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A survivor of two wars, a prison camp and near starvation, Colonel Ruby Grace Bradley (born dec. 19, 1907), was one of the most decorated women in U.S. military history.
Her military record included 34 medals and citations of bravery, including two Legion of Merit medals, two Bronze stars, two Presidential Emblems, the World War II Victory Medal and the U.N. Service Medal.
She was also the recipient of the Florence Nightingale Medal, the Red Cross' highest international honor.
Colonel Bradley entered the Army Nurse Corps as a surgical nurse in 1934. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, Colonel Bradley was 34 and serving at Camp John Hay in the Philippines.
Three weeks later, she was captured; in 1943, she was moved to the Santo Tomas Internment Camp in Manila, the Filipino capital. It was there that she and several other imprisoned nurses earned the title "Angels in Fatigues" from fellow captives.
For the next several months, she provided medical help to the prisoners and sought to feed starving children by shoving food into her pockets whenever she could, often going hungry herself.
The weight she shed made room in her uniform for smuggling surgical equipment into the prisoner-of-war camp that she used to assist in 230 operations and deliver 13 children.
On February 3, 1945, U.S. troops stormed the gates of the Japanese camp and liberated Colonel Bradley and her fellow prisoners, ending her three years of captivity.
At 80 pounds, Colonel Bradley returned home to West Virginia and waited five years before returning to the battlefield during the Korean War.
Colonel Bradley served as a frontline army nurse in evacuation hospitals in Korea. It was there that she refused to leave until she had loaded the sick and wounded onto a plane while surrounded by 100,000 Chinese soldiers.
She escaped just in time, as her ambulance exploded behind her.
After three decades of military service, Colonel Bradley retired from the army in 1963.
from
arlingtoncemetery.net
fold3.com
Her military record included 34 medals and citations of bravery, including two Legion of Merit medals, two Bronze stars, two Presidential Emblems, the World War II Victory Medal and the U.N. Service Medal.
She was also the recipient of the Florence Nightingale Medal, the Red Cross' highest international honor.
Colonel Bradley entered the Army Nurse Corps as a surgical nurse in 1934. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, Colonel Bradley was 34 and serving at Camp John Hay in the Philippines.
Three weeks later, she was captured; in 1943, she was moved to the Santo Tomas Internment Camp in Manila, the Filipino capital. It was there that she and several other imprisoned nurses earned the title "Angels in Fatigues" from fellow captives.
For the next several months, she provided medical help to the prisoners and sought to feed starving children by shoving food into her pockets whenever she could, often going hungry herself.
The weight she shed made room in her uniform for smuggling surgical equipment into the prisoner-of-war camp that she used to assist in 230 operations and deliver 13 children.
On February 3, 1945, U.S. troops stormed the gates of the Japanese camp and liberated Colonel Bradley and her fellow prisoners, ending her three years of captivity.
At 80 pounds, Colonel Bradley returned home to West Virginia and waited five years before returning to the battlefield during the Korean War.
Colonel Bradley served as a frontline army nurse in evacuation hospitals in Korea. It was there that she refused to leave until she had loaded the sick and wounded onto a plane while surrounded by 100,000 Chinese soldiers.
She escaped just in time, as her ambulance exploded behind her.
After three decades of military service, Colonel Bradley retired from the army in 1963.
from
arlingtoncemetery.net
fold3.com
