Military Nurse

A month after her 24th birthday, Lt. Mary Elizabeth Balster collapses among the rubble of a shelled supply room. On the night of November 30, 1944, holed up in the Heinrich Himmler Barracks in Morhange, France, Lt. Balster's evac receives a typical patient load, but this time one of the admissions is a 19-year-old tanker she'd nursed back to health five months before in Normandy. The charge nurse on Surgical gently informs the lieutenant that the private is critical.

Weaving together information from official sources and personal interviews, Barbara Tomblin gives the first full-length account of the US Army Nurse Corps in the Second World War. She describes how over 60,000 army nurses, all volunteers, cared for sick and wounded American soldiers in every theater of the war, serving in the jungles of the Southwest Pacific, the frozen reaches of Alaska and Iceland, the mud of Italy and northern Europe, or the heat and dust of the Middle East.

Christine Collins is a decorated veteran, having served as a U.S. Air Force Captain and trauma nurse during a pivotal deployment to Afghanistan in 2009. Stationed at Bagram Air Base, she found herself at the epicenter of the conflict, tirelessly working to save the lives of American troops, Afghan civilians caught in the crossfire, and even enemy fighters.

Although much of it is set against a backdrop of war, devastation, and destruction, it is a tale of humanity and the triumph of human spirit. There are accounts of tragedy and heartbreak but also anecdotes about hidden strength, silver linings, and humorous situations. Beginning with my grandfather Joseph Patrick Murphy, a colorful character and highly decorated veteran of the Great War, it then traces my mother Eileen's early days growing up in Liverpool.

The amazing experiences of the Queen Alexandra nurses in the World Wars is one of the greatest adventure stories of modern times, and - incredibly - remains largely untold. Thousands of middle-class girls, barely out of school, were plucked from sheltered backgrounds, subjected to training regimes unimaginably tough by today's standards, and sent forth to share the harsh conditions of the fighting services.

In January 1940, navy nurse Dorothy Still eagerly anticipated her new assignment at a military hospital in the Philippines. Her first year abroad was an adventure. She dated sailors, attended dances, and watched the sparkling evening lights from her balcony. But as 1941 progressed, signs of war became imminent. When Pearl Harbor was attacked, Dorothy and the other nurses braced for a direct assault. In that frantic dash, Dorothy transformed from a navy nurse to a war nurse. Along with the other women on the nursing staff, she provided compassionate, tireless, critical care.

Drawing upon evidence from archives across the world, Veiled Warriors offers a compelling account of nurses' wartime experiences and a clear appraisal of their work and its contribution to the allied cause between 1914 and 1918, on both the Western and the Eastern Fronts. Nurses believed they were involved in a multi-layered battle. Primarily, they were fighting for the lives of their patients on the "second battlefield" of casualty clearing stations, transports, and military hospitals.

On November 8, 1943, U.S. Army nurse Agnes Jensen stepped out of a cold rain in Catania, Sicily, into a C-53 transport plane. But she and twelve other nurses never arrived in Bari, Italy, where they were to transport wounded soldiers to hospitals farther from the front lines. A violent storm and pursuit by German Messerschmitts led to a crash landing in a remote part of Albania, leaving the nurses, their team of medics, and the flight crew stranded in Nazi-occupied territory.

More than 100 US Army and Navy nurses were stationed in Guam and the Philippines at the beginning of World War II. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, five navy nurses on Guam became the first American military women of World War II to be taken prisoner by the Japanese. More than 70 army nurses survived five months of combat conditions in the jungles of Bataan and Corregidor before being captured, only to endure more than three years in prison camps.

When friends encouraged Jenae to join their adventure to Hawaii, the twenty-six year old celebrated the chance to mingle with new eligible men on her quest for love. Paradise found her paddling against strong currents for a fresh start and a chance to revamp her heart, mind, and body. Jenae was not prepared for a trifecta of bad luck that sunk her to rock bottom. Rigorous training for an island triathlon gave her physical and mental toughness that pulled her out of the darkest of caves. She rode the wave of confidence to command attention and passionate love that she craved.

Today, nursing is one of the most ubiquitous professions in the world, and images of war immediately call to mind nursing the wounded, but it was not long ago that such ideas were relatively primitive. Indeed, schoolchildren are still taught about the revolutionary exploits of Florence Nightingale, the war nurse who is often credited as the founder of modern nursing. Florence Nightingale first came to prominence during the Crimean War in the middle of the 19th century when she helped organize efforts to treat wounded soldiers.

This series is a thank-you to emergency workers! Each title will look into an emergency worker job, the training it takes, and what a day in the life looks like.

Reconstructed from actual letters and diaries, this is the story of four young people living in Philadelphia whose lives become intertwined when the American Civil War begins in 1861. Jan is a German immigrant who begins his studies at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg. Emma is a Quaker who has learned survival skills growing up in a thick forest. Gabrielle, is a Southerner, was raised by her governess and wealthy Virginian father. Maura travels alone to America from Ireland to escape the potato famine and eventually enters the convent as a Sister of Mercy.

Clara Barton: The Life and Legacy of the Civil War Nurse Who Founded the American Red Cross chronicles her remarkable life, and the manner in which she changed nursing in America forever. You will learn about Clara Barton like never before.

The World Wars of the 20th century caused massive upheavals all over the world. Often overlooked by history are the extraordinary true-life stories of the brave women from the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand who enlisted in the Allied forces in their thousands to serve as nurses behind the front lines, at great danger to themselves.