[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 42 (Thursday, March 21, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E362]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             HONORING MILDRED MANNING, ANGEL OF CORREGIDOR

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JEFF MILLER

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 21, 2013

  Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the 
legacy of a great American woman, Mildred Manning, a World War II 
Veteran, POW, and nurse in the Army Nurse Corps. Ms. Manning was the 
last survivor of the 66 nurses who were taken into captivity by the 
Japanese in May of 1942 on the island of Corregidor.
  Ms. Manning was born in rural Georgia on July 11, 1914. She graduated 
from the Grady Memorial Hospital School of Nursing in Atlanta and was 
head nurse at Grady before entering military service when she enlisted 
in the Army Nurse Corps in 1939.
  Ms. Manning was stationed in the Philippines at the time of the 
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. She spent the first five months of the 
war treating servicemen at field hospitals in the Philippines, most 
notably during the retreat to the Bataan Peninsula, and then on 
Corregidor. After the U.S. surrender at Corregidor, Ms. Manning was 
taken prisoner.
  She spent the next 33 months under guard at an internment camp, where 
she faced near- starvation and disease while treating nearly 4,000 men, 
women, and children. In the winter of 1945, Ms. Manning and the other 
nurses were finally liberated. For her service to this Nation, Ms. 
Manning received a Bronze Star and a message of gratitude from 
President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
  Two weeks ago, on March 8, 2013, Ms. Manning passed away in Hopewell, 
NJ at the age of 98. She is survived by her son, James Manning, and 
daughter, March Price, five grandchildren and a great-grandson. Her 
husband, Arthur Brewster Manning, died in 1994 and their youngest son, 
William D. Manning, died in 2006.
  Ms. Manning once said of her internment, ``I came out so much better 
than many of my friends, I have never been bitter, and I have always 
known that if I could survive that, I could survive anything.''
  Mr. Speaker, how privileged I am to be able to honor her life and pay 
tribute to her outstanding service to this nation.

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