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This is a group shot that appears to have been taken aboard ship. This is China, c. 1946. Grandpa was stationed in China as a U.S. Army Captain. Grandma is the Chinese lady seated in the lower right. The Chinese Nationalist officer seated in the center was my great uncle, and his wife is seated next to him. We have heard he was a pilot, but haven't confirmed this. I know nothing of the others in the photo, other than basic ranks. The young mustachioed Lieutenant seated next to my great uncle appears to be from the nursing or dental staff corps, judging from the leaf on the sleeve. That's all I know. View full size.
The Male Nurse as a whole, got a taste of the struggles for acceptance as equals in the workplace, that women in general are still fighting for in the 21st century. But only a taste, as theirs in this respect was fought and won in only 54 years.
Beginning in 1901, with the establishment of acceptance of female nurses into the Army, the male nurse existed but was not accepted into the Army as such. To be brief, it took 48 years, after a lengthy battle of not just the individual nurses, but the organizations which represented them, just to get legislation proposed for such an action.
Interestingly enough, it not only was a congresswoman who proposed it, it was Frances P. Bolton, from Ohio, who had previously introduced unanimously approved legislation just six years prior, in July, 1943, that created the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps, which helped train thousands of nurses during and for three years after WWII.
However it took SIX more years of debate before it was finally signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, on August 9, 1955. Lieutenant Edward T. Lyon, ANC, became the first male Army nurse on October 6, 1955.
IIRC, there were no male nurses in the US military until after the Korean War.
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