Evening star., 1945-03-21
IwoCasuaIties
Force Increase
InNdvyNurses
Draft Bill Urged
By Admiral Agnew
To Fill Army's Need
By CARTER BROOKE JONES

Dy SAh1ER bhOOhE JONES.
Heavy casualties suffered by the
Marine Corps at Two Jima have
caused the Navy's Bureau of Medi-
cine and Surgery to ask an increase
in the Navy Nurse Corps from 10000
to 1850, Rear Admiral w. j. C
AgneW, acting chief of the bureau
told the Senate Military Affairs
Committee today.
Admiral Agnew recommended
passage of the House-approveo
nurse draft bill. He said the Navy
did not need the draft, since it has
$500 nurses on active duty and 5000
applications for commissions pend
ing, but he urged the legislation be-
cause. he said, he realized the acute
need OF the Army which volunteers
had failed to meet.
Admiral AgneW said the Navy re-
ceived 1885 applications from nurses
during February and had approved
600, which would provide more than
10000 commissioned nurses and
there would be no difficulty in OBJ
toI14lAls Al,OUu NY July.
No Other Way for Army.
The Army, he pointed out, is a
different story. While the Navy De-
partment, he explained, has taken
no official attitude toward the nurse
draft legislation, its Bureau of Medi-
cine and Surgery does advocate ii
because it appears there is no other
way for the Army to obtain enough
nurses to make up the $4,000 it ur-
gently requires.
Dr.. Thomas Parran, surgeon gen.
eral of the Public Health Service
supported the May House bill, ex-
pressing belief that otherwise the
Army would not obtain the nurses
it had to have within the next two
months.
DR.. Parran blamed to a large ex-
tent the false peace psychology
of last summer for failure Of the
Army to obtain enough volunteer
nurses. He foresaW collapse of draft
legislation at this time as disastrous
to voluntary recruiting. feeling that
nurses would assume the Army did
nos really need the nurses it had
asked for.
Would Assure Care.
He pointed out that a draft
under the Selective Service system
would assure both adequate care
for wounded soldiers and for civilian
health. AS it is, he told the COM
mittee, the nurses most easily found
by the armed services are often
those doing the most essential civil
ian work in hospitals or other in
sttutions, while it is not easy to
find private duty nurses, some en-
gagged in luxury nursing. He said
considerable number of nurses
were doing unessential industrial
nursing.
DR.. Parran said the Cadet Nurse
Corps, set up by Congress in 1943,
had increased the number Of girls
training to be nurses by rs per cent
in less than two years. But he re-
minded the committee that these
cadets pledged themselves Oh grad
uation only to go into either mill
tary or essential civilian work and
were under no obligation to enter
the armed forces.
He warned against any plan that
would deprive the general populace
of necessary nursing. saying a COL
lapse of essential civilian nursing
would be comparable in the war
effort to a major military defeat.
Representative Bolton, Repub-
lican, of Ohio, author of the Cadet
Nurse Corps Act, told the committee
that no person or group was re-
sponsible for the serious shortage
of Army nurses. She gave a share
of blame to the Army for its alleged
slowness in assigning volunteer
nurses to duty.
Rejection Reasons Criticized.
Mrs. Bolton also charged the Army
with rejecting nurses for "unim-
portant and rather absurd reasons
which had discouraged volunteers
and their friends.
She also spoke of "red tape in top
echelons" of the Army, which she
said had slowed up the efforts of the
Surgeon Generals Office to recruit
nurses. A few days ago, she told a
committee, the surgeon general had
regretted he could not give her the
latest recruiting figures because
they had not cleared through
channels. Mrs. Bolton said she
did not testify in a critical spirit
but only wanted to explain some of
the difficulties.
Mrs. Bolton indorsed the House
draft bill but urged the Senate to
amend it by exempting only married
nurses with dependents and by re-
quiring registration of all nurses up
to the age of IS. She urged the
registration of older nurses to give
a clearer inventory of available
nurses, though she did not advise
raising the proposed draft age above
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