Nurse Corps ( United States Army ) The United States Army Nurse Corps ( NC ) was formally established by the U . S . Congress in 1901 . It is one of the six medical Special Branches ( or " Corps " ) of officers which – along with medical enlisted soldiers – comprise the Army Medical Department ( AMEDD ) . The NC is the nursing service for the U . S . Army and provides qualified nursing staff in support of the Department of Defense medical plans . This NC is composed entirely of registered nurse s ( RNs ) . Mission . All actions and tasks must lead and work toward promoting the wellness of Warriors and their families , supporting the delivery of Warrior and family healthcare , and all those entrusted to our care and ultimately , positioning the Army Nurse Corps as a force multiplier for the future of military medicine . Qualifications . AR 135 - 100 , AR 135 - 101 , AR 601 - 100 , and applicable Army Nurse Corps circulars in the DA Circular 601 - FY - X series list qualifications for entry . The U . S . Army Nurse Corps ( AN ) consists entirely of commissioned officers . Nurses who wish to serve as an Army Nurse are required to hold an unrestricted Registered Nurse ( RN ) license prior to receiving a commission . For the Active Army , a Bachelor of Science in Nursing ( BSN ) degree is required . Reserve Component nurses may commission with a BSN , Associate of Science in Nursing degree ( ADN ) , or a Diploma in Nursing but they must obtain their BSN in order to be eligible for promotion to the rank of Major . The US Army is evaluating this standard and may determine that entry level for Reserve Component officers will be a BSN . At this time the decision has not been made and nurses remain in high demand . The degree conferring school must furthermore be National League for Nursing ( NLN ) accredited in order for a nurse to be eligible for commissioning . Leadership . As of 2012 , the Chief of the Army Nurse Corps is Major General Jimmie O . Keenan . Specialties – Army Occupation Code ( AOC ) . Public Health Nurse – 66B < br > Psychiatric - Mental Health Nurse – 66C Peri - Operative Nurse – 66E Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist ( CRNA ) – 66F Obstetrics - Gynecological Nurse – 66G Medical - Surgical Nursing – 66H Generalist Nurse – 66N < br > This is used to designate positions on organizational documents but is not held by the individual . Family Nurse Practitioner ( FNP ) – 66P Additional Skill Identifiers ( ASI ) < br > These designate additional areas of expertise or experience and are in addition to a basic nursing specialty . History . Pre - 1901 . An Army Department circular order established the designation of Nurse During the American Civil War , the United States Sanitary Commission , a federal civilian agency , handled most of the medical and nursing care of the Union armies , together with necessary acquisition and transportation of medical supplies . Dorothea Dix , serving as the Commission ' s Superintendent , was able to convince the medical corps of the value of women working in their hospitals . A famous figure was Clara Barton , whose Civil War nursing efforts had earned her the names " Angel of the Battlefield " or the " American Nightingale . " In 1882 , Barton helped found and served as the first president of the American Chapters of the International Red Cross . During the 1898 Spanish - American War , the Army hired female civilian nurses to help with the wounded . Dr . Anita Newcomb McGee was put in charge of selecting contract nurses to work as civilians with the U . S . Army . In all , more than 1 , 500 women nurses worked as contract nurses during that 1898 conflict . 1901 – 1917 . Professionalization was a dominant theme during the Progressive Era , because it valued expertise and hierarchy over ad - hoc volunteering in the name of civic duty . Congress consequently established the Army Nurse Corps in 1901 and the Navy Nurse Corps in 1908 . The Red Cross became a quasi - official federal agency in 1905 and took upon itself primary responsibility for recruiting and assigning nurses . World War I . In World War I the military recruited 20 , 000 registered nurses ( all women ) for military and navy duty in 58 military hospitals ; they helped staff 47 ambulance companies that operated on the Western Front . More than 10 , 000 served overseas , while 5 , 400 nurses enrolled in the Army ' s new School of Nursing . The women were kept well back from the front lines , and although none were killed by enemy action , more than 200 died from disease , especially influenza . Julia Flikke , the assistant superintendent of nurses at a Chicago hospital , enlisted and became chief nurse at an Army hospital in France , then served on a hospital train that rushed casualties from the field hospitals to the long - term care hospitals . Interwar period . Demobilization reduced the two corps to skeleton units designed to be expanded should a new war take place . Eligibility at this time included being female , white , unmarried , volunteer , and a graduate from a civilian nursing school . In 1920 , Army Nurse Corps personnel received officer - equivalent ranks and wore Army rank insignia on their uniforms . However , they did not receive equivalent pay and were not considered part of the US Army . Flikke remained in the Army after the war . After 12 years at Walter Reed Army hospital in Washington , D . C . , she was promoted to captain and became the Assistant Superintendent of Nurses . She succeeded in creating new billets for occupational therapists and dieticians . Flikke became Superintendent , with the rank of Major , in 1938 . World War