The Silver Star Medal (SSM) is the United States Armed Forces' third-highest military decoration for valor in combat. The Silver Star Medal is awarded primarily to members of the United States Armed Forces for gallantry in action against an enemy of the United States.
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. The Corps was all-female until 1965.
Second Lieutenant Carmen Maria Lozano Dumler, RN,, was one of the first Puerto Rican women to become a United States Army officer. During World War II, she served as a nurse and interpreter, and provided support for patients who spoke Spanish. Lozano Dumler has since been featured in promotional and recruitment materials that celebrate diversity in the US military.
Most professional militaries employ specialised military nurses. They are often organised as a distinct nursing corps. Florence Nightingale formed the first nucleus of a recognised Nursing Service for the British Army during the Crimean War in 1854. In the same theatre of the same war, Professor Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogov and the Grand Duchess Yelena Pavlovna originated Russian traditions of recruiting and training military nurses – associated especially with besieged Sevastopol (1854–1855). Following the war Nightingale fought to institute the employment of women nurses in British military hospitals, and by 1860 she had succeeded in establishing an Army Training School for military nurses at the Royal Victoria Military Hospital in Netley, Hampshire, England.
Colonel Ruby Bradley was a United States Army Nurse Corps officer, a prisoner of the Japanese in World War II, and one of the most decorated women in the United States military. She was a native of Spencer, West Virginia but lived in Falls Church, Virginia, for over 50 years.
Two of the least-known roles played by Puerto Rican women and women of Puerto Rican descent have been that of soldier and that of revolutionary. This is a brief account of some the Puerto Rican women who have participated in military actions as members of either a political revolutionary movement or of the Armed Forces of the United States.
Lt. Annie G. Fox was the first woman to receive the Purple Heart for combat. She served as the chief nurse in the Army Nurse Corps at Hickam Field during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941. At that time the awarding of the Purple Heart did not require the service member to be injured. The requirements were changed after the attack of Pearl Harbor and Lt. Fox was awarded the Bronze Star because Fox was not wounded in the attack.
Puerto Ricans and people of Puerto Rican descent have participated as members of the United States Armed Forces in the American Civil War and in every conflict which the United States has been involved since World War I. In World War II, more than 65,000 Puerto Ricans service members served in the war effort, including the guarding of U.S. military installations in the Caribbean and combat operations in the European and Pacific theatres.
Ann Agnes Bernatitus was a United States Navy nurse who served during World War II. She was the first American recipient of the Legion of Merit
Hispanic Americans, also referred to as Latinos, served in all elements of the American armed forces in the war. They fought in every major American battle in the war. Between 400,000 and 500,000 Hispanic Americans served in the U.S. Armed Forces during World War II, out of a total of 16,000,000, constituting 3.1% to 3.2% of the U.S. Armed Forces. The exact number is unknown as, at the time, Hispanics were not tabulated separately, but were included in the general white population census count. Separate statistics were kept for African Americans and Asian Americans.
The Angels of Bataan were the members of the United States Army Nurse Corps and the United States Navy Nurse Corps who were stationed in the Philippines at the outset of the Pacific War and served during the Battle of the Philippines (1941–1942). When Bataan and Corregidor fell, 11 navy nurses, 66 army nurses, and 1 nurse-anesthetist were captured and imprisoned in and around Manila. They continued to serve as a nursing unit while prisoners of war. After years of hardship, they were finally liberated in February 1945.
Laura Mae Cobb was a member of the United States Navy Nurse Corps who served during World War II. She received numerous decorations for her actions as a POW of the Japanese, during which she continued to serve as Chief Nurse for eleven other imprisoned Navy nurses—known as the "Twelve Anchors. She retired from the Nurse Corps as a Lieutenant Commander in 1947.
Aleda Ester Lutz was a United States Army flight nurse. She was the first American woman to die in combat during World War II and, with the exception of Civil War era Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, the highest decorated woman in the history of the U.S. military.
The United States Army Nurse Corps was formally established by the U.S. Congress in 1901. It is one of the six medical special branches of officers which – along with medical enlisted soldiers – comprise the Army Medical Department (AMEDD).
This article is about the role played by women in the military in the Americas, particularly in the United States and Canada from the First World War to modern times.
Ellen Ainsworth was an officer in the United States Army during World War II. Ainsworth was awarded the Silver Star and the Purple Heart for her actions during Operation Shingle while serving with the United States Army Nurse Corps.
The history of nursing in the United States focuses on the professionalization of nursing since the Civil War.
Ruth M. Gardiner was a nurse in the United States Army Nurse Corps. She was the first American nurse to lose her life in the line of duty during World War II. She served in the Alaskan Theater and rose to the rank of Second Lieutenant. She was one of a group of six nurses in Alaska during the campaign of World War II that assisted in medical evacuations by plane. The group covered 3,500,000 air miles and evacuated over 2,500 sick and wounded without injury or death to any of their patients. Gardiner was accidentally killed while on one such evacuation, when the aircraft on which she was traveling crashed. A 1,250-bed hospital was named in her honor and was the first Army hospital named for a woman or nurse.
Lieutenant Edith Ellen Greenwood (1920-1999) served with the United States Army Nurse Corps (ANC) during World War II. She was the first female recipient of the Soldier's Medal, an award she received for saving 15 patients.
Sharon Ann Lane was a United States Army nurse and the only American servicewoman killed as a direct result of enemy fire in the Vietnam War. The Army posthumously awarded Lane the Bronze Star Medal for heroism on June 8, 1969.
United States of America 
United States Army 
Second Lieutenant 
Silver Star 
European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal 
World War II Victory Medal