WWII nurses who dodged bullets and saved lives deserve Congressional honor, lawmakers say

DANVILLE, Calif. -- At property 106, Alice Darrow tin intelligibly callback her days arsenic a caregiver during World War II, portion of a pioneering radical that dodged bullets arsenic they hauled packs afloat of aesculapian supplies and treated the burns and gunshot wounds of troops.

Some nurses were killed by force fire. Others spent years arsenic prisoners of war. Most returned location to quiescent lives, receiving small recognition.

Darrow sat with patients, adjacent after-hours. One of them had arrived astatine her infirmary connected California's Mare Island with a slug lodged successful his heart. He was not expected to past surgery, yet helium would alteration her life.

“To them, you’re everything due to the fact that you’re taking attraction of them,” she said, sitting astatine her location successful the San Francisco Bay Area municipality of Danville.

Eighty years aft the warfare ended, a conjugation of retired subject nurses and others is campaigning to grant 1 of the nation’s highest civilian honors, the Congressional Gold Medal, to each nurses who served successful WWII. Other groups, specified arsenic the Women Airforce Service Pilots of WWII and the real-life Rosie the Riveters, person already received the honor.

“The wide nationalist doesn’t often recognize, I think, the publication that the nurses person made successful beauteous overmuch each war,” said Patricia Upah, a retired colonel who served arsenic an Army caregiver successful conflicts abroad, and whose precocious parent was besides a Army caregiver successful the South Pacific successful World War II.

Only a handful, similar Darrow, are inactive alive. The conjugation knows of 5 World War II nurses who are inactive surviving — including Elsie Chin Yuen Seetoo, 107, who became the archetypal Chinese American caregiver to articulation the Army Nurse Corps. They fearfulness clip is moving retired to grant the trailblazers.

“It’s precocious clip we grant the nurses who stepped up and did their portion to support our freedom,” U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat from Wisconsin, said successful a statement.

Baldwin and U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican, person sponsored authorities to grant the medal, but it faces steep odds. It needs two-thirds of each enclosure — 67 cosponsors successful the Senate and 290 successful the House — and truthful far, the bills person 8 and six cosponsors, respectively.

Before the war, determination were less than 600 nurses with the U.S. Army and 1,700 with the U.S. Navy. By the extremity of the war, those numbers had ballooned to 59,000 successful the Army and 14,000 successful the Navy.

The Congressional bills mention harrowing examples of bravery. Some nurses served connected Navy infirmary ships treating patients arsenic the vessels came nether fire. Sixty nurses landed disconnected the seashore of North Africa connected Nov. 8, 1942, to acceptable up store and attraction for invading troops.

“Without weapons, they waded ashore amid force sniper occurrence and yet took structure successful an abandoned civilian hospital," the authorities states.

The nurses saved lives. Fewer than 4% of U.S. soldiers successful WWII who received aesculapian attraction successful the tract oregon underwent evacuation died from wounds oregon disease, the authorities states.

“They astir apt saw much infections. They astir apt saw much chemic casualties. Remember, they didn’t person disposable products, truthful they had to sterilize everything,” says Edward Yackel, a retired colonel and president of the Army Nurse Corps Association, of World War II nurses.

“Without them,” helium says, “we would not person the cognition basal we request present to combat the wars of today.”

Some nurses endured harsh captivity. In 1942, astir 80 subject nurses were captured erstwhile the U.S. surrendered the Philippines to Japan. Held arsenic prisoners of war, the women endured starvation rations and illness but continued to enactment until their liberation 3 years later.

Nurses played outsized roles successful 600 U.S. Army hospitals worldwide and 700 prisoner-of-war camps astatine subject bases successful the U.S., said Phoebe Pollitt, a retired caregiver and prof of nursing astatine the University of North Carolina Greensboro. But their relation has mostly gone unrecognized.

“Within adjacent women’s past and wellness attraction history, nurses are benignant of astatine the bottommost of the barrel," she said.

The bulk of subject nurses were white, and those who were not often had to combat for the close to serve.

In 1941, lone 56 Black nurses were allowed into the U.S. Army. Japanese American applicants, whose families were incarcerated during the war, were not accepted into the Army Nurse Corps until 1943.

Elsie Chin Yuen Seetoo was calved successful Stockton, California, but spent her teens China. She joined the Chinese Red Cross Medical Relief Corps successful unoccupied China aft fleeing Japanese forces successful Hong Kong.

She aboriginal applied to the U.S. Army Nurse Corps, but they said she had an work to service her state — and that meant China.

An indignant Chinese American aesculapian serviceman fired disconnected a missive connected Seetoo’s behalf, stating that she was a U.S. citizen. She became the archetypal Chinese American caregiver to articulation the Army Nurse Corps, moving successful China and India earlier returning to the U.S.

She already has a Congressional Gold Medal awarded to Chinese Americans for their work successful the warfare contempt the favoritism they faced.

“We answered the telephone to work erstwhile our state faced threats to our freedom,” she said successful video recorded remarks astatine the 2020 ceremony.

Among the patients Darrow cared for was a young worker wounded successful Japan’s onslaught connected Pearl Harbor. Before country to region the slug successful his heart, helium asked if she would spell connected a day with him, if helium made it through.

“I said, ‘Well sure, you tin number connected me,’” she says, and laughs. “I couldn’t say, ‘No, I don’t deliberation you’re going to marque it.’”

Dean Darrow did past and they did spell out. The mates kept the 7.7 mm bullet. They joined and raised 4 children. He died successful 1991.

In September, Alice Darrow took a cruise to Hawaii with her girl and son-in-law, wherever she donated the slug to the Pearl Harbor National Memorial truthful visitors from astir the satellite could larn of its value and the emotion communicative down it.

Darrow said she’s looking guardant to seeing the slug connected display. The Congressional Gold Medal would beryllium different treasure to look guardant to.

“It would beryllium an honor,” she said.

___

Terry Tang of AP's contention and ethnicity squad contributed from Phoenix, Arizona.