Members of the John Bartram Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution will learn about World War II nurses at its March meeting.
The group will meet March 19 at the Eisenhower Recreation Center. Sign-ups begin at 9:30 a.m. and the meeting will get under way 30 minutes later. Masks will be required and members should contact Brenda Thomason at bjthomason@comast.net or (734) 788-7097 for reservations.
The guest speaker will be Peggy Russo, a registered nurse who graduated in the last class of the WW II Cadet Nurse Corp program. The group was created to alleviate the nursing shortage created by the United States’ emergence into the war.
The program, known as the Bolton Act, was created by a unanimous vote of Congress and became law in 1943. Congress appropriated $150 million dollars to the program to provide scholarships and stipends to students and to improve facilities at nursing schools. The funds were to go to all students, regardless of their race or ethnicity and the program fell under the auspices of the US Public Health Service.
To qualify, applicants were required to be between 17 and 35 years of age, a high school graduate or a college student, and in good health and mentally alert. Inducements besides pay, free room and board, and training included assurances of a smart uniform and time for a social life.
Nursing schools across the country were urged to apply. Of the 1,300 across the country, 1,125 participated. Between 1943 and 1948, when the program was terminated, more than 124,000 women enrolled in the program. They were the largest and youngest group of uniformed women to serve their country.
