In God We Trust
Public Law 36, 80th Congress, 1st Session, April 16, 1947, was legislation which authorized the establishment of the Women's Medical Specialist Corps and Regular Army status for nurses, dietitians, physical therapists, and occupational therapists. Major General Norman T. Kirk, who later became Surgeon General of the Army, was the "mover and shaker" behind this important legislation not only for nurses, but also for female dieticians, physical therapists, and occupational therapists. The Women's Medical Specialist Corps members were an important part of the Korean War effort. According to the US Army Medical Department's Office of Medical History, "For the first time during a war effort, dietitians, physical therapists, and occupational therapists were serving with the Army Medical Service as a corps." To add names and information about members of the Women's Medical Specialist Corps who served during the Korean War, contact the KWE.
Accountius, Patricia L. - Col. Patricia L. Accountius passed away 7 November 2006 in San Antonio, Texas, after an eight-month battle with lung cancer at age 75. She was born December 16, 1930, in Lima, Ohio, to the late William and Margaret (Faze) Accountius. Survivors include her sister Barbara Wies and husband James; brother, Gaylord Accountius; nieces, Sandra Bush and husband John, Terri Haithcock and husband Anthony, and a host of other family and friends. She also leaves behind her two beloved dogs Jetta and Megan. Colonel Accountius served on the board of Directions for the WAC Foundation. She graduated from the University of Ohio and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in 1952 in the Women's Medical Specialist Corps, which later designated in 1957 as the Army Medical Specialist Corps. She was assigned to Walter Reed Army Medical Center and served in hospital and staff positions in the US and overseas. She completed the Dietetic Intern Program at Walter Reed. In 1966 she was the first Army dietician assigned to Vietnam where she did ground breaking work establishing the hospital food service program. She served as Chief, dietitian section, for the Office of the Surgeon General and also Health services command in San Antonio Texas. When she retired she continued to work as a dietitian and was a member of many professional and military organizations, including the state and American Dietetic associations, Windcrest American Legion Post 612, Women's Overseas League where she served as secretary at the national level, Golden K Kiwanis club, and WAC veteran association Heritage chapter 62. Graveside services will be held at 9:45 a.m. Monday, November 13, 2006 full military honors at the Ft Sam Houston National Cemetery, San Antonio Texas. A memorial service will follow at 1:30 p.m. at the Army Residence Community, with Chaplain James Taylor of the Windcrest American Legion Post officiating. [Source: Find a Grave/San Antonio Express-News (TX) - Sunday, November 12, 2006]
Aquino, Maria Emiliana - "In 1948, Lt. (j.g.) Maria Emiliana Aquino of San Pueblo, New Mexico, was commissioned as both the first OT in the Regular Navy and the first OT in the Medical Service Corps. Aquino also holds the additional distinction as the first woman of Native American ancestry to serve in the Medical Service Corps." [Source: "The First Women of the Medical Service Corps" by Andre Sobocinski, US Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery]
Beard, Genevieve S. - Captain Beard was Assistant to the Chief, Physical Therapist Section from September 1950 to October 1951.
Berteling, Mary K. - Captain Berteling was listed as Chief Occupational Therapist in 1952.
Bettinger, Pauline - Major Bettinger was assistant to the chief, Occupational Therapist Section from July 1950 to October 1951.
Chappell, Nancy Anne Smith - Mrs. Chappell died on December 27, 2007 at home in Alexandria, Virginia. She was the beloved wife of John G. Chappell; loving sister of Robert Smith; loving mother of Susan Colby Hedrick (Jim), Wendy Colby, Alyce Colby Horwat (Steve) and seven grandchildren: Matthew, Melissa, Jacob, Jennifer, Andrew, Courtney, Chandler. Reiki Master and teacher, author of The Cousins Discover Healing Energy (also published in Spanish in Argentina). Served as an occupational therapist in the Women‘s Medical Specialist Corps (U.S. Army, 1st Lieutenant) during the Korean War. Also survived by four stepdaughters: Virginia Chappell, Carol Chappell Shipley (Michael), Jane Chappell Singleton (Win), Patricia Chappell, and three step-granddaughters: Lindy, Erica, and Rebecca. Service 1 p.m., January 1, Cunningham Funeral Home, 811 Cameron St., Alexandria. Memorial celebration pending for early spring, Mt. Vernon Unitarian Church.
Cousins, Amilia H. - She was a Red Cross worker at Ascom City in Korea in the early 1950s. She was from Forest Park, Illinois.
Dautrich, Helen A. - Major Dautrich was a dietician in the European command during the Korean War.
Davis, Helen M. - Major Davis was assistant to the chief of the dietitian section beginning in August 1949.
