Eleven Navy Nurses Decorated

A brief article on U.S. Navy nurses in Manila during WWII from All Hands, Bureau of Naval Personnel Information Bulletin, October 1945.

Eleven Navy Nurses Decorated for Work During Jap Occupation of Philippines

Eleven Navy nurses who were in Manila when the Japs attacked Pearl Harbor and who worked there and in prison camps for over three years, making the most of inadequate medical supplies to care for wounded and diseased prisoners, have been decorated with the Bronze Star Medal by the Army and a gold star in lieu of a second by the Navy. Three civilian nurses who volunteered to help them received Bronze Star Medals from the Navy.

On 9 Dec 1941 the nurses, who were stationed at the Naval Hospital Canacao, evacuated all patients to a safe area beneath the concrete floor of the hospital and then to the Sternberg Hospital in Manila. Working tirelessly, they cared for the hundreds of badly wounded that streamed in from Cavite, Sangley Point and other installations. For two weeks they shuttled from one to another of the emergency units about Manila, tending the ever-increasing casualties until, on 6 January, the entire medical unit was captured.

LIBERATED NURSES, wearing dresses they made while interned in Jap prison camp, welcomed back to safety of U.S. base by Vice Admiral Kinkaid.

They continued their work until March when the unit was disbanded. Then the officers and men they cared for were moved to notorious Bilibid prison while the nurses entered Santo Tomas. In May 1943 they moved to Los Banos where the Navy nurses, with the help of the three civilian nurses, established a hospital.

At Los Banos, medical supplies were meager. Bits of corrugated tin were used for cooking and medical utensils. Torn linen and clothing served for bandages. Medicines were made from herbs and sap from trees substituted for adhesive plasters. Nevertheless, from May 1943 until February 1945, over 150 major operations, including two Caesarian deliveries, were performed. As food rations were cut, dietary deficiencies and plain starvation took heavier and heavier tolls. Burials were delayed until an internee strong enough to dig the grave could be found.

Rescue came on 23 February when American paratroopers and Filipino guerillas subdued the prison garrison, 25 miles inside the enemy lines, and freed the internees. The nurses, weak and thin after 37 months of internment, arrived in San Francisco 10 March.

The 11 Navy nurses are: Lt. Comdr. Laura M. Cobb, USN, Wichita, Kans.; Lt. Mary C. Hays, USN, Chicago, Ill.; Lt. Bertha R. Evans, USN, Portland, Ore.; Lt. Helen C. Gorzelanski, USN, Omaha, Neb.; Lt. Mary H. Nelson, USN, Elk Point, S.D.; Lt. Margaret A. Nash, USN, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.; Lt. Goldia O. Merrill, USN, Hayfield, Minn.; Lt. Eldene E. Paige, USN, Lomita, Calif.; Lt. Susie Pitcher, USN, Des Moines, Iowa; Lt. Dorothy Still, USN, Long Beach, Calif., and Lt. C. Edwina Todd, USN, Pomona, Calif.

The three civilian nurses are Miss Helen C. Grant, British nursing sister now returned to her home in Glasgow, Scotland; Miss Maureen Davis, graduate of St. Luke’s Hospital, Manila, now a resident of Northridge, Calif., and Mrs. Basilia T. Steward, Chinese General Hospital (Manila) graduate, now a resident of Fairfield, Tex.

The awards were made to the Navy nurses at their present duty stations on 4 September, with three receiving theirs on the Navy Hour radio program from Washington, D.C.