An exhibit coming to the Iowa Gold Star Military Museum at Camp Dodge will highlight Iowa’s military nurses who served as far back as the Civil War. "Military Nurses: An Iowa Story of Service and Sacrifice" will be the museum’s first exhibit that focuses exclusively on nurses.
Dan Gannon, who is on the board of directors and chair of the exhibits committee for the museum, said he brought up the idea for the exhibit because the museum didn’t have anything dedicated to nurses. He said his aunt served as a nurse in World War II, and he wanted to bring stories like hers to the museum.
“You’ll see all the various nurses that are in the display, they all have stories,” Gannon said. “They served well and tremendous throughout our history, since 1846, whether caring for the wounded, comforting those that are in care, supporting the military families. And then bringing all of their extraordinary skill and compassion to some of the most difficult circumstances imaginable.”
Military nurses don’t always receive the same recognition as those who were on the battlefield, Gannon said, but they were exposed to the same traumatic conditions.
“Even though they may have a red cross up on their tent, in some cases maybe not, but they also got shelled and bombed by artillery, air and so on. So they were under fire also,” he said, emphasizing that nurses had to save lives while experiencing the trauma of battle.
A major part of the exhibit is a mural, which can be seen behind various displays of nurses’ personal stories and near a display of their uniforms.
The mural depicts the U.S. Army’s 59th Evacuation Hospital, a military hospital unit that was first deployed in World War II. It shows nurses caring for the wounded around several tent hospitals during a battle.
Gannon said even though the nurses weren’t fighting on the battlefield, their service was crucial to their troops.
Typically, military hospitals would be off to the side or behind the battle, Gannon said. When a service member was critically wounded, medics on the battlefield would care for them before evacuating them to the hospitals, like an EMT. But he said medics couldn't care for the wounded as extensively as nurses could, and a soldier would have been most vulnerable once they were off the battlefield.
“Without them there, and saving lives and doing the necessary critical care right off the battlefield, our numbers would have been way out of control,” Gannon said.
Gannon said the purpose of the Gold Star Museum is to remember the contributions of past Iowans who served.
“This fits right into the rest of our exhibits on getting that information passed forward and that image, because without their service and sacrifice, we wouldn’t be enjoying the freedoms that we enjoy today,” he said.
The exhibit will open to the public during a dedication event on Saturday. Gannon said the museum will continue adding to the exhibit as it learns about more nurses, and they hope Iowans will share their family's stories.
