United States Navy Nurse Corps The United States Navy Nurse Corps was officially established by Congress in 1908 ; however , unofficially , women had been working as nurses aboard Navy ships and in Navy hospitals for nearly 100 years . Pre - 1908 . In 1811 , Dr . William P . C . Barton became the first to officially recommend that female nurses be added to naval hospital staff . However , it wasn ' t until 19 June 1861 that a Navy Department circular order finally established the designation of Nurse , to be filled by junior enlisted men . Fifteen years later , the duties were transferred to the designation Bayman ( US Navy Regulations , 1876 ) . Although enlisted personnel were referred to as Nurses , their duties and responsibilities were more related to those of a Hospital Corpsman than to a nurse . During the American Civil War , several African American women are noted to have served as paid crew aboard the hospital ship " Red Rover " in the Mississippi River area in the position of nurse . The known names of four nurses are : Alice Kennedy , Sarah Kinno , Ellen Campbell and Betsy Young ( Fowler ) . In addition volunteer nuns from the Catholic Sisters of the Holy Cross also served aboard as nurses . During the 1898 Spanish - American War , the Navy employed a modest number of female contract nurses in its hospitals ashore and sent trained male nurses to sea on the hospital ship " Solace " . 1908 - 1917 . After the establishment of the Nurse Corps in 1908 by an Act of Congress , twenty women were selected as the first members and assigned to the Naval Medical School Hospital in Washington , D . C . Unfortunately , the navy did not provide room or board for them , and so the nurses - being a determined lot - rented their own house and provided their own meals . This would be just the first of many obstacles they would overcome on their compassionate march for service equality . In time , the nurses would come to be known as " The Sacred Twenty " because they were the first women to serve formally as members of the Navy . The " Sacred Twenty " , as shown in the photo at the top of this page , were Mary H . Du Bose ; Adah M . Pendleton ; Elizabeth M . Hewitt ; Della V . Knight ; Josephine Beatrice Bowman , the third Superintendent of the Navy Nurse Corps , 1922 – 1935 ; Lenah H . Sutcliffe Higbee , the second Superintendent of the Navy Nurse Corps , 1911 – 1922 ; Esther Voorhees Hasson , the first Superintendent of the Navy Nurse Corps , 1908 – 1911 ; Martha E . Pringle ; Elizabeth J . Wells ; Clare L . De Ceu . ; Elizabeth Leonhardt ; Estelle Hine ; Ethel R . Parsons ; Florence T . Milburn ; Boniface T . Small ; Victoria White ; Isabelle Rose Roy ; Margaret D . Murray ; Sara B . Myer ; and Sara M . Cox . They would include three Nurse Corps Superintendents and twelve chief nurses . The Nurse Corps gradually expanded to 160 on the eve of World War I . In addition to normal hospital and clinic duties , the nurses were active in training natives in U . S . overseas possessions as well as the Navy ' s male enlisted medical personnel . For a few months in 1913 , Navy Nurses saw their first shipboard service , aboard " Mayflower " and " Dolphin " . The first permanent shipboard positions came in late 1920 , when " Relief " went into commission with a medical staff that included Navy Nurses . World War I . The April 1917 entry of the United States into the First World War brought a great expansion of the Nurse Corps , both Regular and Reserve . In 1917 - 18 , the Navy deployed five Base Hospital units to operational areas in France , Scotland and Ireland , with the first in place by late 1917 . Also serving overseas were special Navy Operating Teams , including nurses , established for detached duty near the combat frontlines . Some of these teams were loaned to the Army during 1918 ' s intense ground offensives and worked in difficult field conditions far removed from regular hospitals . During the war , 19 Navy Nurses died on active duty , over half of them from influenza . Three of the four Navy Cross es awarded to wartime Navy Nurses went to victims of the fight against the deadly ' flu . The surviving fourth nurse was Lenah H . Sutcliffe Higbee , the second superintendent of the corps , and the first living woman to receive the medal . In 1945 , the USS Higbee became the first fighting ship to be named after a woman in the service . By the time of the Armistice on 11 November 1918 , over 1550 nurses had served in Naval hospitals and other facilities at home and abroad . Shortly after the fighting ' s end , several Navy Nurses were assigned to duty aboard transports bringing troops home from Europe . Some Navy Nurses even ventured on ground patrols and aided Army Soldiers during this time . Interwar period . With the close of World War I , many turned away from all things