[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 148 (Thursday, September 21, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1824-E1825]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       SALUTE TO E. JUNE HEITMAN

                                 ______


                            HON. GREG GANSKE

                                of iowa

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 21, 1995

  Mr. GANSKE. Mr. Speaker, I would like to bring your attention to the 
fine work and outstanding public service of E. June Heitman and her 
fellow nurses serving in the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps during and after 
World War II.
  The 27 nurses who graduated from the Jennie Edmunson Memorial 
Hospital School of Nursing Class in September 1944 served the United 
States by caring for wounded soldiers returning from Europe as part of 
the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps. The graduates were given assignments in 
Iowa, Maryland, Missouri, and Nebraska.
  June and some nursing school roommates, Doris Cochran Kerber and 
Stella Wisner Scheel, were given a 3-month assignment at Schick General 
Hospital in Clinton, IA, to assist with wounded soldiers.
  Professional military nursing has been an invaluable service to the 
military throughout American history. Gen. George Washington requested 
the congressional establishment of nurses to care for sick soldiers and 
an Army general hospital in 1775. Florence Nightingale's crusade in 
Crimea in 1854 reduced the mortality rate of sick and wounded soldiers 
from 42 percent to 2 percent within 1 year.
  On June 15, 1943, in response to the critical shortage of nurses for 
the military and for civilian health, the Bolton Act was approved and 
the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps was created. This Act provided Government 
funds to train nurses for civilian and military hospitals.
  Demand for nurses was quickly exceeding the supply. The training 
period for nurses was 24 to 30 months, far longer than the training 
period for many of the other women's branches of the armed services. 
Cadet nurses 

[[Page E 1825]]
enrolled in an accelerated nursing program that prepared them to 
replace graduate nurses going overseas.
  The Jennie Edmunson Memorial Hospital Class of 1944 is part of this 
honorable tradition of nursing service. As we remember the end of World 
War II, please join me in recognizing June Heitman and all of the 
hardworking members of the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps for their devotion, 
patriotism, and service to the United States.

                          ____________________