World War II

April, 1943

Nurses serving with the Army and Navy Nurse Corps are now receiving a salary of $150 plus maintenance.  North Carolina's war reserve quota for 1943 is 420.  This means that 35 nurses must be enrolled each month.

In 95 counties in North Carolina, a Nurse Deputy has been duly appointed to work in collaboration with the Emergency Medical Service of Civilian Defense.  Reports reveal serious nursing shortages exist in many localities.  For example, the 25-bed Community Hospital of Person County has one registered nurse.  Sixty-eight percent of the recent assignments to Army and Nancy have been institutional nurses. 

Plans for a Student War Nursing Reserve, designed to be as intriguing as the training period of the Waves, Waacs, Spars and Marines, has been submitted by Dr. Thomas Parran, Surgeon General of the United States Public Health Services.  Formation is expected to assure enrollment of 65,000 new students during the 1943-44 school year.  Attractive features include distinctive insignia for 'on duty' indoor uniforms and in all probability, snappy outdoor uniforms. 

The US Treasury Department states that private duty nurses will be required to pay the Victory Tax in conjunction with the filing of the Victory Tax return in 1944. 

March, 1944

Mary Walker Randolph, former Assistant Professor of Nursing At Duke Hospital School of Nursing, wrote the following on February 25 from somewhere on the Anzio Beachhead, Italy.

"I wish I were free to write an accurate description, but will when I can.  I am back in a tent and really like it much better than those cold stone buildings.  We are all equipped with fox holes.  The ground in this particular area is marshy so our holes leave our shoulders sticking up.  If activity upstairs seems very lively, I find I can get my shoulders under and most of my helmet.  The American helmet has its faults.  It is too big and heavy to wear with comfort at all times and too small when you need it.  Most of us are wearing soldiers trousers because they are so much warmer than skirts.  We  are the only neuro-surgical team here and we are on 24-hour call."

September, 1944

Procurement and Assignment Service for Nurses is now one year old.  To date 3,282 nurses have been classified. Of this number 281 have been classified as available for military service and another 39 have classified as available for relocation outside the community.

Members of the Army Nurse Corps want clothespins, hair nets and bobby pins and dainty lingerie for Christmas presents, while the Navy Nurse requests range from bathing suits, silk stockings and rubber boots.  There is no need to remind you that October 15 is the deadline for mailing Christmas packages overseas.  Packages must not weigh more than five pounds.

The Army Nurse Corps must have 4,000 more nurses at once.  Great victories are being won at a price.  The war injured are not some remote, unhappy thought that can be put from our minds.  They are our own sons, husbands and brothers whom we have sent out to fight for our freedom.  Nurses have been given much of the credit for the fact that less than three percent of American's wounded soldiers have died as compared with approximately eight percent in the last war. 

January, 1945

The nursing profession will always remember January 6, 1945.  On that day the President of the United States in his message to Congress said "the wounded cannot wait" and asked for the draft of nurses.  The American Nurses Association endorsed the drafting of nurses as the first step to selective service for all women. 

The Nurses Behind the Army Nurse

Behind the nurse who goes to war
Stands firm a patriotic corps
Of nurses giving strength and time
To serve home folks and hold the line
Of health for every vale and town
They thought they's laid that burden down
And put their uniforms away
But now at dawn of every day
They sally forth and make it plain
They're right back on the job again!

June, 1945

The Procurement and Assignment Service has discontinued active military recruitment.  US Cadet Nurses will furnish replacements for attrition and unexpected future needs. 

"What of my future?  For three years and six months, we have faced the challenge of furnishing nurses for the sick and wounded of the greatest war in the history of the world.  In response to the call of their country, 1153 North Carolina nurses have joined the Army and Navy Nurse Corps.  There now comes to each of us the urgent need for nurses on the home front.  It is our duty to fill these needs and see that they are met with the same patriotic fervor that has characterized the response to the needs of the military.

August, 1945

Nurses in war devastated countries have been carrying on valiantly, but they are in dire need of uniforms and other equipment.  Their biggest need is uniforms because patched and faded uniforms do not lend to the nurse's dignity.  Uniforms must be clean with buttons provided.  If material is sent, needles, thread, buttons hooks and eyes must be included.

October, 1945

"We, as nurses, are particularly interested in post war plans regarding the expansion of hospital and health facilities provided by the US Public Health Service.  A study by the American Hospital Association shows that 65% of the hospitals are suffering an acute shortage of nurses." 

Now that the war has been won and many members of the North Carolina Nurses Association have returned from the battle fronts, there will be a Victory Dinner at the annual convention.  You can wear your party dress, suit or military uniform.

More than 103,000 registered nurses volunteered for military service and over 76,000 gave service to the sick and wounded of the Army and Navy.  Over 300,000 of the Army's 500,000 wounded were aided by nurses in their return to active service.

The North Carolina Nurses Association voted to become a member of the Women's Action Committee for Victory and Lasting Peace.  The purpose of the committee is to unite American women to work for full participation by the US in international efforts to build a world of peace and justice under law.  It gives full support of the San Francisco Charter of the United Nations.