In God We Trust
Army nurses with the 1st MASH (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) landed on the beach at Inchon, Korea, on September 15, 1950. Because mobile and evacuation hospitals followed the troops and extremely fluid battle lines, Army nurses often found themselves closer to the front than anticipated. As the 1st MASH moved from Inchon to Pusan with the 7th Infantry Division, they came under attack in the early morning of October 9, 1950. During the battle, the nurses retreated to a roadside ditch. “The whole sky was lit up by gunfire and burning vehicles,” reported Chief Nurse Major Eunice Coleman. “About sun up we got out of the ditch and started treating the wounded. All that day we worked on the roadside operating and treating for shock. We lost eight men and a number of supply vehicles.” After the ambush, the nurses began calling themselves 'The Lucky Thirteen.' [Source of paragraph: Women's Military Memorial website] The KWE is still searching for the entire list of the "Lucky Thirteen". Contact the Korean War Educator if you know a nurse whose name should be added.]
Baxter, Julia Choate - 1Lt. Baxter entered the Army Nurse Corps in April of 1945. She arrived in Korea with the first group of nurses and then was transferred to Tokyo Army Hospital in Japan in late 1950, working in an operating room. Later she served in the Middle East and retired as a Major.
Benninger, Marian L. "Benni" - Captain Benniger was from Shillington, Pennsylvania. She graduated from Reading Hospital School of Nursing in the Class of 1931. She served 18 months in New Guinea during the Korean War as a member of the Army Nurse Corps. In 1942 she was at Station Hospital at Camp Clairborne, Louisiana.
Briton, ____ - Sgt.
Cardeler, _____ - Capt.
Coleman, Eunice - Chief Nurse Coleman was born March 21, 1903 in Wilbarger County, Texas, daughter of Leonard Alvin and Mary Elizabeth Coleman. She had four siblings. She received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Minnesota, and then was stationed in Duke, Oklahoma, before the outbreak of the Korean War. She received a Bronze Star with V. She later served at the Kansas City General Hospital School of Nursing. She died August 15, 1983.
Fleming, Margaret Zane - She served in the Army Nurse Corps from 1941 to 1945 and 1950 to 1953.
Kehoe, Clara - Born May 24, 1927, Clara received her nurse's degree from Duke University under the World War II Cadet Nurse Corps program. After a brief stink at Walter Reed Hospital, she was assigned to a MASH unit in Korea during the Korean War. After she was reassigned following her overseas duty, she went back to Walter Reed, where she met Capt. John Cleland, a veteran recovering from combat wounds. They married on March 01, 1952 and they were parents of five children: Bruce, Robin, Gary, Jack and William. John Cleland died in 2017 and Clara died December 11, 1922. She is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Lain, ____ - Capt.
Quinn, 1LT Mary C. - Mary C. Quinn of Weymouth, formerly of Quincy, died peacefully on January 13, 2020, at the age of 95. Mary began her nursing career in 1945 in a maternity unit at Carney Hospital where she was a member of the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps. Commissioned a First Lieutenant in 1950, she worked in a TB unit in Denver and was later assigned as an acute care/trauma nurse with the 8055th MASH, advancing to the 38th Parallel on the battlefields of South Korea and driven to fame as the singular unit credited with being the inspiration for the hit movie and television series. Upon returning from Korea in 1952, Mary worked on neonatal intensive care units in CA, VA, and Germany where she developed special skills in pediatric nursing. She also worked at several hospitals on medical surgical units. She even managed to find time to earn a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of San Francisco in 1964 when relatively few nurses had a degree. In 1968, Mary served as Chief Nurse of the 71st Evacuation Hospital in South Vietnam during the 1968 Tet Offensive when her hospital compound was struck eight times by rocket fire. When she returned home from Vietnam, she continued in nursing administration as Chief Nurse at Fort Devens and later in Germany. After 26 years in the US Army and additional assignments in Japan, TX, NJ, MD and Washington, D.C., she retired with the rank of Colonel, but she kept active in several nurse and veterans organizations. In April of 2003, Mary was honored by the UMass-Boston chapter of Sigma Theta Tau with the Heart of Nursing Award for her "love (caring), courage and honor" as manifested in her service to her country as a US Army nurse, highlighted by her battlefront tours of duty as a trauma nurse specialist in Korea and Vietnam. Mary was the daughter of the late Ann (Murphy) and Lucian Quinn and sister of the late Anna Quinn and Theresa Quinn. She is survived by many friends. Friends are respectfully invited to attend the visitation on Thursday from 9:30-10:15 a.m. in St. Jerome Church, 632 Bridge St. in N. Weymouth followed by a funeral Mass at 10:30 a.m. Burial in Massachusetts National Cemetery, Bourne, at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations in memory of Mary may be made to Heidrea for Heroes, Inc. 10 Cordage Park Circle, Suite 224, Plymouth, MA 02360.
Smarz, Marie - As a nurse with the Army Nurse Corps (ANC), 1st Lieutenant Smarz was one of the 13 nurses (the Lucky 13) who were deployed to Korea with the 7th Infantry Division. She was posted to the 1st Mobile Army Surgical Hospital after her arrival in Korea on September 15, 1950. From Inchon the Lucky 13 moved to Pusan. They had to take cover on October 9, 1950 when they came under fire.
Thurness, Elizabeth June - "After graduating from Ohio State School of Nursing in 1936, Elizabeth Jane Thurness worked as a district nurse for the city of Columbus, Ohio. In March 1941, she enlisted in the Army and commissioned as a second lieutenant. During World War II, Thurness served as a nurse in Iceland, England, Germany, France and Austria. She worked in both evacuation hospitals and assisted victims rescued from concentration camps. One of Thurness’s final deployment destinations in Europe was in Austria, where she nursed prisoners from the Nazi concentration camp in Ebensee. After World War II, Thurness transferred to Japan to care for those injured in the blasts at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Upon her return to the United States, Thurness received specialized Army training to be a nurse anesthetist. In 1950, that training led her to the Korean War, where she deployed as one of 13 Army nurses assigned to the First Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. During the war, Thurness helped care for 120 severely wounded civilians in a makeshift clinic. As a specialized Army nurse, Thurness followed the mobile hospitals along the front lines that treated wounded soldiers. In October 1950, she was with the 1st Mobile Army Surgical Hospital when it came under attack following its removal from Incheon to Busan, South Korea. Thurness was not injured during the attack and helped other uninjured nurses with treating the newly wounded. After the attack, in November, Thurness moved north to the Chinese border to treat wounded soldiers from the Battle of Chosin Reservoir. She remained there until the evacuation of Hungnam in December. For her work during the attack and throughout the war, Thurness later received a Bronze Star Medal. After the Korean War, Thurness worked in a military hospital at Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, that specialized in treating burn victims. She also served for two years at a military hospital in Heidelberg, Germany. In 1957, she received her bachelor’s degree in nursing education from the University of Pittsburgh. In 1959, Thurness became a nurse at Walter Reed Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. She spent the remainder of her career there teaching doctors and working in anesthesiology. Thurness retired from the military in 1965 as a lieutenant colonel. In popular culture, Thurness is considered to be one of three nurses who inspired the character Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan on the television series M*A*S*H. Thurness died in 2003. She was 87. We honor her service." [Source: VAntage Point website]