war - related and by 1935 the Nurse Corps ' numbers had reduced to 332 . However , this reduction did not stop the corps from making advances ; new courses of study in the areas of diet therapy , neuropsychiatry , physiotherapy , and anesthesia were introduced and it was these educational advances which were key to the steady rise in the corps ' professional status within the service . Though generally treated as officers socially and professionally , and wearing uniform stripes similar to those for the officer ranks of Ensign through Lieutenant Commander , formal recognition as Commissioned officer s , achieved by U . S . Army nurses in 1920 , did not come until World War II . It was also during this interwar period that paid retirement for longevity and disability was authorized as well as the extension of regular service to include Navy hospital ship s . In addition to caring for Naval personnel at home and abroad , the corps responded to a number of civil disasters and assisted in the evacuation of dependents from war - torn China in 1937 . World War II . Preparation for the conflict again saw the Nurse Corps grow , with nearly eight hundred members serving on active duty by November 1941 , plus over nine hundred inactive reserves . By war ' s end there would be 1 , 799 active component nurses and 9 , 222 reserves scattered across six continents . Navy nurses were on duty during the initial Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor , Kāneʻohe Bay , the Philippines , Guam , and aboard the " Solace " ; they were vital in preventing further loss of life and limb . In fact , the nursing profession ' s vital role was quickly recognized and it became the only women ' s profession that was deemed so essential as to be placed under the War Manpower Commission . Despite shortages of qualified nurses during the war , the navy was able to hold to its standards and enroll nurses of outstanding qualifications and experience . These outstanding nurses received advanced training in surgery , orthopedics , anesthesia , contagion , dietetics , physiotherapy , and psychiatry , the latter helping men understand and manage Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome ( then know as shell - shock ) and battlefield fatigue . But the navy nurses ' duties did not only include the tending to the injured and sick but also to the equally serious task of training Hospital Corpsmen . Many of these young men had never seen the inside of a hospital unless they themselves had been admitted , and as such it was training from the ground up . Once trained , the men were sent to work aboard fighting ships and on invasion beaches , where nurses were not yet officially assigned . Additionally , nurses trained WAVES for the Hospital Corps . In the Pacific , Navy Nurses were the first American women to be sent to the islands north of New Caledonia , and the first group to Efate , in the New Hebrides . At Efate they cared for the wounded from the long Guadalcanal Campaign , Army as well as Navy and Marine personnel . Others were stationed in New Caledonia , the Solomons , New Zealand , Australia , New Guinea , Coral Sea , Savo , Samoa , Tarawa , Attu , Adak , Dutch Harbor , Kwajalein , Guam , Saipan , Tinian , Leyte , Samar , Iwo Jima , and Okinawa . The purpose of these forward operating areas was stabilization . Only when patients were fully stabilized were they sent on to Pearl Harbor , and then eventually to the contiguous United States . In Europe , navy nurses served in both England and Italy and in North and South America at Trinidad , Panama , Puerto Rico , Bermuda , Brazil , and Newfoundland . Navy nurses were even stationed in Africa . In the contiguous United States , navy nurses were stationed at 263 locations , consisting of both large naval hospital complexes such as USN Hospital San Diego , California and Bethesda , Maryland as well as at a multitude of smaller naval convalescent hospitals and training station facilities . One of the more colorful convalescent hospitals was the USN Convalescent Hospital located at the Sun Valley Lodge in Idaho . After the lodge - built by the Union Pacific Railroad and its chairman W . Averell Harriman - opened in 1936 , it quickly became a hotspot for the rich and famous . Notables included Ernest Hemingway who worked on For Whom the Bell Tolls in room # 206 , Clark Gable , Errol Flynn , Claudette Colbert , Bing Crosby and Gary Cooper . However , as supporting the war became a top priority and recreation secondary , the lodge was converted into a hospital , opening its doors in July 1943 . In 1946 it reverted to its intended use . The story of the USN Convalescent Hospital is not unlike a host of other facilities which were converted , including the Averell Harriman estate in the Bear Mountains of the Catskills and the Ahwahnee Hotel