Evening star., 1943-03-14
Acting Head of Army Nurses
Guides For-FIunq Activities
Col. BIonchfieId Sow
Service at Building
Of Ponumo CunuI
BY JESSIE FAINT EVANS.

BILE woman executive is Col. Florence
A. Blanchf1eld, the Army's new act
ing superintendent of nurses On
June l, she will become full super
intendent. when the leave OF her re-
tiring predecessor, Col. Julia O.
Flikke, expires.
Col. Blanchfield has come along
the steps of the nursing profession
to her present position. with its far
flung jurisdiction over the Army
Nurses Corps. Army nurses today
are everywhere that our troops are.
Already their number exceeds the
total number in the First World War,
and $500 additional members a
month are being requested for the
remainder of this year.
Few professional women are able
to bring to their administrative posts
business assets as varied as those of
Col. Blanchfleld. A capable typist,
she is familiar with stenography and
has taken college extension courses
at Columbia University and the Uni
versity of California in cost account
ing, bookkeeping and commercial
law. She did this not because she
ever expected to have specific use
for the knowledge. but because the
subjects interested her. She con-
sidered they should be part Of
her background as an Army nurse.
Did Post Graduate Work.
Col Blanchfield's hands are we'll
modelled, with deft, flexible fingers,
which remind one of those of a
skilled surgeon. They have assisted
many surgeons at their tasks, too.
Not only did she complete the post :
graduate surgical course for nurses
at the sanatarium of the late DR..
Howard Kelly of Baltimore, but
also the course in surgical technique
and operating room supervision at
Johns Hopkins Hospital. Then fol-
lowed such important posts in Penn
sylvania as operating room super
visor at the Pittsburgh South Side
Hospital superintendent of the
operating room at the Montefore
Hospital, superintendent of the Sub
urban General Hospital at Bellevue
and emergency surgical nurse at
the United States Steel Bessemer
plant at Bessemer.
Early in her career as a surgical
nurse, operating supervisor and hos
pital superintendent, Col. Blanch-
field interrupted her work to heed
the Army's call for skilled, trained
nurses. That was when the Panama
Canal was being built. At the Army
Hospital at Ancon. Canal Zone. she
did general hospital duty and served
as anesthetist during the time when
Maj. Gen. Gorgas was achieving the
medical miracles that helped make
possible the engineering miracles of
Gen. Goethals. Col. Gaillard and
others in pushing the big ditch"
through to completion.
The she returned to civilian duty
until World War I, when she went
overseas to serve In France with
Base Hospital u of the University
of Pittsburgh. Subsequently, she was
acting chief nurse of Camp Hos
pital Is, in the north of Brittany
where she was one of % nurses try
ing to meet the needs of $1,000 men
wounded and sent back from the
various big drives. Keeping up
morale" was as big job as our
strictly professional duties she said
of this assignment.
Practices Self Discipline.
In her present position, Col
Blanchfield practices the self-dis-
cipline she recommends. When the
war news is dubious, she does not
permit herself to listen to late
broadcasts or to speculate over the
opinions of the press strategists
Il must keep myself calm enough
to sleep" she says, so that can
best serve for the next day ahead.
This l find I can best do by re-
straining myself from anything that
will tend to impair my efficiency
My long Army career has taught
me that war planning and forecast
ing are best left to those empowered
to deal specifically with them"
Col. Blanchfield's Army assign
ments have carried her from far
western outposts to two tours of
duty in the Philippines and China.
They have included such admins
trative positions as instructor and
recreational director in the Army
School of Nursing at Letterman
Hospital in San Francisco. in addi-
ton to duty at Walter Reed Hos
pital and ir~ the Nurses Corps of
the Surgeon Generals Office.
One of her most unusual accom-
plishments is being able to take an
automobile engine apart and re-
assemble it. In 1922. after her first
assignment to the Philippines, she
decided to take new car with her
She discovered the engine WASH t
performing satisfactorily. With the
time for embarkation almost at
hand, several civilian mechanics
were unable to diagnose the trouble
for her. Finally, one afternoon
while off duty she decided to tackle
the problem herself. She had taken
a special course in automobile me-
chanics and felt she could find the
trouble. She discovered a scored
cylinder and the necessity for q
new cylinder block.
Two more conventionally femi-
nine achievements are her ability as
a cook, and to make her own
clothes when she isn't wearing a
military uniform. When she was a
student at the South Side Training
School for Nurses in Pittsburgh.
she met all her expenses by skill in
designing and making dresses for
the other traineeS.