Within a week and a half we needed to take on other patients besides the POWs. We took on patients from the fleet. We became “the hospital.” There were no hospital facilities on land so we became the hospital. We were there until around Thanksgiving time.
Alene went on to serve at Great Lakes Naval Medical Center beginning in January 1946. She got off active duty and went on inactive status, going back to school at the Case Western Reserve Francis Payne Bolton School of Nursing for her bachelor’s degree. She graduated with a bachelor of science in Ward Management and Teaching Medical-Surgical Nursing in 1948. In 1948, she rejoined the Navy Reserve when she realized she missed the camaraderie of the staff and patients. She was recalled in March 1951 when the Korean War began, serving again at Naval Hospital, Portsmouth, Virginia.
Alene worked on a ward for head injury patients for three months and was then asked if she would like to teach in corps school, which was on the Portsmouth Naval Hospital compound. She continued there for five years throughout the Korean War.
“B” school was for first class and chiefs, those who were going to independent duty. They were taught advanced procedures. I can remember teaching the nasal tube, the Wangensteen suction machine, sterile technique and different procedures that they might have to do aboard ship until they could get a patient stabilized. They were there because they wanted to be there. The “A” school was still the draft. We had a lot of students that came and who really had no desire to be there. It took about six weeks to get them motivated. Once you got them motivated they learned very rapidly and did well.
The sad part was that some of the corpsmen would graduate and the next thing you knew they were the Fleet Marines over in Korea and a lot of them didn’t come back. Once they graduated corps school they were sent with the Marines, or to other assignments. Education wise, they had what they needed, but did they have the experience? I think some of them didn’t.
The corpsmen were sent to the front with the Marines. The corpsmen would stop the bleeding and then move the patient back to an area where they could be further stabilized. The medical care, like Commander Ruff (Ruff’s War, 2005), is right up there on the front with the soldiers. They are doing the stabilizing. That used to be a job for the corpsmen. Now, the corpsmen put the wounded in a helicopter and bring them back to medical care, and during Korea we didn’t have that many helicopters, though they were introduced during Korea. We had a helicopter pad aboard the hospital ship during World War II, but there weren’t many helicopter patients coming.
In 1955, Alene went to Philadelphia Naval Hospital where she worked in the education department and in 1956 augmented from reserve status to regular Navy status. In 1958 she received orders to recruiting duty in Chicago and recruited in Wisconsin, Indiana, and Illinois.
In 1961 Alene was transferred to Subic Bay in the Philippines and ten months later to Yokosuka, Japan, as the assistant chief nurse and hospital detailer. It was also during this time that she was promoted to commander. The US was sending advisors to Vietnam during this period of time.
The USS Haven had been docked at Long Beach, California, as “the hospital” for active duty personnel. Alene received orders to serve in the clinics at that duty station from 1963 to 1964. In 1965 Alene reported in as senior nurse and instructor at San Diego Hospital Corps School.
We were very busy at that time. I think we had 10 to 12 nurses on the staff at corps school. They were trying to accelerate the program because of the need. Vietnam now was a shooting war. They needed corpsmen to go. I was there ten months when I got orders. I got a call from Captain Ruth Erickson, who was the director of the Navy Nurse Corps. She wanted me to come to Washington for an interview for a job that was going to be in the Pentagon. I went right away. The following day I was to go and meet with the assistant secretary of the defense for health and environment, Dr. Fisk. I figured that there would a group of us and we would each be interviewed. The job was to have something to do with recruiting. The sum and substance was that all the services—Army, Air Force and Navy—were having trouble getting sufficient nurses. The Army was sending nurses over to Vietnam right away. The assistant secretary of defense for health and environment was now going to assist with this because we were going to investigate whether we should change the requirements for recruiting. We were going to talk about how many people were coming, how many were needed and I was to be the liaison. No one had had that job before, so it was start from scratch. No one else was interviewed. I was it.
It was rather frightening. There was nothing to tell you exactly what you were to do, what was your job, what were the requirements, what was the goal. They told me to set up my goals and objectives and give it to them in ten weeks. I went back to San Diego and moved right away. I found an apartment in Washington close to the Pentagon. I was there a year.
They had not had nurse corps officers attached to the Department of Health and Environment. Now nurses are assigned there routinely. Dr. Fisk felt that we should recruit two-year graduates. He thought they could come in and do the job just as well as anyone else could, that all the services should open up to the associate degrees. I was very opposed to that. They could do the procedures and take care of the patients, but I didn’t think they had enough experience. We were going to send them out into the MASH units, operating rooms, all these specialties and on ships. The big hang up was what were we going to call them? How were we going to rank them? What kind of rank would they get? Someone suggested they should be warrant officers. But they had already taken their state boards. They were already registered nurses. They were competing with the three-year nurses who had taken their boards and were registered nurses. The associate graduates said, “We are the same as the three-year nurses.” The three-year nurses started as ensigns and if they had experience, sometimes they came in as JGs. The people who came in as JGs and lieutenants had at least bachelor’s degrees.
