Happy Birthday Navy Nurse Corps!

Veterans of the Navy Nurse Corps will gather Saturday, May 2, at the Women’s Memorial for a memorial service as part of the anniversary celebration of the Corps’ 100th birthday.

The Navy Nurse Corps was established May 13, 1908. Esther Voorhees Hasson was the Corps’ first superintendent in charge of its original 19 recruits. Those “Sacred Twenty” were not permitted to serve aboard ships and served without the benefit of rank, a tradition that lasted for years. By World War II, Navy Nurses had been given relative ranks and some benefits, however Navy nurses didn’t gain permanent status until the passage of the Army-Navy Nurses Act of 1947.

Only since 1973, when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of “same benefits” for servicewomen, have Navy nurses—and servicewomen of all branches—gradually gained the more equal footing that led them to the breadth of opportunities and challenges they know today.

In 2008, challenges facing Navy nurses are almost entirely mission-driven and often performed in harm’s way in the Global War on Terror as demonstrated by Navy Nurse Corps LT Lisa Saar, who received the USN and USMC Commendation Medal in Fallujah, Iraq. (Read her story on our Web site.) To learn more about the work of Navy nurses, read, “In and Out of Harm’s Way: A History of the Navy Nurse Corps,” available through the Women’s Memorial Gift Shop or visit the Navy Nurse Corps Association Web site.