15/03/2024
"[Nurses] are working terribly hard, sleeping with helmets over their faces and enamel basins on their stomachs, washing in the water they had in their hot-water bags because water is so scarce, operating fourteen hours at a stretch, drinking quantities of tea because there is no coffee and nothing else to drink, wearing men’s ordnance socks under their stockings, trying to keep their feet warm in the frosty operating rooms at night, and both seeing and doing such surgical work as they never in their wildest days dreamed of, but all the time unafraid and unconcerned with the whistling, banging shells exploding around them. Oh, they are fine! One need never tell me that women can’t do as much, stand as much, and be as brave as men.” -- Julia Stimson
During World War I, Julia Stimson played a little-known yet extraordinary role in saving as many lives as possible as the supervisor of 10,000 American Army nurses in France. When America entered the war in 1917, she joined the Army Nurse Corps, becoming chief nurse for Base Hospital 21. In 1918, she became head of the Red Cross Nursing Service and later chief nurse of the American Expeditionary Forces, supervising 10,000 nurses across France.
For her service, Stimson was awarded the United States' Distinguished Service Medal and Britain's Red Cross Florence Nightingale Medal; General John J. Pershing cited that her awards were for “exceptionally meritorious and conspicuous service.” Following the war, she became the first woman to ever achieve the rank of major in the U.S. Army as the superintendent of the Army Nurse Corps and the first dean of the Army School of Nursing. Although she was officially retired when World War II broke out, she was recalled to active duty to assist in recruiting nurses to help fulfill a critical wartime need. She was promoted to full colonel shortly before her death in 1948.
For a fascinating collection of letters from American nurses caring for Allied soldiers in France during WWI, we recommend Stimson's book "Finding Themselves" at https://amzn.to/3WBPd0W
Julia Stimson is among the heroic women featured in "The Second Line of Defense: American Women and World War I" at https://www.amightygirl.com/the-second-line-of-defense
For an excellent book about 16 remarkable women who served their countries in a variety of ways during World War I, we highly recommend “Women Heroes of World War I" for teens and adults, ages 13 and up, at https://www.amightygirl.com/women-heroes-of-world-war-i
For two picture books about American women serving their country during World War I, we recommend "Grace Banker and Her Hello Girls Answer the Call" (https://www.amightygirl.com/grace-banker-hello-girls) and "Doing Her Bit: A Story About the Woman's Land Army of America" (https://www.amightygirl.com/doing-her-bit), for ages 5 to 9
There is also a lovely picture book about a Girl Scout running a peach pit drive to help soldiers during WWI: "The Peach Pit Parade: A World War I Story" for ages 5 to 9 at https://www.amightygirl.com/the-peach-pit-parade
For books for adult readers about the contributions of women during WWI, check out "The Hello Girls: America's First Women Soldiers" (https://www.amightygirl.com/the-hello-girls) and "The Second Line of Defense: American Women and World War I" (https://www.amightygirl.com/the-second-line-of-defense)
