Anita Newcomb McGee
Dr. Anita Newcomb McGee is considered the founder of the Army Nurse Corps. Born in 1864, Dr. McGee got her medical degree in 1892, and became one of the few female practicing doctors in Washington, DC. When the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898, Dr. McGee trained and organized volunteer nurses, and her organizing abilities led to her appointment as acting Assistant Surgeon General of the US Army, in charge of nurses, for the duration of the war. That made her the first woman authorized to wear an Army officer’s uniform.
During the conflict, she wrote a manual on nursing that was adopted by the American military and formed the basis for nursing practices for decades thereafter, with some parts surviving as standard procedures to this day. After the war, she lobbied for the establishment of a permanent nurse corps and wrote the section of the legislation that was subsequently enacted into law to establish the Army Nurse Corps in 1901.
In 1904, Dr. McGee led a contingent of volunteer nurses to serve in Japan during the Russo-Japanese War. She established a field hospital for the Imperial Japanese Army, and trained Japanese Red Cross nurses. Given an officer’s rank by the Japanese government, she conducted inspections of field hospitals and hospital ships, and served as medical military attache with the Japanese army in Manchuria.
Returning to America after the war, Dr. McGee resumed her medical practice, wrote about her war experiences, and lectured at the University of California. She died in 1940 and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Section 1, Lot 526-B.