Namahyoke Curtis, known as Namah, was a prominent African American nurse in late-19th-century Washington, D.C. During the Spanish-American War (1898), the Surgeon General assigned her to recruit other Black women to serve as U.S. Army contract nurses.
When Vernice Ferguson became the first African American to lead the Veterans Administration (VA) Nursing Service in 1980, she inherited the largest nursing service in the nation, overseeing 60,000 professionals.
One of the first Native American women to enlist in the U.S. military, who joined the United States Marine Corps Women’s Reserve.
American champion of veterans and women in the military
Nurse and nursing administrator, Major Alice Appleford was a highly decorated war heroine who continued throughout both war and peace time to be a role model for women.
Florence Finch aided United States military intelligence and the Philippine resistance movement during World War II. She provided supplies to prisoners of war (POWs) in Manila when the Japanese occupied the island, and she survived arrest and interrogation.
Formerly enslaved in the state of Kentucky, Emma Stephenson voluntarily served as a nurse with the U.S. 17th Army Corps.
Dorothy Stratton was the Director of the SPARS, the women’s reserve branch of the US Coast Guard during World War II.
Member of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion.
Member of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion