The Army Nurse Corps Association

We are less than 3 months out from the ANCA Convention!!!
Have you registered yet??

Registration OPEN for ANCA’s Convention in September🎉

What:​ Army Nurse Corps Association Biennial Convention
When:​ 26-29 September 2024
Where:​ Embassy Suites Raleigh Durham Research Triangle Hotel, Cary, N. Carolina

This Fall ANCA will again be the host for camaraderie, networking, and time to interact with friends, old and new alike!
We are also offering six contact hours
of CE on interesting topics to include one from the below presenter MG(R) Peggy Wilmoth!
All the details and registration now at e-anca.org.

JULY 1950, KOREAN WAR MEMORIES. The Korean War began when the Communist North Korean Army crossed the 38th parallel, an arbitrary separation of North and South Korea, and invaded the Republic of South Korea. Captain Viola B. McConnell was the only Army nurse on duty in Korea. When hostilities broke out, she escorted 643 evacuees from Seoul to Japan on a Norwegian freighter, the Rheinholt, which was designed to accommodate only 12 passengers. Forsaking her own well-being, she discarded her personal belongings in Korea in order to carry bandages and other first aid equipment for casualties.
CPT McConnell assessed priorities for care of sick evacuees and worked exhaustively with a makeshift medical team to ensure the sick and vulnerable were stable until they reached more definitive care. She directed those with newborns into the quarters graciously vacated by the crew. Those with no children or older children she assigned to sleep in the hold on GI comforters. McConnell wrote, “Some of these women complain[ed.]it was utterly disgraceful.” . . . Six of seven of the male passengers were of little help as two were elderly, one was ill “from too much whiskey,” another was recuperating after a hospitalization, and two were “lazy characters who were always on time for chow.” The seventh worked like a trojan.” After the beleaguered vessel arrived at the 118th Station Hospital in southern Japan, she requested reassignment back to Korea. Very soon, she returned to Taejon to care for and evacuate wounded soldiers of the 24th Infantry Division.

Have a safe,celebratory 4th of July holiday!! 🇺🇸

(L-R) [unidentified], CPT Scott, 1LT McCasland, 1LT Lyde, [unidentified], 2LT Zeimet, Chief Nurse MAJ Connally, [unidentified], and CPT Samuels. (Explanation of the acronym on these male nurses’ coat of arms available on request.)

In 1966, the nursing service of the 3d Surgical Hospital was reorganized as an all-male unit in anticipation of increased enemy activity. Colonel Nickey McCasland remembered: “The plan was for the unit to be truly mobile and move to wherever the fighting dictated. . . . It moved from its tropical shell buildings at its home base in Long Binh and set up in its TO&E tentage, first at the civilian airport in Ban Me Tou for a few days, then to the Army airstrip at Ban Me Tou for several weeks. The unit did some MEDCAPs and took care of a few civilians and ARVN casualties. It was then moved back to its original location, and the male nurses sent back to their original units – the experiment having apparently proved that rapid air evacuation from combat areas trumps hospital unit mobility.”

This Fall ANCA will again be the host for camaraderie, networking, and time to interact with friends old and new alike!
We are also offering six contact hours of CE on interesting topics!

All the details and registration for the ANCA Convention in September now available at e-anca.org.

Perspectives on Nursing Development: Mentoring vs. Modeling

Joe Puliafico, RN, MHA – Discover the benefits of modeling over mentoring for National Guard nurses. Explore how modeling offers diverse learning sources and continuous skill development. Unlike mentoring, modeling allows for self-paced, adaptable learning. Learn why modeling can be a more versatile approach for personal and professional development in the Guard.

*** This nursing continuing professional development activity was approved by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, an accredited approver by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission of Accreditation. Approval refers to recognition of continuing education only and does not imply AACN or ANCC approval or endorsement of the content of this educational activity.

66F Student award named for Jim Reed —

Army graduate program names award after Nursing’s Jim Reed Army graduate program names award after Nursing’s Jim Reed Today By Gawain Douglas, UArizona Health Sciences Office of Communications The U.S. Army Graduate Program in Anesthesia Nursing at Baylor University has named an award in honor of James “Jim” R. Reed, DNP, CRNA, an associate clinical ...