II . At the start of the war in December 1941 , there were fewer than 1000 nurses in the Army Nurse Corps and 700 in the Navy Nurse Corps . All were women . Colonel Flikke ' s small headquarters in 1942 , though it contained only 4 officers and 25 civilians , supervised the vast wartime expansion of nurses , in cooperation with the Red Cross . She only took unmarried women age 22 – 30 who had their RN training from civilian schools . They enlisted for the war plus six months , and were discharged if they married or became pregnant . Due to the Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 , the United States entered the Pacific part of World War II . Along with this military effort was the work of the Flying Tigers in Kunming , China , under Claire Chennault . Nurses were thus needed in China to serve the U . S . Army . These nurses were recruited among the Chinese nurses residing in China , particularly the English - speaking nurses that fled Hong Kong ( a British colony ) to free China due to the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong on 8 December 1941 . The Hong Kong nurses were trained by the Department of Medical Services ( directed by Dr . Percy Selwyn Selwyn - Clarke ) of the Government of Hong Kong . They took up Nursing positions at the Flying Tigers ( Rebecca Chan Chung 鍾陳可慰 , Daisy Pui - Ying Chan 陳培英 ) , U . S . Army ( Rebecca Chan Chung 鍾陳可慰 , Daisy Chan 陳培英 , Cynthia Chan 陳靜渝 ) , Chinese Red Cross ( Elsie Chin Yuen Seetoo , Irene Yu 余秀芬 ) and China National Aviation Corporation ( Rebecca Chan Chung 鍾陳可慰 , Irene Yu 余秀芬 ) . Cynthia Chan 陳靜渝 is the elder sister of Anna Chan 陳香梅 ( Mrs . Chennault ) . On 26 February 1944 Congress passed a bill that granted Army and Navy Nurses actual military rank , approved for the duration of the war plus 6 months . With over 8 million soldiers and airmen , the needs were more than double those of World War I . Hundreds of new military hospitals were constructed for the expected flow of casualties . Fearing a massive wave of combat casualties once Japan was invaded in late 1945 , President Franklin D . Roosevelt called on Congress early in 1945 for permission to draft nurses . However , with the rapid collapse of Germany early in 1945 , and the limitation of the war in the Pacific to a few islands , the draft was not needed and was never enacted . By the end of the war , the Army and Army Air Forces ( AAF ) had 54 , 000 nurses and the Navy 11 , 000 — all women . Some 217 black nurses served in all - black Army medical units . The AAF was virtually autonomous by 1942 , and likewise its Nurse Corps . Much larger numbers of enlisted men served as medics . These men were in effect practical nurses who handled routine care under the direction of nurse officers . Likewise many enlisted Wacs and Wafs served in military hospitals . Medical advances greatly increased survival rates for the wounded : 96 % of the 670 , 000 wounded soldiers and sailors who made it to a field hospital staffed by nurses and doctors survived their injuries . Amputations were seldom necessary to combat gangrene . Penicillin and sulfa drugs proved highly successful in this regard . Nurses were deeply involved with post - operative recovery procedures , air evacuation , and new techniques in psychiatry and anesthesia . Upon Flikke ' s retirement in 1943 , she was succeeded by Florence A . Blanchfield , who successfully promoted new laws in 1947 , that established the Army , Navy and Air Force Nurse Corps on a permanent basis , giving the nurses regular commissions on exactly the same terms as male officers . A month before she retired in 1947 , Blanchfield became the first women to hold a regular Army commission . Korea . During the Korean War , Army nurses would once again treat the wounded . Nurses would staff MASH units and standard emplaced hospitals in Japan and Korea . Nurses were on the forefront of battlefield medicine during the conflict , playing a major role in the treatment of the wounded U . N . forces within mere minutes or hours of the wounds being inflicted . Vietnam . During the Vietnam War many Army nurses would see deployment to South East Asia . Army nurses would staff all major Army hospitals in the theatre , including : Cam Ranh Bay , Da Nang , and Saigon . Vietnam would be the first major deployment of men as nurses into the combat theater , as men could be located in more hazardous locations than what was considered safe for females . Many Army nurses faced enemy fire for the first time due to the unconventional nature of the conflict , and several nurses would die from direct enemy fire . On at least one occasion the US Army hospital at Cam Ranh Bay was assaulted and severely damaged , with a loss of both patient and staff life . Currently . Army Nurses are deployed all over the world , participating in humanitarian missions , and supporting the Global War on Terror . Modern Nurse Corps . The Nurse Corps continues as a significant part of the Army medical department . Most training is conducted at Fort Sam Houston , Texas . Insignia and badges . The Nurse Corps has a distinctive insignia , an " N " superimposed on an Army caduceus . Superintendents and Directors . From its founding in 1908 until after World War II in 1947 , the Army Nurse Corps was led by a superintendent . Its nurses had no permanent commissioned rank . The Army - Navy Nurses Act took effect on 16 April 1947 , establishing the Army Nurse Corps as a staff corps , with officers holding permanent commissioned rank from second lieutenant to lieutenant colonel . The corps was to be led by a director holding the rank of colonel while in that position .