Today is a special post in lieu of the usual Saturday Serendipity, but it does include this recommended read.
As the COVID 19 pandemic rages throughout our country and our medical system is being stressed to the point of near collapse in many areas of the nation, it is worth pausing to consider that in some respects we have been here before. Just as 102 years ago we suffered at least 675,000 American deaths due to a virulent strain of influenza that challenged scientists, physicians, and nurses, we are again finding ourselves relying on front-line medical professionals to battle a deadly disease–and they are being stretched and stressed to the breaking point.
We have been here before. Beginning 77 years ago and lasting for just over five years the nation called on a segment of its population (entirely women) to come to the aid of the country during a medical care crisis. It was not due to a deadly virus or influenza at that time, but rather to a severe loss of medical personnel as the result of World War Two. After the entry of the U.S. into the war following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, doctors and nurses were swept up into service in the war effort in such numbers that the majority of nurses were no longer available to serve the domestic medical needs of the country. As a result, a call was put out to increase dramatically and quickly the number of nurses so that the medical needs of the country could be met while the home front worked to supply and support the military efforts overseas during the war.
Beginning in 1943 and lasting until the end of 1948, about 124,000 women answered the nation's call and pledged to devote essential nursing services for the duration of WWII. These women joined the newly enacted uniformed service known as the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps and received training, financial assistance, and a small allowance in exchange for their open ended pledge of service. It is estimated that Cadet Nurses were soon providing 80% of the critically needed nursing care in civilian, government, and military hospitals during WWII and they have been credited with preventing a total collapse of the U.S. health care system as the war raged on.
But then–and for the last seven-plus decades–the members of the Cadet Nurse Corps have never really received the recognition, appreciation, and honor that they surely earned and deserved. In this respect, the Cadet Nurse Corps was overlooked or forgotten in a similar way that the members of the U.S. Merchant Marine serving to supply our military during WWII were treated for several decades until they were finally recognized by the Merchant Marine Decorations and Medals Act of 1988. [See this previous post on that subject here on The Prism.]
Presently there is pending before the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives two identical bills to rectify this long overdue recognition of the service of the members of the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps. IF these bills are passed and included in the year-end omnibus package, the surviving members of the Cadet Nurse Corps and the families of those deceased Cadet Nurses can finally receive the virtually no-cost recognition and honors they so admirably earned and deserve. The text of the Senate bill, S997 is as follows . . .
If you believe the nurses of the uniformed U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps deserve this belated recognition for their contributions to the nation's war efforts and the preservation of the country's health care system during WWII, please contact Minority Leader Chuck Schumer ASAP to voice your support and request inclusion in the omnibus package. Your support can be noted by calling his Washington office at (202)224-6542 or his New York Office at (631)753-0978. It is easy and you can just leave a message if the office is not answering live calls due to the pandemic. It will take less than two minutes to accomplish.
Very few of the 124,000 Cadet Nurse Corps members are still with us and those few are running out of time to receive and see the long overdue recognition the bills provide and that they so richly deserve.
* * * *
In the interest of full disclosure . . .
 |
| Shirley Carpenter in her Cadet Nurse Uniform circa 1944 |
My mother, who will turn 94 this coming March, was a Cadet Nurse. On July 22, 2016, I blogged about her service in the Cadet Nurse Corps and you can read that post here.
AND FINALLY, as we daily see the agonizingly hard work and emotional toil and stress that our front-line COVID nurses and doctors are dealing with as this pandemic accelerates, it is not too early to suggest that we begin now to consider how their hard work and sacrifice to assure their communities and nation can weather and recover from this horrific pandemic can be recognized and honored. Just as the current bills to recognize and honor the members of the Cadet Nurse Corps allow for the design and production of a medal to award to the Cadet Nurses, we should make sure that a truly grateful nation takes similar steps to honor the doctors, nurses, and other front-line health care workers who served to get us through this pandemic. It is the least we can do. They should not have to wait decades to receive some manifest token of appreciation and gratitude from a thankful nation.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Copyright 2020, John D. Tew
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
No comments:
Post a Comment