The ANCA webpage/website is experiencing an outage.
Please see below and attached for an alternate way to register for the ANCA convention in September.

Armed Forces Reunions

AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY. LT Margaret Bailey persisted in her application to the Army and was admitted into the Army Nurse Corps in 1944, and immediately volunteered for overseas duty. Her first experiences in the Army were working in a segregated unit, and the challenges that environment presented. She was assigned not overseas, but rather to work at a prisoner of war camp in Florence, Arizona. Segregation policies also existed at this camp, to include segregation of dining facilities. She considered this just another challenge, and set forth to effect needed change. As a result of her leadership, the dining facilities at her unit were no longer segregated. The African American nurses were then invited to the Officers Club where they had previously not been permitted to use.

Happy Juneteenth!🇺🇸

Happy Fathers Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Proud military father!

The daughter of a combat veteran and Army Reserve officer was given a few options when it came to living with her parents after graduating from high school with no immediate plans of attending college. Lt. Col. Andreas McGhee, and his wife, Lisa, had pride bestowed on their Family with her decision. Her exact words were "sign me up," McGhee said. "Of course I naturally took her up on the challenge." With those three words, 1st Lt. Andria Kimberly became the third generation of the McGhee family to carry on the Army tradition.
Kimberly, a married mother of two children, is an Army Reservist, serving as a nurse with the 801st Combat Support Hospital in Indianapolis. McGhee, who retired in May 2016, with more than 30 years of military service, is the equal opportunity program manager for the Army Reserve's 84th Training Command on Fort Knox, Kentucky.

And Happy Flag Day!!!🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

AFGHANISTAN. In 2013, LTC Marc Fry deployed as the Senior Nursing Officer, US Army Contingent, Bastion Role 3 Hospital on the largest UK base in Afghanistan. The hospital has been described as the busiest hospital in Afghanistan and one of the leading trauma centers in the world. Fry remembered, “This was one of my most fun assignments, if you can call a deployment enjoyable. . . . When we all deployed to Bastion we were very busy. I was responsible for 80 nursing personnel who worked through the hospital. I worked very well with my British counterpart Mari Roden. . . . If there were multiple casualties coming in on a Chinook I always stationed myself near the resuscitation bay. It was like watching a ballet how quickly, and artfully the work was carried out. At each bed were 17-18 people working with the patient. We gave world-class care in this extremely busy hospital. The collaboration between the US and the UK was outstanding. . . . It was a phenomenal experience and one that I will cherish for the rest of my life.”
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Just one of our exciting guest speakers at the upcoming ANCA Convention in September!

See below for the link to all things Convention information and registration.

Leveraging Battlefield Experience to Guide Civilian Prehospital Medicine*
Randi Schaefer, RN, DNP – Learn how battlefield medicine advancements have transformed civilian prehospital care, saving lives across the US. Military medical experiences have led to EMS and hospitals’ collaboration implementing evidence-based resuscitation programs. Discover the impact of prehospital blood programs in reducing morbidity and mortality from hemorrhage.

***This nursing continuing professional development activity was approved by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, an accredited approver by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission of Accreditation. Approval refers to recognition of continuing education only and does not imply AACN or ANCC approval or endorsement of the content of this educational activity.

Registration Open for ANCA’s Convention in September!

What:​ Army Nurse Corps Association Biennial Convention

When:​ 26-29 September 2024

Where:​ Embassy Suites Raleigh Durham Research Triangle Hotel, Cary, N. Carolina

All the details and registration now at e-anca.org.

Lieutenant Lois Shirley, 3rd Field Hospital, Saigon, Vietnam, recalled, “When I first went over, I worked as a staff nurse in tropical medicine, about a fifty-bed medical unit for patients with tropical diseases, infectious diseases. And there were a lot of very, very sick patients with malaria, bad hepatitis, scrub typhus, diseases like that, and a lot of very, very bad dysentery. I was seeing diseases I had never heard of before. And you know, you learned everything you needed to know in three days. . . . They tended to be very young, the people whom you expected to be the young troopers coming right out of the field[.] . . . They were very sick, but once they got in the hospital and were treated, [they] tended to get better rapidly. Most of them got sent back to duty.”