Diehm, Margaret May - "Lt. Cmdr. Margaret May Diehm of Reading, Pennsylvania, was the most senior of these newly commissioned Medical Service Corps officers. Diehm entered the Navy in 1942 as a WAVES officer, over a decade after earning her PhD in biology from the University of Pennsylvania and serving a biology professor at what was then known as the Drexel Institute (later university) in Philadelphia. In World War II, she was attached to the Navy Medical School where she taught bacteriology and parasitology. Diehm would remain a pivotal figure in the Navy’s tropical medicine and laboratory training programs throughout her career. On January 1, 1950, Diehm and Mary Sproul were promoted to Commander, becoming the first women to reach this rank in the Medical Service Corps." [Source: "The First Women of the Medical Service Corps" by Andre Sobocinski, US Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery]
Donaldson, Marian M. - Captain Donaldson was assistant to the chief of the dietitian section from March 1948 until March 1952.
Dure, Mary L. Ben - Captain (later Lieutenant Colonel) Dure was a physical therapist in the European command during the Korean War.
Ehlers, Catherine - "Maj. Christine Ehlers and 1st Lt. (later Capt.) Winifred Nesbit, on 30-day tours in 1953, worked with the Armed Forces Assistance to Korea Program in Taegu and Pusan. They instructed a total of 13 Korean medical personnel in basic principles and practices of physical therapy."
Erhardt, Rhoda P. - She received a Bachelor of Science in occupational therapy after studying at the University of Illinois at Chicago 1949-54. She became chief occupational therapist, Burn Center, Brooke Army Hospital in San Antonio, Texas, from March 1954 to March 1956. Beginning in September of 1978 she was a consultant in pediatric occupational therapy in the Twin Cities, Minnesota.
Friedman, Lorraine - "Microbiologist Lieutenant (j.g.) Lorraine Friedman made important contributions to the field of infectious disease research while based at the Naval Medical Research Unit No. 1 at the University of California, Berkeley. After leaving the Navy in the 1950s, Friedman helped to establish the field of medical mycology at Tulane University." [Source: "The First Women of the Medical Service Corps" by Andre Sobocinski, US Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery]
Gearin, Helen B. - Major Gearin served as assistant to the chief of the Women's Medical Specialist Corps from March 1951 to July 1952.
Girard, Evelyn M. Captain Girard was a dietician.
Goll, Miriam E. Perry - Born May 16, 1909, Miriam attended Simmons University from 1927 to 1930. A dietician, she was Chief of the Medical Specialist Corps from 1949 to 1956. She married Lt. Col. Moxie Goll (1899-1992), who served in World War II and the Korean War. Colonel Miriam Perry Goll died January 27, 1979 and is buried in Hope Cemetery, Worcester, Massachusetts.
Hann, Emmy - Emmy served from 1952 to 1956. She was a dietician at Walter Reed Army Hospital.
Hicks, Clarissa - "Late in 1950, 1st Lt. (later Maj.) Clarissa Hicks, assigned to the 118th Station Hospital, Fukuoka, Kyushu, Japan, found herself in the midst of an epidemic of the newly identified Japanese B encephalitis.29 Approximately 280 patients with this diagnosis, all of whom had been on duty in Korea, were treated in this hospital. Forty of these patients were treated in the physical therapy clinic over a 3-month period. Patients with Japanese B encephalitis demonstrated generalized paresis, often with superimposed localized paresis of either upper or lower motor neuron origin.30 Muscular rigidity, incoordination, tremor, poor posture, and limitation of joint motion due to muscle shortening were some of the symptoms which responded to physical therapy measures. Lieutenant Hicks, never having encountered the disease before, was permitted to treat patients symptomatically as there was no precedent for her to follow." [Source: Army Medical website]
Horne, Catherine Owen - Catherine served in the Women’s Medical Specialist Corps/Army Medical Specialist Corps as a Physical Therapist from August 1948 to February 1961 "During the Korean War, the Army Women’s Medical Specialist Corps assigned most women (physical therapists and dietitians) stateside, but small numbers received assignment to station hospitals in Europe and Japan. In December 1950, the first brutal winter of the war in Korea, the Army established a special cold injury center affiliated with Osaka Army Hospital in Japan and treated more than 4,000 soldiers. The winter program resumed in 1951. Physical therapist Catherine (Owen) Horne, of California, treated frostbite cases and United Nations troops. Horne remembered that she and other physical therapists treated as many as 225 patients a day." [Source: Military Women's Memorial website]
Huston, Nancy L. - Captain (later Major) Huston was a dietician.
