G.I. Nightingales

June 15, 1996
Tomblin (history, Rutgers Univ.) has written an account of the 80,000 army nurses who served during World War II. These nurses participated in every theater of the war; some died while on duty, and many were decorated for their bravery. Along with their deserving stories, the reader learns the history of women nurses in the military. Tomblin allows the nurses to tell their stories in their own words, describing everything from operating room procedures to their participation in the Normandy invasion. The writing is engaging and should have broad appeal for everyone interested in World War II.--Dorothy Lilly, Grosse Pointe North H.S. Lib., Mich.

June 1, 1996
Tomblin's admirable narrative history of the U.S. Army nurses of World War II avoids the Procrustean theoretical apparatus of gender studies to straightforwardly tell who did what, where and when. The Army Nurse Corps, originally "with" rather than "in" the army, was reorganized and expanded just in time for World War II. After reporting that development, Tomblin follows the nurses from the vast Pacific to the intense European to the miseries of the China-Burma-India theaters of war. She also recalls the work of the nurses who held the fort at army hospitals back home and the particular story of African American nurses, who suffered discrimination during the war and oblivion afterward. Tomblin's modest volume (considering the potential size of the subject) makes a thoroughly readable addition to World War II and women's studies collections. ((Reviewed June 1 & 15, 1996))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1996, American Library Association.)