(David Berman, “Interviews with Two Vietnam Veterans Welcome Home,” Vietnam Generation)

🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

We are 4 months out from the ANCA Convention!!!
Have you registered yet??

Registration Open for ANCA’s Convention in September🎉

What:​ Army Nurse Corps Association Biennial Convention
When:​ 26-29 September 2024
Where:​ Embassy Suites Raleigh Durham Research Triangle Hotel, Cary, N. Carolina

This Fall ANCA will again be the host for camaraderie, networking, and time to interact with friends, old and new alike!
We are also offering six contact hours
of CE on interesting topics.
All the details and registration now at

The Army Nurse Corps Association, Inc. (ANCA) The nonprofit Army Nurse Corps Association supports the U.S. Army Nurse Corps by serving as an avenue of information, communication, networking, and camaraderie for Army nurses; funding scholarships and research; and preserving the Army Nurse Corps’ history and traditions.

Lieutenant Phyllis Laucks, Med Surg Nurse, 8076th MASH, Korea wrote: “If one measures the amount of work one does compared to the amount of good one does then being a nurse here is better than in the United States. Every day we can see the thanks and appreciation in the men we care for and every night we can go to sleep with the satisfaction of knowing we have done our best to help.”

(Otto F. Apel and Pat Apel, MASH: An Army Surgeon in Korea)

In 1999, LTC (later MG) Jimmie Keenan, Chief Nurse, 67th Contingency Medical Force, deployed to Kosovo. She recalled, “It was just phenomenal, how it all came together. When we're trying these stakes in the ground, and I see these vehicles drive up and all of these lost souls get out of these vehicles, and they’re all huddled under a GP medium tent, because it was the mess tent, and they were drinking little cups of coffee. They’re all shaking, because it was cold, and it was raining. And I'm thinking, ‘I got this group and I've got to get this hospital set up in three days and we're going to take care of patients? Oh, my god!’ It just like, it almost overwhelms you to think about it. But then you’re thinking, ‘We can do it. We can do it. We can do it!’ And just to keep them focused and motivated about it. . . [T]hey all did. I mean doctors, nurses . . . They were just amazing. Some people will grumble a little bit, but everybody got out there and worked. And it was like, wow! Everybody is so professional. So that was to me the greatest accomplishment, how well everybody worked as a team. It wasn’t one person that did anything that made this a successful mission. It was what everybody did. And that to me is the proudest part that I can take away from it, is how well everyone as a team just came together and worked. It was just phenomenal.”

Enjoy the day!💐

Happy Nurses Week!❤️
Nurses Week is celebrated around Florence Nightingale’s birth because she is the first military nursing hero. When the Crimean War began, more soldiers were dying from disease than from enemy action in military hospitals. Determined to help, Nightingale loaded up a ship with medical supplies and provisions and went with a group of volunteer nurses to a war zone. Nightingale found wounded soldiers being badly cared for by overworked medical staff. Latrines were overflowing; patients wore their filthy field clothing; cots were crowded into small rooms. The hospital had a foul stench that could be smelled for some distance outside its walls. The lady with the lamp and her staff literally cleaning up this smelly mess! Nightingale conquered the overcrowding by acquiring more space for wards and beds. She ensured that the wards were sanitized. Patients’ clothes were washed and a kitchen provided nourishing meals. As a result of the nurses’ efforts, the mortality rate of the Scutari patients dropped appreciably from 42 percent to 2 percent. As the news spread in this first newspaper war, the British public, and then the international media, established Florence Nightingale as the first nursing superstar.

Happy Nurses Week!!!❤️

WWI April 1917. “When the United States entered the World War in April 1917, American forces were ill prepared to confront the horrors of chemical warfare. Chief Nurse Lily Craighton described how the treatment was performed in their hospital, ‘The men would come in with hideous blisters, extending from their shoulder down [the length of their bodies]. The nurses would clip away all this blistered skin, clean the . . . raw surface with antiseptic solution, dry it with an electric blower and spray on the ‘amberine.’ Burns treated in this way healed in an incredibly short time.’”

(Lavinia Dock, History of the American Red Cross Nursing)

New Sioux Falls School to be named after WWII AN Marcella Lebeau —

New Sioux Falls elementary will be named after Cheyenne River tribal matriarch “To know that there’s going to be kids able to go into their school to see somebody that looks like them -- that’s positive. That means so much.”

