2016 -- S 2485

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LC004370

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2016

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S E N A T E   R E S O L U T I O N

PROUDLY PROCLAIMING MAY 13, 2016, TO BE "NAVY NURSE CORPS DAY" IN THE

STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

     Introduced By: Senators Paiva Weed, DiPalma, Walaska, Coyne, and Nesselbush

     Date Introduced: February 23, 2016

     Referred To: Recommended for Immediate Consideration

     WHEREAS, On May 13, 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Naval

Appropriations Bill that authorized the establishment of the Nurse Corps as a staff corps of the

United States Navy. The twenty women who joined were the first women to join the United

States Navy and have forever been immortalized as the "Sacred Twenty"; and

     WHEREAS, Originally, Navy Nurses were assigned to hospitals throughout the nation.

Later, they were sent to medical facilities overseas in Cuba, Guam, the Philippines, Haiti and

elsewhere. When World War I occurred, the Navy Nurse Corps had greatly expanded to

approximately 1,500 nurses and by 1918, they were serving in hospital units in Ireland, Scotland,

and in France, close to combat operations. The Navy Nurse Corps also, while on active duty, had

to face the deadly Influenza pandemic of 1918. Nineteen Navy Corps Nurses died while on active

duty during World War I; and

     WHEREAS, During World War II, 1,799 active duty Navy Corps Nurses served our

nation with valor and courage across six continents. Navy nurses on duty during the Japanese

attack on Pearl Harbor saved countless lives; and

     WHEREAS, In addition, these heroic nurses cared for wounded marines, soldiers and

sailors in New Caledonia, the Solomon Islands, New Guinea, Guam, Saipan, Iwo Jima, Okinawa,

Italy, England, and other points across the globe. Numerous Navy Corps Nurses were captured

and confined as Prisoners of War. Navy Corps Nurses serving in the Philippines were captured in

1942, and became known as the "Angels of Bataan" as they continued to function as a nursing

unit under horrific conditions and saved many lives; and

     WHEREAS, Navy Corps Nurses have served our nation during every military conflict

since World War I and in their distinguished 108 years of service to our nation they have

provided our military members, retirees, and dependents with the finest and most compassionate

medical care possible; now, therefore be it

     RESOLVED, That this Senate of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations

hereby proudly proclaims May 13, 2016 to be "Navy Nurse Corps Day" in the State of Rhode

Island; and be it further

     RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to

transmit a duly certified copy of this resolution to Trish Culver, President, New England Navy

Nurse Corps Association.

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