Jones, Elizabeth C. - "In September 1953, a poliomyelitis epidemic broke out in Japan. The victims included many United Nations troops as well as United States military personnel. To provide physical therapy for these patients, a special program was set up at Tokyo Army Hospital, Tokyo, Japan, under the supervision of Maj. (later Lt. Col.) Elizabeth C. Jones, chief physical therapist." [Source: Army Medical History website]
Keating, Catherine "Kay" - "Keating first enlisted in the Navy in 1942 as a radioman in the WAVES. After the war she left the Navy and obtained a B.S. in Pharmacy with the hope of returning to the Navy and serving either as Hospital Corps or Pharmacy officer. In 1948, she re-enlisted in the Navy, however, instead of medicine she was again assigned as an enlisted radioman. She continued to serve in this role until 1950 when she was permitted to transfer to the Hospital Corps. Two months later she was commissioned as an Ensign in the Medical Service Corps and was now only the second commissioned female pharmacist in the Navy. Over the next two decades Keating continued to collect accolades and distinctions while earning the respect of her peers in Navy Medicine. In 1953, she became the first female pharmacy officer and first woman Medical Service Corps officer assigned to a ship (hospital ship USS Haven). When she retired in 1972, Keating earned the distinction as the first woman in the Navy to have served in the rate of seaman and the rank of Captain. [Source: "The First Women of the Medical Service Corps" by Andre Sobocinski, US Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery]
Keener, Mary - "Aviation physiologist Mary Keener was one of 21 women selected for a regular commission in the Medical Service Corps under the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act. The Attalla, Alabama native had originally entered the Navy in 1942 as a WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) officer and attended Smith College in Northampton, Mass., for indoctrination and training in communications. In January 1943, Keener was assigned to work the “Secret Code” room for the Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Ernest King. She later recalled, “We were essentially cryptographers, breaking various codes, some of which Eleanor Roosevelt used to communicate to President Franklin Roosevelt when she travelled. When we decoded a message that started out ‘For the eyes of the President only,’ we were not allowed to read the message, but had to call a senior officer to stand over us as we typed out the code.” Over the summer of 1944, a family friend stationed at the Bureau of Personnel offered Keener a chance to go to Pensacola where the Hospital Corps was opening a new field for WAVES officers—aviation physiology. Keener jumped at the opportunity and reported to the School of Aviation Medicine at the Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla. There she spent the remainder of the war serving as an “oxygen officer,” taking new recruits on “altitude runs” in low pressure chambers, demonstrating the effects of hypoxia and giving lectures on the dangers of high altitude. Not long after the war, Keener briefly left naval service and continued her education. After returning in 1948, Keener helped initiate programs for high altitude training and launch the first ejection seat training for jet aircraft. Over the next two decades, Keener had a front row seat in the new developments in aviation and aerospace medicine. And because of her experience in physiological training, the Navy selected Keener in the 1950s to serve as a Special Medical Expert for the development of the full pressure suit. During the 1960s, Keener was assigned to the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED). Since there was not yet an aviation physiology billet at BUMED, Keener was technically assigned to the Naval Medical Research Institute (NMRI—the forerunner to today’s Naval Medical Research Center). As she later remembered, “When I was first assigned to BUMED, I had no desk, no telephone and no parking place. I was assigned to the Aviation Medicine Operations Division and was the first woman officer to be assigned there.” At BUMED, Keener took on the task of recruiting new physiology candidates, producing training films, reviewing aircraft handbooks, writing policy, inspecting the 19 different training activities, approving training aids and overseeing maintenance of training devices. Keener helped institute an annual inspection program of training devices like ejection seats and low pressure chambers to ensure safety. In 1965, Keener was promoted to the rank of captain making history as the first woman in the Medical Service Corps to hold this rank. At the time of her promotion, she had purportedly trained more aviation personnel in night vision, ejector seat procedures, and low-pressure chambers than any other aviation physiologist in the Navy. Her collection of “firsts” was not yet complete and in April 1967—when the U.S. Navy Uniform Regulations granted "naval aviation physiologists" the permission to wear aviation wings—Keener was the first to adorn this crest and was designated “Aviation Physiologist No. 1.” [Source: "The First Women of the Medical Service Corps" by Andre Sobocinski, US Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery]
Lee, Harriet S. - Lieutenant Colonel (later Colonel) Lee was Assistant Chief of Corps, Chief of the Physical Therapist Section beginning in April 1952. Prior to that she was an assistant to the chief of the physical therapist section from August 1948 to October 1950.
Lott, - "Physical therapist Lt. (j.g.) Virginia J. Eager Lott of Lemon Grove, California was commissioned in the Regular Navy in 1948, becoming the first PT in the Medical Service Corps."
