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| Cadet Nurse Corps recruitment poster |
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| Cadet Nurse Corps badge |
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| Cadet Nurse Corps pledge pin |
Since the post of December 5th, many citizens, former Cadet Nurses, and family members of deceased Cadet Nurses contacted the office of Senate Minority Leader, Charles E. Schumer [D-NY], and as a result he added his name as co-sponsor of the United States Cadet Nurse Corps Service Recognition Act on December 7th–making him the 36th co-sponsor. Such a significant and meaningful date to have signed on (Pearl Harobor Day). Thank you Senator Schumer!
The strong bipartisan support for this long overdue recognition of Cadet Nurse Corps members for their vital service during WWII is now at just over half of the U.S. Senate. More needs to be done, however. There are still some states whose senators have not added their names to the support for this Act. Perhaps they have not been informed about the nature of the Act, that it is virtually a no-cost piece of legislation, and that it provides long delayed and overlooked recognition to a female medical workforce that answered the call of the country in a time of serious need and thereby saved the country's health care system from total collapse. By the oft used terms of "heroic" service today, they were heroines of their time!
The following 26 states count one or both of their senators among the co-sponsors of the United States Cadet Nurse Corps Service Recognition Act: New York, Maine, Montana, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Oregon, Alabama, Maryland, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Delaware, Wisconsin, Arizona, Texas, Kansas, Ohio, North Dakota, Washington, Arkansas, Vermont, West Virginia, Nevada, and Louisiana. This means that barely half the states have had one or both of their senators weigh in on support for minimal recognition of these heroines of WWII.
The senators from the other 24 states need help to do the right thing and add their support for this important Act. They may be very busy during the close of this Congress and have not been reminded of the pending Act, so we need to remind them and urge them to step up and join their colleagues from both parties to remedy this oversight. These are the 24 unrepresented states on the co-sponsorship of the United States Cadet Nurse Corps Service Recognition Act: Rhode Island, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois, Oklahoma, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho, California, Alaska, Colorado, Utah, Virginia, New Mexico, Indiana, Iowa, and Hawaii.
Lest we forget the vital role nurses play in our health care system, we have a very stark reminder playing out before our very eyes on a daily basis during this COVID pandemic. Nurses are sacrificing their family life and sometimes even their very lives to keep our health care system functioning and to prevent even more catastrophic loss of life than we have experienced so far. During WWII about 124,000 young women stepped up in a similar way to save lives and to keep our health care system from imploding. They were role models for generations of nurses and the nurses today are their direct descendants. We owe the Cadet Nurses the minimal recognition and honor that the United States Cadet Nurse Corps Service Recognition Act would provide.
Perhaps some of your ancestors or relatives were attended to and cared for by a Cadet Nurse. If you believe those young nurses then and our nurses today provide an invaluable service that should be recognized (no matter how late), then please reach out to the U.S. Senators in the unrepresented states listed above and urge them to sign on to S997 as co-sponsors right away. It is an easy, but so meaningful way to say thank you to all the nurses that have touched your lives!
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Copyright 2020, John D. Tew
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