Posted on 01/10/2018 1:33:03 PM PST by Borges
Anna Mae Hays, a front-line nurse who was named the United States military’s first female general after serving in three wars — braving snake-infested jungles in India during World War II, enduring numbing cold in Korea and seeking to reduce a punishing casualty rate in Vietnam — died on Monday in Washington. She was 97.
The cause was a heart attack, a niece, Doris A. Kressly, said.
General Hays, who grew up mostly in Pennsylvania as the daughter of Salvation Army officers, had enlisted in the Army Nurse Corps during World War II. She was shortly deployed to a field hospital in northeastern India, where she treated construction workers and Army engineers building a road to China, sometimes assisting in amputations.
In South Korea, she helped establish the first military hospital in the coastal city of Inchon, the scene of a decisive victory for United Nations forces in 1950.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
RIP and thanks for the service.
RIP
did she ever have a job in the productive sector or was she employed by the gov‘t her entire life ?
What if she was?
Wow, I don’t know her history but your post is appalling. She served in three wars. She was not a postal clerk. There are people who sacrifice to serve their entire careers and, like our soldiers and sailors, she is deserving of our gratitude for that.
What a putz, vooch
sacrifice ?
you must be joking
RIP.
Are you shitting me?
Being an Army nurse in any one of those times is quite honorable. Doing that three times is astounding.
You, sir, are ignorant.
Memory eternal.
The first thing you want to do when you find yourself in a hole... is stop digging.
No I am not. There was a time when public service or service to country meant just that. This nurse volunteered to go overseas to save soldiers when the Third Reich was on the march. This was in the 40’s and 50’s, not the PC world of today. She would not have risen to the rank of General had she not shown skill, leadership, and patriotism of the highest order.
Not everyone has to serve in order to be a good person, live a good life, and be thought of in death for their positive contributions.
But since you want to insult her in her casket, what have you done with your life that you would deserve any better an obituary than you would bestow on her?
Have you got your asbestos panties on?
You are going to get scorched for that asinine, totally uncalled for snark!
Why do you ask? I’m a nurse and have worked in various hospitals. I’ve known nurses who work in VA hospitals and a couple in active first at locations around the world. We all do essentially the same work.
I know that all too well, and some FReepers need to learn that.
I had the privilege of meeting General Hays shortly after she was promoted to general officer. She came to visit Fort Gordon to tour the hospital and the post’s medical dispensaries (the army was eager to show off it’s new female general). I was detailed as her driver, and drove her all over the post, including to a big reception at the officer’s club. In chatting with the general as we motored around the fort, she apparently picked up on the fact that I lived off base with my wife, and that we endured the typical junior enlisted couple’s diet of hot dogs and beans (I had a good lunch every weekday at the hospital cafeteria, but the military separate rations allowance never went far for all the other meals for me and my new bride).
After the conclusion of the reception at the officer’s club, during which I and several other drivers cooled our heels outside, General Hays and the post commanding general came out together, followed by the post commander’s aide struggling with a huge tray of leftovers from the reception: shaved ham, turkey, sliced and cubed cheeses, bread, and other fancy fixings. General Hays insisted that I take the goodies back to my off-base housing, to be enjoyed by the missus & myself - which I gratefully did.
My wife and I still remember with pleasure, eating like kings with the bounty that General Hays thought to provide us. I think it lasted us the better part of a month.
RIP, General Hays, and thank you for your service.
That’s a great story! Nice to read a personal account to go along with the article. Thanks for sharing.
“did she ever have a job in the productive sector or was she employed by the gov‘t her entire life ?”
In 1942 she joined the ANC (Army Nurse Corp) for the princely sum of $70/month with a nonexistent rank that was above SGT but lower than 2ND LT.
They also accrued NO retirement or disability benefits.
Male orderlies were regular army, could advance in rank, accrued benefits and were paid $85/month.
Litter bearers and bed pan washers were above trained nurses.
While nurses served in every theater of the war they were administered by the Surgeon General who had to beg crumbs from congress, not the Pentagon.
The Surgeon General pressed for pay and rank but got nowhere until 1944 when nurses were “promoted” to 2nd LT and their pay raised.
The OSG continued to address rank and pay and in 1947 nurses were authorised to attain the rank of LT COL.
This lady served at a time when the army nurse was an afterthought. A nuisance.
During her tenure in the army nurses served in every conflict and after decades were finally given the pay and rank they deserved.
You screwed the pooch vooch.
Completely uncool.
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