The Army took in some of those associate degree nurses and I think the Air Force did. The Navy never did. We managed. We got through it okay without taking them in and going to the warrant officer. It wasn’t too long before the other services dropped it because it was such a problem, as far as advancement was concerned. The warrant officer really isn’t an officer. It is still an enlisted rank. We were trying to get the whole corps to have bachelor’s degrees. We were trying to send a few active duty people back for their degrees. The ones who were being favored were the people who were active duty Navy, as opposed to reserves. The director of the Navy Nurse Corps was also opposed to accepting associate degree nurses.
Captain Erickson was replaced by Captain Bulshefski. She became the director of the Navy Nurse Corps while I was at the Pentagon. The Army took over the job I had at the Pentagon, a rotation-type job. Sometimes the Navy would have it, sometimes the Army or the Air Force. I went to the Bureau of Personnel (BUPERS) and I was the liaison between the Bureau of Medicine (BUMED), nursing division, and BUPERS. At that time the person who was doing the detailing was over in BUMED and didn’t have access to any of the records. There was a set of cards with information on it and it was the only thing available to the detailer about people’s assignments and rotations to different places. The nurse before me at BUPERS had access to the fitness reports. She could read what the person had done, about their assignments and educational backgrounds, so that we had some idea of where to place them. That was my assignment, to be that liaison between BUPERS and BUMED. I was in that position for a year.
I was reassigned to Great Lakes as the chief nurse. I think they are called director of nursing service now. It was 1968 and we were at the height of the Vietnam War. We were getting a lot of patients back from Vietnam. When I reported for duty they had 1,100 patients spread over a bunch of ramp-type wards. Of course, we still kept patients until they were able to go back to duty or were retired. We had so many orthopedic patients and amputees. We actually had an intensive care unit, but we didn’t have any cardiac care unit. No one did. We had a recovery room att
ached to surgery; we started that unit. They used to all go back to the wards. If you had a private room, they would go there or they would go right up by the desk. Now people go into intensive care and then into progressive care units and then back to the ward. It is so common we don’t even think about it, but we didn’t used to have any recovery room or intensive care units. You went from the operating room to the ward and you were watched by the nurse right here by the desk.
Great Lakes had a lot of nurses, well over a hundred. I was very busy. One hundred nurses for 1,100 patients for three shifts is not a lot of nurses. However, we thought we were well staffed compared to some places. Of course, we had corpsmen and that was the big thing. I had some wonderful nurses. There were supervisors for certain areas and they really worked very hard. Unfortunately, a lot of them have passed away. A lot of them from that particular duty station have died. Almost all of them were younger than I.
In 1970, I was selected as the director of the United States Navy Nurse Corps. I had previously had a call to see if I would accept if I were selected, but I didn’t tell anybody. I had been promoted to captain. I was up for promotion and I was pretty sure I would get that. I reported to the bureau in May and I relieved Captain Bulshefski. I was director from 1970 to 1975. That was a long time. There was a reason for that. Sign ups were one of our big things. We had nurses in Vietnam and nurses getting ready to go to Vietnam. You had to replace all of them here. Recruiting was slow. We weren’t getting them in by droves. Jean Miller was the recruiter. Joan Engle, now Admiral Engle, was the junior recruiter.
It was a very busy time. We were trying to get people to school for their bachelor’s and trying to send a few of them back for their master’s. The emphasis was on the bachelor’s. Then there were all the routine things in running the office. We had very busy days. I was not responsible for detailing the corps people. That was an enlisted thing. I was responsible for the nurses.
The thing I really wanted to do was to improve communication between people who were working in the hospitals and the Bureau. We each tended to do our own thing without communicating well with the other. You just didn’t call the Bureau. You didn’t talk to anyone in the Bureau unless it was an emergency. I made a lot of trips and visited a lot of hospitals and talked to people just to see what they wanted to do. I toured as many hospitals and clinics as I could.
I was at the Pentagon when they were working on Title 10 to open up promotions. Title 10 was signed and it allowed for more flag officers and this would allow all the other ranks to spread out and allow for more promotions. The people who had been lieutenants for ten years suddenly had the opportunity to become commanders, commanders to captains. We, the nurse corps, didn’t have a flag at the top yet.
In 1970, right after I had been assigned to the Bureau, the Army promoted their first general, Anna Mae Hayes, the first woman general. That was the United States Army Nurse Corps. Five months later, General Westmoreland promoted the first line officer. Immediately after promoting General Hayes, the Air Force promoted their first woman general. That was a line officer, Jennie Holme. They promoted their first nurse corps almost at the same time to general. Then we waited. It didn’t come through until 1972. I knew that someone was going to be promoted. I didn’t know it would be nurse corps. I thought it would be a line officer. I thought they would dip down and choose someone that had previously been head of the Navy women. They were all highly qualified.
The American Nurses Association was meeting in Detroit in April 1972. I went to the Akron recruiting station and swore in a group of nurses in the late afternoon and I stayed overnight. Early the next morning I had a call from the Bureau from Jan Emil. She said, “They are asking for all kinds of information about you.” It was BUPERS. I told her I was going to the convention. I am driving down the highway, on I–80, and I had the radio on and I heard I had been promoted to admiral. I was driving kind of fast because I was going to stop in Ohio and see my mother. This was a Friday afternoon and I was going to spend the weekend with her. I slowed down and it was about an hour when I went off the expressway and headed down the country roads. It was a toll road and I wondered as I went through the toll booth, “I wonder if that man knows what happened to me?” I was 52 years old at that time.