Lovett, Hilda M. - Lt. Colonel Lovett served as assistant chief of corps, chief, dietitian section beginning in July 1952.
Lund, Margaret - 1st Lieutenant Lund was an occupational therapist.
Lura, Edna - Lieutenant Colonel Lura was Assistant Chief of Corps, Chief of the Physical Therapist Section from August 1948 to March 1952.
Meadow, Selma Liebman - Selma Liebman Meadow died Wednesday, October 12, 1994, at her home. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, and had been a Williamsburg resident for eight years. A graduate of New York University, she held a Bachelor of Science degree in food and nutrition, was a registered dietician, and a member of the American Dietetic Association. She served in the U.S. Army during World War II and Korea as a member of the Women's Medical Specialist Corps. She is survived by her husband, Col. (Ret.) Seymour Meadow; son, Andrew of Washington, D.C.; son, Stephen and his wife, Margaret, and two grandsons, Collin and Garrett of Downington, Pennsylvania; and a brother, Martin Liebman of St. Louis, Missouri. Burial was in Arlington National Cemetery. [Source: Obituary]
Mitchell, Eleanor L. - Lt. Colonel Mitchell served as assistant chief of corps, chief, dietitian section from August 1948 to July 1952.
Moeller, Ruth - "Lt. Ruth Moeller to fill this need. Moeller had originally entered the Nurse Corps as a reservist in 1939. During the war she served aboard the hospital ship USS Solace (AH-5) and at the Navy’s Convalescent Hospital (or Special Hospital) at Sun Valley, Idaho. In 1946, Moeller was one of 18 nurses the Navy sent to the Baruch Center of Physical Medicine of the Medical College of Virginia for physical therapy training. Between 1946 and 1953, fifty three Navy nurses graduated from this program, most would eventually transfer to the Medical Service Corps in the 1950s, among them was Ruth Moeller. Moeller later earned the distinction as the first physical therapist to achieve the rank of 0-6." [Source: "The First Women of the Medical Service Corps" by Andre Sobocinski, US Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery]
Nesbit, Winifred - "Maj. Christine Ehlers and 1st Lt. (later Capt.) Winifred Nesbit, on 30-day tours in 1953, worked with the Armed Forces Assistance to Korea Program in Taegu and Pusan. They instructed a total of 13 Korean medical personnel in basic principles and practices of physical therapy." [Source: Army Medical History website]
O'Malley, Elizabeth - "As a Medical Service Corps officer, Lt. Commander O’Malley would hold the distinction as the first woman to be appointed as the head of the Women’s Specialist Section, and in turn the first woman assistant to the Chief of the Medial Service Corps. O’Malley was originally commissioned in the Nurse Corps in November 1943. Over the next 14 years she served as a Nurse-Dietician at Naval Hospitals at Great Lakes, Key West, Portsmouth, Sampson, San Diego, and St. Albans, as well as aboard the hospital ship USS Consolation. On June 9, 1957, she resigned from the Nurse Corps; the very next day she executed her oath as a Medical Service Corps Officer." [Source: "The First Women of the Medical Service Corps" by Andre Sobocinski, US Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery]
Porter, Eleanor "Elle" - A physical therapist from Springfield, Virginia, she was stationed at Fort Salmon, Texas, when she met her future husband, a double amputee from the Korean War.
Reilly, Mary A. - Captain Reilly was Assistant to the Chief, Occupational Therapist Section from May 1947 to August 1950.
Robinson, Ruth A. - She was a Major, later Colonel in the Women's Medical Specialist Corps. She was Assistant Chief of Corps, Chief, Occupational Therapist Section from August 1948 to June 1952.
Sacksteder, Mary E. - Captain (later Major) Sacksteder was chief physical therapist assigned to Osaka Army Hospital, Osaka, Japan, during the Korean War.
Sheehan, Helen R. - Lieutenant Colonel Sheehan was Assistant Chief of Corps, Chief, Occupational Therapist Section beginning in June 1952.
Spear, Frances - "Serologist Lieutenant Frances Spear and microbiologist Lieutenant (j.g.) Lorraine Friedman made important contributions to the field of infectious disease research while based at the Naval Medical Research Unit No. 1 at the University of California, Berkeley. After leaving the Navy in the 1950s, Friedman helped to establish the field of medical mycology at Tulane University.
Spelbring, Lyla - Born and raised on a farm in Central Illinois, Lyla Spelbring served in the military during World War II, Korea and Vietnam. She served in the Marine Corps for six years. As a division leader, she worked in motor transport in Hawaii in 1943, overseeing the transport of workers and supplies. During four of her six years in the USMC she was on inactive status while working at a federal reformatory for women who were assigned to a farm crew. After leaving the Marine Corps she when to Western Michigan University on the GI Bill, receiving a Bachelor's degree in occupational therapy. During the Korean War she joined the Army's Women's Military Medical Specialty Division. She was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant and implemented projects such as a psychiatric clinic for war veterans in North Carolina. She remained on active duty until 1953. After that she joined the faculty at Eastern Michigan University, where she was promoted to head of occupational therapy at EMU. She retired from the Army Reserves in 1982 and from EMU in 1984.
Sproul, Mary Thornton - "Lt. Cmdr. Mary Thornton Sproul of Washington, D.C., entered the Navy in 1942 after several years as a blood plasma researcher at the old City Hospital in Washington, D.C. She continued this work in the field and up until 1965—when she retired from service—Sproul was one of the leading blood technologists in the world and helped ensure the purity of whole blood, and blood substitutes like plasma and serum albumin used by military. In the Korean War, Sproul oversaw the shipment of blood into an active combat zone and helped the South Korean Army establish a blood bank. During the 1950s and 1960s, Sproul was stationed at the Naval Hospital Chelsea, and later the Navy’s Blood Research Laboratory in Boston, where she researched methods for long-term preservation of blood and spearheaded the nascent frozen blood program." [Source: "The First Women of the Medical Service Corps" by Andre Sobocinski, US Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery]
Stack, Mary E. - Captain Stack served as assistant to the chief of the Women's Medical Specialist Corps from November 1948 to May 1951.
Theilmann, Ethel M. - Major Theilmann was a physical therapist and part-time consultant to the Surgeon, 8th U.S. Army, Yokohama, Japan, as well as to the Surgeon, Far East Command, Tokyo, Japan.
Threash, Eileen Witte - Eileen Witte Treash was born in Newark, New Jersey on November 14, 1927. While growing up, she attended Clinton School from 1932 to 1939 and then South Orange Junior High from 1939 to 1942. Afterwards, she went to Columbia High School from 1942 to 1945, eventually enrolling and entering the New Jersey College for Women (NJC, now Douglass Residential College) in 1945. During her time at NJC, she majored in Home Economics, specifically in Nutrition and Institutional Management, and graduated in 1949. Following this, she joined the Army, becoming a second lieutenant in the Officers' Reserve Corps in the Women's Medical Specialist Corps on July 12, 1949. Treash went on active duty on September 3, 1949 and attended basic training at the Medical Field Service School at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, which she finished on November 3, 1949. She then immediately started her dietetic internship, which she completed on November 5, 1950. She served as a dietitian in Korea during the Korean War and then obtained her Master's degree at Baylor University in 1958 through the Army-Baylor Program. She served continuously until her retirement on June 30, 1977 at the rank of colonel. For her service, she received the Army Commendation Medal with the Oak Leaf Cluster, the Meritorious Service Medal, and the Legion of Merit. Treash passed away October 20, 2005. [Source: Rutgers Oral History Archives, interview by Sandra Stewart Holyoak, May 1, 1999]
Towle, Paula - "In December 1948, Lt. Paula Towle of Sacramento, Calif., became the first woman pharmacist in the Medical Service Corps. Towle had been a practicing hospital pharmacist in the 1930s after earning a degree in pharmacy from the University of California, San Francisco. On March 19, 1943, Towle was commissioned in the WAVES as an officer of the line and did not serve in her profession again until after the war. She left the service at war’s end and returned in 1948. Over the next 22 years, Towle served as the Chief Pharmacy Officer at Naval Hospitals Bremerton, Pensacola, St. Albans, Chelsea, as well as aboard the hospital ship USS Repose (AH-16) during its deployment to Vietnam. Until her retirement in 1970, Towle was one of only two female pharmacists in the Navy. The other was Katherine “Kay” Keating of Pueblo, Colorado." [Source: "The First Women of the Medical Service Corps" by Andre Sobocinski, US Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery]
Vogel, Emma E. - Emma Vogel was a native of Mankato, Minnesota. She graduated from Mankato State Teachers College and then received physical therapy training at Reed College in Oregon. She enlisted in the army in 1919. Three years later she was named supervisor of the Army's first training course for physical therapy aides in the USA. During World War II she was director of physical therapy aides in the Army Medical Department, receiving a Legion of Merit award for her work. From 1947 to 1951 she was chief of the Women's Military Specialist Corps. She retired from active duty in November of 1951. She died in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Wickliffe, Nell - Colonel Wickliffe was dietetic consultant to the Surgeon General, Far East Command beginning December 1951.