KOREAN WAR. LT Mary Quinn, who was assigned to the 8055th MASH recalled, “’One of things most of us really couldn’t quite understand, was why the patients were grateful to us. . . . They were the ones who were out there. And, we had very mixed feelings. . . . about combat nursing. When there was action going on, you’re busy and you’re glad to be busy, But, then people are getting killed. When there is nothing going on, you are bored silly, but nobody is getting killed. So, you know, you have to balance the two. That’s the problem sometimes.’ Quinn had a marvelous sense of the absurd, which lightened her days in Korea. When a directive was issued that ordered line-of-duty investigations for soldiers with frostbite, she mused nurses who froze their fannies on the cold latrines would be subject to the same scrutiny. When the chief nurse had barbed wire erected around the nurses’ compound, she and others asked the engineers to place a sign that read ‘Please don’t feed the nurses!’”

(Mary Sarnecky, A History of the Army Nurse Corps)

It was a beautiful day for the ANCA sponsored 30th annual COL Betty Antilla Spring luncheon Saturday 13 April at the former Officer’s Club on Fort Myer! Over 100 former,current, and future Army Nurse Corps officers attended this great event and were serenaded by the US Army Chorus 🇺🇸

POST-VIETNAM MEMORIES. April 1975. “From April to December 1975, during Operation New Life/ New Arrival, Army nurses provided nursing care for over 100,000 refugees from Indochina who were resettled in the United States. Fort Chaffee, Arkansas was selected as one of the resettlement centers. The hospital had been vacant for nine years. When First Lieutenant Stephanie Velsmid with the 47th Field Hospital helped to open the obstetrics ward, she spent the ‘first two days . . . cleaning and scrubbing walls and floors.’ [The plumbing pipes and fixtures leaked so the staff spent] ‘half the time mopping up these little puddles. Last night the ceiling pipes let loose and flooded the whole hallway! . . . Although pitocin was available, ergotrate and methergine were somehow unobtainable. We took to ‘tearing up small pieces of paper to make med cards!’ In spite of daunting circumstances that persisted for the 90 day deployment, they provided high-quality health care for the 36,000-plus refugees who passed through the center.”

(Mary Sarnecky, A Contemporary History of the Army Nurse Corps)

WWII APRIL HERO. After the onset of World War II, Wilma “Dolly” Vinsant joined the Army Nurse Corps on 1 September 1942. Given her experience as a civilian flight nurse, she was selected for and attended the first Army Nurse Corps flight nursing course at Bowman Field, KY. Following graduation on 18 February 1943, Lieutenant Vinsant was assigned to the 8th Air Force as a flight nurse. In her two harrowing years in this role, Lieutenant Vinsant completed several dangerous missions that took her into regions of heavy combat near Munich and Frankfurt. On occasion, she flew with ill patients from London to New York as the only health care provider. As the war in Europe wound down in the spring of 1945, 1LT Vinsant completed the maximum number of allowable hazardous air evacuations. Her commander reluctantly allowed her “to make one more trip.” On 14 April 1945, Vinsant was serving as an evacuation nurse on a C-47-A enroute to evacuate patients when the plane encountered bad weather and crashed 7 miles southwest of Muhlhausen, Germany, killing 1LT Vinsant instantly. 1LT Vinsant was posthumously awarded the Air Medal, the Purple Heart and the Red Cross Medal.

MARCH MEMORIES: Kuwait, 2003. On March 23, 2003, critical care head nurse Captain John Nerges of the 86th Combat Support Hospital arrived at Camp Udairi, in northern Kuwait. He was disconcerted that the first MASCAL of the war resulted from a friendly fire. Two gr***des were thrown into the tactical operation center of 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, killing one and injuring fifteen soldiers. Three casualties were evacuated to the 86th CSH. He stated, “At first I thought the gr***de attack was an act of the enemy. Eventually, and sadly, we all learned that one of our own soldiers had been charged. I felt betrayed. . . . I think this happens in every war, but it still makes no sense. . . . One of the (gr***de) victims was my patient. Sedated with pain medication, the officer was singing on the stretcher as he awaited transport. When you see warriors like that it makes you realize you are doing a very strange job under very strange circumstances.”