at Yosemite National Park . Aboard hospital ships , navy nurses followed the fleet in their assaults , and were eventually permitted to go to the beaches with the fighting men to pick up the wounded . Early in the war only the " USS Solace " and " USS Relief " brought comfort to the wounded fighting men via all - navy medical personnel . Later the " Bountiful " , " Samaritan " , " Refuge " , " Haven " , " Benevolence " , " Tranquility " , " Consolation " , " Repose " , " Sanctuary " , and " Rescue " were added . Prisoners of War . Two groups of Navy nurses were held prisoner by the Japanese in World War II . Chief Nurse Marion Olds and nurses Leona Jackson , Lorraine Christiansen , Virginia Fogerty and Doris Yetter were taken prisoner on Guam shortly after Pearl Harbor and transported to Japan . They were repatriated in August 1942 , although the newspaper did not identify them as Navy nurses . Chief Nurse Laura Cobb and her nurses , Mary Chapman , Bertha Evans , Helen Gorzelanski , Mary Harrington , Margaret Nash , Goldie O ' Haver , Eldene Paige , Susie Pitcher , Dorothy Still and C . Edwina Todd ( some of the " Angels of Bataan " ) were captured in 1942 and imprisoned in the Los Baños internment camp , where they continued to function as a nursing unit , until they were rescued by American forces in 1945 . Other Los Baños prisoners later said : " We are absolutely certain that had it not been for these nurses many of us who are alive and well would have died . " The nurses were awarded the Bronze Star Medal by the Army , a second award by the Navy and the Army ' s Distinguished Unit Badge . Ann Agnes Bernatitus , one of the Angels of Bataan , nearly became a POW ; she was one of the last to escape Corregidor Island , via the USS Spearfish . Upon her return to the United States she became the first American to receive the Legion of Merit . Flight nurses . The first group of 24 navy flight nurses graduated from the Navy Flight Nurse School at the Alameda Naval Air Station on 22 January 1945 . In addition to flight nurse procedures , they were trained to swim one mile , tow or push a victim for 220 yards , and swim 440 yards in 10 minutes . The newly minted flight nurses soon began active flying service on 24 flying teams , consisting of a nurse and a pharmacist ' s mate . Each 12 - plane squadron operated with the following medical personnel : 24 flight nurses , 24 pharmacists ' mates , one flight surgeon , and one Hospital Corps officer . After a certain number of transcontinental trips with wounded servicemen , the teams were sent to the Pacific to serve in the Naval Air Evacuation Service , the first arriving in Guam in early February 1945 . There were three main flights of air evacuation planes to which flight nurses were assigned . First , from target areas to forward hospitals , such as Guam : second , from those forward hospitals to Pearl Harbor ; and third , from Pearl Harbor to the contiguous United States . Nurses were rotated so that flight hours did not exceed 100 per month and they were also rotated between combat and noncombat flights . An efficient procedure for aerial evacuation from target areas was quickly developed . The squadron flight surgeon and several pharmacists ' mates were on the first hospital plane to land on the captured airfield . The surgeon established an evacuation clearing station adjacent to the airstrip , where with the help of his corpsmen , he collected patients from the first - aid and holding stations and screened them for air transport , giving necessary treatment prior to flight . As soon as the second hospital plane landed , the flight nurse aboard received her orders . The plane was loaded and usually departed in approximately 45 minutes , the flight nurse being responsible for all patients aboard . With the corpsman ' s aid , she dressed wounds , administered whole blood or plasma , gave medications , and fed the patients . Using this procedure , within 30 days , approximately 4 , 500 injured men were flown out of Okinawa alone . Flight nurse Jane " Candy " Kendeigh was among the first flight nurses to fly to and from an active battlefield in the Pacific when , on March 3 , 1945 , she flew round - trip from Guam to Iwo Jima to aid in the evacuation of wounded U . S . Marines . As luck would have it , Ensign Kendeigh was also aboard the Navy ' s first medical evacuation flight bound for Okinawa , making her the first Navy flight nurse on both Iwo Jima and Okinawa . After her heroic work in Iwo Jima , she was sent back to the U . S . to participate in a War Bond drive . Soon after she started that assignment , she requested to be sent back into the Pacific combat zone . She flew her missions with Agana , Guam based Air Evacuation Transport Squadron One ( VRE - 1 ) , which was an elite unit of the Naval Air Transport Service ( NATS ) . Korea . The need for naval medical facilities in Asia grew when the war began . A small naval dispensary at Yokosuka , staffed by only six nurses , evolved into a full - fledged hospital staffed by 200 nurses . The Navy Nurse Corps expanded its ranks by recalling Reserve nurses with World War II experience . It temporarily reduced staffs at continental hospitals to staff the forward area . The Navy also commissioned civilian nurses . These nurses served in hospitals as well as aboard the USS Haven and two other Haven - class ships , where almost 35 percent of battle casualties were admitted through September 1952 . These hospital ships were a new type of mobile hospital , moving from place to place , sometimes supporting the Inchon invasion or aiding the Hungnam evacuation , or simply shifting about the Korean coast as needed . Two senior Navy nurses , Commander Estelle Kalnoske Lange and Lieutenant Ruth Cohen , received the Bronze Star for their work on the Navy hospital ships . Lt . Sarah Griffin Chapman , who had lost her lower left leg in an accident and retired prior to Korea , fought to be recalled to active duty so that she could teach other young amputees how to walk again . Though outside the Korean theater , one aviation accident claimed the lives of 11 Navy nurses . The mishap occurred on the South Pacific island of Kwajalein on Sept . 19 , 1950 . These women were en route to hospitals in Japan to care for war casualties when their plane crashed into the Pacific shortly after take off . Vietnam . In 1963 Lt . Bobbi Hovis volunteered to go to Vietnam , where she and four other nurses were tasked with converting a run - down Saigon apartment into the first US Navy Station Hospital — in four days . The first four Navy Nurse Corps Officers to be injured in combat support occurred in Vietnam [ Saigon ] when LT Ruth Mason , LT Frances Crumpton , LT Barbara Wooster and LTJG Ann Darby Reynolds were wounded and later received the Purple Heart . Navy nurses went on to serve : in the Provincial Health Assistance Program at Rach Gia from 1965 to 1968 ; on the USS Repose from January 1966 to May 1970 ( reaching a full complement of 29 nurses by March 1966 and serving as many as 200 helicopter admissions during a 24 hour period of intense fighting ) ; on the USS Sanctuary from April 1967 to November 1972 ( also with a complement of 29 nurses ) ; and at the station hospital at DaNang from August 1967 to May 1970 ( which became the largest combat casualty treatment facility in the world , with 600 beds and admissions of 63 , 000 patients ) . Currently . Navy Nurses are deployed all over the world ; participating in humanitarian and combat support missions with Fleet Surgical Teams , as flight nurses , aboard hospital ships and aircraft carriers , and boots on ground with the Marine Corps and Army . Modern Nurse Corps . The Nurse Corps continues as a prominent part of the Navy Medicine establishment . Currently , it consists of officers of the rank of Ensign and to Rear Admiral ( upper half ) . Navy Nurse Corps officers are commissioned through ROTC , STA - 21 , MECP , Nurse Candidate Program , or by direct commission . Insignia , badges and aiguillettes . The Nurse Corps has a distinctive insignia of a single Oak Leaf , on one collar point , or in place of a line officer ' s star on shoulder boards . Navy Nurse Corps Officers are eligible to earn and wear the Fleet Marine Force , Surface , Basic Parachutist Badge , Navy and Marine Corps Parachutist Insignia , Air Crew and Flight Nurse warfare badges . Select Navy Nurse Corps Officers are eligible to wear special warfare insignia . Officers selected to formally serve as executive assistants to flag officers or congressional leaders may be eligible to wear an aiguillette and / or unique insignia . Navy Nurse Corps Officers can also earn the Army Combat Badge but are not currently authorized to wear it . Executive grade Navy Nurse Corps Officers who have , or had , command of an installation or commissioned unit ashore are also eligible to wear the Navy Command Ashore insignia . Superintendents and directors . From its founding in 1908 until after World War II in 1947 , the Navy Nurse Corps was led by a superintendent . Its nurses had no permanent commissioned rank during that time . The Army - Navy Nurses Act took effect on 16 April 1947 , establishing the Navy Nurse Corps as a staff corps , with officers holding permanent commissioned rank from Ensign to Commander . The corps was to be led by a director holding the rank of Captain while in that position . This position later evolved into a flag rank appointment and there can be up to four Navy Nurse Corps flag rank officers serving concurrently as of 2012 . Further reading . In and Out of Harm ' s Way : A history of the U . S . Navy Nurse Corps . by Doris M . Sterner