They Also Served
Airman First Class William “Pits” Pitsenbarger was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously after he sacrificed himself to save numerous wounded soldiers. (Air Force)
You may remember one alleged LTC by the name of Margaret deSanti, whose claims of this and that seemed out of bounds to reasonable people, and decidedly far-fetched to others of us.
You can revive your memories of deSanti at the link below to her 2014 claims that she was a nurse on medevac helos in the Nam, and “repelled” out of helicopters, when there is zero record of her service. https://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=57300
That was put up on TAH in 2014. There is no record of her service, period. There is, as noted in the original article, only one person received the Silver Star since WWII, and that was Leigh Ann Hester. It is easy enough to check on such things. Yet, Ms. deSanti claims that she received that award.
Ms. deSanti, who cannot even produce a correct salute, has literally spit in the faces of the women who did serve before she tried to add herself to their honored group.
I’ve gathered together a bit of information about various things that happened during World War II, such as women who were in nursing schools being recruited to serve in the US Cadet Nurse Corps, to replace nurses who joined the Army and were deployed to the various theaters. You can find that history at the site below in some of the stories that these ladies left behind.
This year is the 75th Anniversary of the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps. Some of them did go on to serve in the Army Nurse Corps once they finished their nursing degrees. Their stories are at this link: https://uscadetnurse.org/weremember
Some of them are rather poignant, as they were written by children and/or grandchildren after the Nurse Corps member passed on.
The U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps’ 75th Anniversary is going on now, in 2018.
“They saved lives at home, so others could save lives abroad.”
The website is a compilation of information about the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps—the nation’s first integrated uniformed U.S. service corps—which fulfilled an urgent need for nurses during World War II. At that time many nurses were called overseas to military service, and other women were attracted to the defense industry, while understaffed civilian hospitals in the United States were on the verge of collapse.
Nursing and Medicine During World War II
There are many links at the ceufast.com page, including links to WWI history of nursing.
https://ceufast.com/blog/nursing-and-medicine-during-world-war-ii
The following article includes references to the struggles of black women to be accepted as nurses during WWII. Some 500 black women served in various theaters during that War.
https://www.americannursetoday.com/three-red-cross-women-persevered-african-american-history-month/
In the end, they all served.
Let’s lift a glass to all of these women who filled in for their departing counterparts and served at home, and for the those who joined the Navy and Army Nurse Corps and were sent overseas, some of whom did not make it back home, and for all those who followed in their footsteps in Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, OIF/OEF, and whatever has followed since then.
They also served, all of them.
Ms. deSanti, to my knowledge, did not.
Category: Historical, We Remember
Both my great-aunt, a war nurse in the AEF, and my wife, one of the last WACs, would happily slap the dogsnot out of Ms.deSanti.
How about Martha Raye interned in the Special Forces cemetery in Wash. DC. I mentioned her in a past post.
During WWII my Mom was a hospital volunteer. She worked without regular pay to help free the nurses up from their more mundane tasks. Back then pretty much everybody pitched in in some way to help the war effort.
Those days are long gone.
No kidding. Remember all the griping about not being able to buy 9MM or .223 ammo cause the military was using it all? Far cry from women turning in their nylons to make parachutes and kids scrounging up chewing gum wrappers and used soda cans.
Margaret DiSanti = fossilized dog turd of a human being
Cut from the same cloth as Jan Spann.
Another phony nurse.
https://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=73408
Who among us DIDN’T fall in lus…err love with a military nurse? Especially ones in the rear areas with the white uniforms, stockings, and the little hat. I remember this Air Force Captain Nurse….never mind. Don’t want to cause an involuntary vascular reaction.
God Bless each and everyone of them. Had a coupla Marine buddies shot to hell in VN that ended up marrying their nurse care givers.
I married one. I love to tell people the Army issued me a wife, a lovely 2LT who wore those white uniforms. But I met her at wedding reception, not in a hospital bed. My line of duty injuries were limited to sprained ankles from night parachute jumps.
Had presumed from your posts that you were a lucky and blessed man. Now we all know just how lucky and blessed you are. Congrats my Brother.
Thanks. Had my G.I. issue wife for 46 years.
Thanks for these linkies Mi’Lady. Got kinda sorta sort in there for awhile. Some really good stuff and solid history. Took the liberty of forwarding it to some modern nurses/historical interpreters I know. I’m sure they will enjoy it too. The rain finally quit in my AO yesterday. 34F this morning and got up to 67F this afternoon. We paid honors to the casualties of the Battle of Griswoldville today.(18F in 1864 snow/sleet/freezing rain) One of the displays was for medicines/field hospitals of 1864. Gun salute was 2 cannon & 21 rifles. Stay warm, keep Miss SquawkyPants inside.
I worked with military nurses for 30 years. Certified nurse anesthesiologists, ICU nurses, ward nurses and others. Young ones, married ones, divorced, senior ones who were the very best. They saved many a sailor, soldier or airman and cried for years over the ones they couldn’t. Read “Visions of War, Dreams of Peace” Van Devanter/Furey , 1991 for a poetic close up of their perpetual memories, emotional and spiritual price they paid in war and how it effected the rest of their lives. God Bless them
CAPT Bones USN (ret)