Cadet Nurse Corps
(CNC)
I. Development of the CNC
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-. Foundation of the CNC
-. Recruitment Campaign
-. Strength of the Corps
-. Acknowledgement
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Strength of the Corps
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For the first year, the goal was to recruit 65,000 new student nurses, which represented about 10 percent of the high school graduates in 1943. The success of the Cadet Nurse program was so immense that the number of enrollments actually surpassed this quota for the year 1943. The goal of recruiting additional 65,000 nurse students in 1944 and another 60,000 in 1945 was also nearly fulfilled. During 1945, 85 % of nurse students in the country were Cadet Nurses. 
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At the insistence of the President’s powerful wife, Ms. Eleanor Roosevelt, who vigorously championed the rights of minorities, the Cadet Nurse Corps was opened to minority women. This also boosted Corps efforts to reach a greater number of recruits, especially those who could treat minority patients who were historically deprived decent medical care in the United States (particularly in the South). Through an amendment to the original Bolton Act, the Cadet Nurse Corps became a non-discriminatory program. 
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... About 3,000 Blacks, over 200 Asian-Pacific-American citizens and 40 Native Americans joined the Corps because of this provision.  While a great step forward in social progress, this aspect of the program was strongly resented in many communities. 

This and other factors caused a white backlash against the program in segregated areas of the country. While preaching freedom abroad, America always faced problems in social equality at home. Soon after the end of war, the Federal government decided to stop the Cadet Nurse Program in view of this public outcry, which was largely driven by angry white voters in a few Southern states who were nevertheless politically significant. The death of President Roosevelt eliminated the influence of his distinguished wife to keep such a mixed-race program alive. No more applicants were admitted after October 15, 1945. Currently enrolled Cadet Nurses were allowed to complete their training. The Cadet Nurse Corps ended in 1948 with the graduation of its last class of students. Nearly 170,000 students enrolled in the Cadet Nurse Corps; 124,065 of them graduated. 
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Francis Bolton surrounded by Cadet Nurses 
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Acknowledgement 

The Cadet Nurse program effectively produced emergency personnel capable of serving as acting nurse-substitutes during the war. The nurse students could not always remedy the shortage of qualified trained nurses needed in medical positions since the students lacked the knowledge and experience of actual graduated nurses. However, without the Cadet Nurse Corps many communities would not have had any medical care at all.  Their service was an exceptionally valuable contribution to the United States during and following World War II. 

Furthermore, the Cadet Nurse program led to significant improvements in nursing education. School facilities like classrooms, housing quarters and libraries of nursing schools were improved and enlarged across the country. Course offerings were expanded (for example in such fields as convalescent care, public health, pediatrics, tuberculosis, and psychiatric care) and faculty sizes increased. Additionally, the Corps prompted special attention and Federal aid to postgraduate studies for nurses. More women than ever before were able to attend university nursing schools through the Cadet Nurse Corps scholarships. The publicity surrounding the Cadet Nurse Corps and its successes enhanced the visibility of nursing in the country greatly. 

Perhaps one of the greatest accomplishments was the important progressive social aspect of the Cadet Nurse Corps. The bold opening of the program to minority women enabled them to gain employment in a sector previously almost exclusively white beforehand. 
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Picture Source: Pictures from Sage Hospital now on display at the University of Arizona Medical Library
Nurse's Gee Club representing different tribes and races
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Lucy Petry assigned the Black nurse Rita Miller to her staff. Ms. Miller chaired the Division of Nursing at the Dillard University in New Orleans, responsible for assisting Black schools to apply for participation in the Cadet Nurse Program. Generous grants were awarded to several Black nursing schools that showed increasing student enrollment. 

By the end of World War II, 49 schools of nurses had admitted Black students (in 1941, there were only 29 schools). Some of these schools were previously White-only schools that, under pressure from Mrs. Roosevelt and the federal government, abandoned their discriminatory policies and allowed mixed enrollments. The Cadet Nurse Corps enabled minority women their only chances to secure acceptance to such institutions previously closed to them. 

Picture Source: Pictures from Sage Hospital now on display at the University of Arizona Medical Library
Alyce Valendry (left side) and Rowena Pentewa (right side) 
with Chief Thunderbird, Hollywood (California), 1945

The Cadet Nurse Corps neither was not a branch of the armed forces nor of the civilian personnel force of the United States government. Therefore, after the end of war, their contribution to the war effort as student trainees was not considered as federal service and they did not receive Veteran's status and Veteran's benefits. Contemporary racial prejudice also played an unfortunate part in denying them proper credit for their homeland contribution, because segregationists did not consider such Black nurses and Black nurse assistants deserving of such honor.

In 2003, Rep. Nita Lowey introduced the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps Equity Act requesting to grant former members of the Cadet Nurse Corps full veteran status. She and many others assess this status as justified because Cadet Nurses were enlisted in a uniformed military-type service in a time of war under the command of the United States Public Health Service and the Surgeon General of the United States. 
The veteran status of the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps is pending review by the United States Congress because of their wartime volunteer service. As soon as we are informed of a decision in this regard, we will post the official veteran or non-veteran status of this organization. This political process may take time.


Cadet Nurses at St. Joseph's Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1944.
(Picture Courtesy: Pamela Burkholder)
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continue to:
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Foundation of the CNC
Recruitment Campaign
Strength of the Corps
Acknowledgement
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[ I. Development ]..[ II. Facts about the CNC ]..[ III. Uniforms ]..[ IV. Sources ]
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