Upon returning from harrowing service in the Philippines at Bataan and an evacuation from Corregidor on USS Spearfish (SS-190), LTjg Bernatitus of the Nurse Corps, received a hero's welcome from her hometown in Pennsylvania, complete with parade and dinner at the local high school. Albert Murray, painter of numerous admirals and dignitaries, made this portrait of her at the Corcoran Gallery here in Washington in 1942. Bernatitus was stationed at National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, and several times she took the trolley or bus from Bethesda to the Corcoran to sit for Murray.

Later in the War, Bernatitus served on the Hospital Ship USS Relief (AH-1) during the Okinawa campaign (1945) and assisted with the return of American prisoners of war from Japanese-occupied China.