Skip to main content
Naval History and Heritage Command

Naval History and Heritage Command

Related Content
Topic
  • People--Women
Document Type
  • Bibliography
Wars & Conflicts
File Formats
  • Image (gif, jpg, tiff)
Location of Archival Materials

Nurses in the U.S. Navy: Bibliography and Sources

Oral Histories:

General Uniform Instructions, Navy Nurse Corps, 1917

General Survey

Fitzgerald, Helen M. A History of the United States Navy Nurse Corps From 1934 to the Present. Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 1968.

Pre-World War II

Curto, Christine. "Nurse Pioneers and the Hospital Ship Relief," Navy Medicine 83, no.3 (May-Jun. 1992): 20-25. [Includes World War II].

Dauser, Sue S. "The Naval Reserve Nurse Corps," The American Journal of Nursing 41 (April 1941): 385-86.

____. "Red Cross Nursing and the Navy," The American Journal of Nursing 40 (Sep. 1940): 981-84.

Hickey, Dermott Vincent. The First Ladies in the Navy: A History of the Navy Nurse Corps, 1908-1939. Master's thesis, George Washington University, 1963.

Langley, Harld D. "Women in a Warship, 1813." U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings 110, no. 1 (Jan. 1984): 124-125. [Article on two women, Mrs. Mary Allen and Mrs. Mary Marshall, who served as nurses in 1813 on USSUnited States commanded by Commodore Stephen Decatur. Although Mary Allen was not officially in the U.S. Navy, her service on United States is the earliest documented case of a woman serving on a U.S. Navy ship.]

McCorkle, Edna M. "Nursing in the Navy," The American Journal of Nursing 41 (Nov. 1941): 1326-27.

Roca, Steven Louis. "Presence and Precedents: The USS Red Rover During the American Civil War, 1861-1865." Civil War History 44, no.2 (Jun 1998): 91-110. [Includes a list of women, including ratings and dates of service, who served on the ship between Apr. 1862 and Nov. 1865.]

Stringer, Harry ed. The Navy Book of Distinguished Service: An Official Compendium of the Names and Citations of the Men of the United States Navy, Marine Corps, Army and Foreign Governments Who Were Decorated By the Navy Department for the Extraordinary Gallantry and Conspicuous Service Above and Beyond the Call of Duty in the World War. Washington DC: Fassett Publishing Company, 1921 OCLC 2654351. [Includes nurses within alphabetical lists of other personnel].

Wood, M. Marian McGill. "Torpedoed!" American History 27, no.5 (Nov.-Dec. 1992): 38-41. [Navy Nurse on SS Maasdam, a Dutch ship, torpedoed seven months before Pearl Harbor].

World War II

Cooper, Page. Navy Nurse. New York: McGraw Hill, 1946.
OCLC 1399586

Danner, Dorothy Still. What a Way to Spend a War: Navy Nurse POWs in the Philippines. Annapolis MD: Naval Institute Press 1995. OCLC 33007727

DeWitt, Gill. The First Navy Flight Nurse on a Pacific Battlefield: A Picture Story of a Flight to Iwo Jima. Fredericksburg TX: Admiral Nimitz Foundation, 1983. OCLC 27647444

Fessler, Diane Burke. No Time for Fear: Voices of American Military Nurses in World War II. East Lansing MI: Michigan State University Press, 1996. OCLC 33900124

Herman, J.K. "Dorothy Still Danner: Reminiscences of a Nurse POW," Navy Medicine 83, no.3 (May-Jun. 1992): 36-40.

____. "Flight Nurse at Iwo." Navy Medicine 86, no.2 (Mar.- Apr. 1995): 8-12.

____. "Navy Nurse Remembers the Invasion," Navy Medicine 85, no.3 (May-Jun. 1994): 20-23. [Nurses supporting Normandy Invasion].

Jackson, Kathi. "50 Years Ago-World War II and the Navy Nurse," Navy Medicine 86, no.4 (Jul.-Aug. 1995): 18-22.

Jackson, Leona. "I Was On Guam," American Journal of Nursing 42 (Nov. 1942): 1244-46.

"Navy Nurses of the U.S.S. Solace," American Journal of Nursing 41 (Oct. 1941): 1173-75.

O'Toole, Sarah. "I'm In the Navy Now," American Journal of Nursing 43 (Dec. 1943): 1077.

Rosenbaum, Melissa B. "A Navy Nurse Remembers," U.S. Navy Medicine 72, no.6 (Jun. 1981): 22-25. [Nurse who escaped Corregidor].

Tomblin, Barbara B. "Beyond Paradise: The U.S. Navy Nurse Corps in the Pacific in World War II (Part One)." Minerva: Quarterly Report on Woman and the Military 11, no.1 (Spring 1993): 33-53.