I drove to this little town in Ohio and my mother and stepfather came out to meet me, which was really unusual. My mother said, “Oh, I’m so glad you are home. The telephone is just ringing.” The surgeon general had tried to call and all the admirals. The neighbors were there. The reporters were there. The reporter from Cleveland almost beat me home. There was all this publicity. It was unbelievable. About midnight they all left. In fact I had traveled in civilian clothes and when all these people were taking pictures my mother said, “You’d better go upstairs and put your uniform on.” So, I did what my mother told me. It all quieted down.
I went on to Detroit. I was there two days and I decided I better go home. I had all these phone calls and I was getting calls from BUPERS to brief me because I was getting all these interviews. They wanted to brief me about Navy policy. If they had asked me about the Navy Nurse Corps, that would have been alright, but they weren’t. They were asking me about Navy policy regarding women. No one else from the line was promoted. In fact, Maxine Conder, who followed me, had been promoted before the first woman Navy line officer.
The three years I was a flag officer were very busy years. We were doing recruiting. We tried to set up detailing with the qualifications you needed for each job. That was all just in its beginning at that time. Now it is all on computer. You say you need operating-room nurses? You need to know whether they can have change-of-duty orders and whether they were ready for change of duty. That all had to be taken into consideration. You couldn’t just move someone from here to there because they had the right qualifications. You had to be sure you weren’t moving them every couple of years. It was an expensive procedure. Jean Miller and Joan Engle never did have a computer. They did all of that longhand. They had lists of people who had qualifications. They had to find out whether they were eligible. They had to go to BUPERS and get the information. It was a long procedure.
I retired in 1975 at Fourth Street in Washington, D.C. That was in the Naval Yard. I had the whole thing. I had the band and the troops and everything. I had served for 32 and a half years. I watched nursing change from a job to a career, from a vocation to a profession, from good patient care to potentially miraculous patient care. It was an amazing experience. I was very grateful to have been part of it.
Merlan Owen Ellis
Many nurses serving their country during the Vietnam Era did not serve in Vietnam. Yet their contribution to the nursing profession and to the service members they served made a difference. Merlan Owen Ellis served during Vietnam, but not in Vietnam. His account reflects the changing times in the nursing profession, a time where men began to enter the profession of nursing and the area of expertise called “Public Health.”
* * *
My primary academic interests centered in the biological sciences. By the summer of 1957 I had completed two years at Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho, where I took as many courses in the biological sciences as time would permit.
I became intrigued with nursing as a potential occupation where the biological sciences could be combined with my newly acquired fascination with the behavioral sciences. I was totally unaware of the gender ramifications.
My father wanted me to inherit the family Idaho farm homesteaded by my grandfather in the late 1800s. I was his only child who could perform the labor-intensive farming tasks. When he learned I was considering nursing as a career, he was not impressed. He frequently encouraged me to “quit that nonsense, come home, and run the farm.” Medicine or any other biological science would have been more acceptable. “Only women are nurses!” he would say. I learned he had great difficulty telling others about his son’s choice for an occupation.
I wrote to the dean of nursing at Idaho State Univers
ity (ISU) for information. She welcomed my inquiry and was anxious to have men as students in the school. The first and only man to have graduated from the school did so two years earlier. I was the second man to graduate for the ISU School of Nursing.
It was a challenge for a man to be a nursing student in the early 1960s. Some of the nursing faculty did not encourage a man in nursing, contrasted by full acceptance by physicians anxious to teach. For example, during my obstetrical rotation, my instructor would not permit physical contact with the mother except to massage her uterine fundus after the birth. It was an observation experience only, except for very understanding physicians who opened the back doors repeatedly. My obstetrical nursing instructor emphatically encouraged another course of study. I found her attitude quite puzzling. (As a rather amusing side note, when I took my state boards I received my highest score in obstetrics.)
The Army had a program for student nurses, fully funding the student’s last two years of college. The student was on active duty assigned to the school with the pay grade of private first class until six months prior to graduation. The student then received an officer commission with the pay grade of first lieutenant with an active duty obligation of two years. As a husband with a child, this seemed to be an answer to prayers. However, men were excluded from the program! After loud outcries by other men and many women in nursing, the Army opened the door to men in the summer of 1963. I was accepted as one of the first men in the Army Student Nurse Program.
Historically, for centuries nurses were men. In the American Civil War both the Union and the Confederate armies had men assigned as nurses. At the turn of the century women in nursing started to organize. In 1894, the superintendents of female nursing schools (who were all female) gathered in New York City for their first annual meeting. The Nurses Association Alumnae of the United States and Canada had their first annual meeting in 1898. The delegates to their 1900 convention were reported to have only one married woman and no men. The Nurses Association Alumnae became the American Nurses Association (ANA) in 1917, and men were excluded until 1930.
Vietnam War Nurses Page 11