Swope is doing in the photo taken in July of 1943, other flight…

This item is actually an excerpt from the World War II diary of US Army Nurse F. DeWitt, spanning from 1943 to 1944. DeWitt clearly has a sense of humor even when discussing dark topics, and seems to try to make the best of things throughout her…