_____. "Beyond Paradise: The U.S. Navy Nurse Corps in the Pacific in World War II (Part Two)." Minerva: Quarterly Report on Woman and the Military 11, nos. 3 & 4 (Fall/Winter 1993): 37-56.

US Navy Dept. Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. History of the Medical Department of the United States Navy in World War II. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1953. OCLC 4067096 [v.1, A Narrative and Pictorial Volume; v.2, A Compilation of the Killed, Wounded and Decorated Personnel].

____. White Task Force: The Story of the Nurse Corps, United States Navy. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1945. OCLC 14725366

Post-World War II

Duffy, Patrick R. "The Navy Nurses' Hundredth Birthday," Columbia 42, no.10 (Oct. 1962): 34-36, 42.

"Navy Nurse Corps: Post-War Program," Army and Navy Journal 83, no.37 (11 May 1946): 1081, 1104.

Korea

Omori, Frances. Quiet Heroes: Navy Nurses of the Korean War, Far East Command, 1950-53. Saint Paul MN: Smith House Press, 2000.

Vietnam

Alkana, Linda Kelly. "Women Warriors, Women Healers: American Military Nurses in Vietnam," The Valley Forge Journal 4 (Dec. 1989): 352-61.

Boling, Gerald R. "Navy Nurses, Male and Female, Tell About Their Profession: Service Has Openings for 400 More as Viet Nam Needs are Felt," Navy [Navy League of the U.S.] 10 (Aug.1967): 21-24.

Finis by the Navy Nurses. Saigon: Headquarters Support Activity Saigon, Station Hospital, 1966.

Hovis, Bobbi. Station Hospital Saigon: A Navy Nurse in Vietnam, 1963-1964. Annapolis MD: Naval Institute Press, 1991.
OCLC 25009507

Kirk, Donald. "It Was 2:00 A.M. Saigon Time," American Journal of Nursing (Dec. 1965): 77-79.

Kirkpatrick, Sandra. "Hey Hero!" Readers Digest (Sep. 1970):
71-75.

Klubes, David. "Women's Vietnam Veteran's Memorial Dedicated," Navy Medicine (Nov.-Dec. 1993): 10-13.

"Navy Nurse-On Vietnam Duty," RN 31(Nov. 1968): 46-51.

Norman, Beth. Women at War: The Story of Fifty Military Nurses Who Served in Vietnam. Philadelphia PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990. OCLC 21332836

"Nurses Serve," The Vietnam Veteran (Jan. 1984): 4.

Persian Gulf War

Becraft, Carolyn. Facts About Women in the U.S. Armed Services: The War in the Persian Gulf. Washington DC: Women's Research and Education Institute, 1991.

Jordan, Mary. "Tears, Hugs Greet Crew From Comfort, Ship's Personnel Return to Hospital" Washington Post (10 Mar. 1991): A24.

Miller, Judith J., Jr. "Reserve Nurse Recalls Her Tour of Duty During the Persian Gulf Crisis" The Journal (National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda MD) 4, no.2 (16 Jan. 1992): 8-9.

Moore, Molly. Women on the Battlefield, Gulf War Role Helps Bring Shift in Attitude" Washington Post (6 Jun. 1991) A1, A16- 17.

U.S. Department of Defense. Conduct of the Persian Gulf Conflict: An Interim Report to Congress. Washington DC: Dept. of Defense, 1991. [See 9-1 to 9-3]. OCLC 24114037.

____. Conduct of the Persian Gulf War: Final Report to Congress. Apr. 1992 [See appendix R, "Role of Women in the Theater of Operations," 647-49]. OCLC 27049227.

Post Desert Storm

"A Conversation With RADM Stratton," Navy Medicine (May- Jun. 1992): 5-8. [She was selected as Nurse Corps Director in November 1990].

Klubes, D. "RADM Engel Takes the Helm From RADM Stratton." Navy Medicine 85, no.5 (Sep.-Oct. 1994): 4-5.

McDowell, Denise. "Navy Nursing-1992: 84 Years of Caring," Navy Medicine 83, no.3 (May-Jun. 1992): 9-13.

Poyner, Russell S. "Carrier Nursing," Navy Medicine 83, no.3 (May-Jun. 1992): 14-19.

Ruff, Cheryl Lynn and K. Sue Roper. Ruff's War: A Navy Nurse on the Frontline in Iraq. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2005.

SELECTED ARCHIVAL SOURCES IN THE NAVAL HISTORY AND HERITAGE COMMAND ARCHIVES

Behr, Esther N. Personal Papers. 1 Box. [World War I Navy nurse].

Records of the Navy Nurse Corps, 1908-1978, 37 boxes.

Published: Fri Nov 17 10:48:30 EST 2017