They Called Them Angels: American Military Nurses of World War II - Review

Aerospace Power Journal, Fall, 2001 by Brooke Carr

They Called Them Angels: American Military Nurses of World War II by Kathi Jackson. Praeger Publishers (http://www.greenwood.com/praeger.htm), 88 Post Road West, West-port, Connecticut 06881-5007, 2000, 248 pages, $62.50.

A poignant collection of personal anecdotes from World War II nurses, They Called Them Angels offers accurate, firsthand narratives of what the nursing field entailed. Contrary to the oft-seen movie depiction of the boy-crazy, highly primped, and ridiculously mannered wartime nurses (all of whom were female in World War II),Jackson's rendering is a more precise and deserving description of valor, commitment, and unrelenting compassion.

The author's thorough and captivating depiction of nursing from stateside general hospitals to overseas battlefronts surpasses all expectations. She begins with the training required of all nurses and concludes with personal accounts of a few of their postwar careers. Although a number of nurses remained in the military, some of them advancing in rank as high as brigadier general, others chose to leave the service and marry the men with whom they had fallen in love during the war.

From a mosquito haven rampant with malaria and dengue fever, to an aircraft unprotected by the Geneva Red Cross, to the confinement of a ship under strict water rationing, World War II nurses were ubiquitous. Jackson's book encompasses every theater in which nurses served throughout the war. She describes the conditions and challenges each theater posed for the medical field. Service personnel in the Pacific and Mediterranean theaters suffered raging disease while those in the European theater experienced dwindling supplies and strict rationing of food and water. Nurses in the China-Burma-India theater feared imminent attack and kept their helmets close at hand.

Through her graphic descriptions of the nurses' horrendous living and working conditions and drastic lifesaving measures, Jackson kindles in the reader a sense of gratitude for their heroic service. The book makes clear that these nurses knew how to have a good time, but that portion of their experience pales in comparison to the gallantry, commitment, and vitality these women demonstrated each day. Although extensive training taught the nurses how to keep a patient alive, they came to realize that no training could ever impart the sincere care and tenderness that so often proved the most effective and invaluable of cures.

The book's appendices include the names of nurses who responded to the author's questionnaire, as well as various wartime prayers, pledges, and hymns associated with their profession. The 24-page bibliography and extensive citations not only assist researchers but also lend credibility to Jackson's effort.

Her book stands apart from typical academic studies of the Army Nurse Corps during this era. Not only is it historically accurate (to the extent that reputable sources can confirm such personal accounts), but also it is surprisingly entertaining. To read They Called Them Angels is to acquire a deep sense of respect and admiration for all World War II nurses--and to have an enjoyable experience doing so.