1LT Nancy Newcomb Porter Oral History

title:

1LT Nancy Newcomb Porter Oral History

creator:

Porter, Nancy Newcomb (1926 February 1 - )

subject:

USPHS Cadet Nurse Corps | Air Force Nurse Corps

description:

Nancy Newcomb Porter was born on February 1, 1926 in Detroit, Michigan. After high school, she went to the Harper Hospital School of Nursing in 1942 under the Cadet Nurse Corps. After completing the 3-year program in 1946, she worked on the staff there for a year before moving to Wendover, Kentucky and working at the Frontier Nursing Service there from 1947 until her enlistment in the Air Force Nurse Corps. She joined the Reserves in November 1950, and was called to active duty to serve in the Korean War. She drove from Michigan to Shepard Air Force Base in Texas---which had been deactivated after World War II and reactivated for the Korean War---at the very beginning of 1951. The hospital was understaffed but full of patients, so she started working immediately and all of the nurses were working minimum 48-hour weeks. Because of the short staff, she worked many different positions at the hospital, including as a ward nurse, in Central Supply, heading Central Supply, and sterilizing equipment in an autoclave. She was engaged before going to Texas, and at the end of 1951 her fiancé decided they should get married. She asked to be relieved of duty even though she had signed up for two years when she joined the Reserves, but they agreed to release her from active duty regardless. They married at the end of 1951 and returned to Michigan, where she remained in the Reserves until having their first child in 1953. She was decommissioned in 1954 because women could not remain officers I they had any dependents under the age of 18. After leaving the service she did on and off volunteer nursing while taking care of her two children. When she left the service Porter had reached the rank of 1st lieutenant. A transcript of this interview is available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Watson, Ellen H.

date:

1988-11-21

type:

Audio

format:

Cassette

identifier:

578; 1988.578

source:

NSCD | Grosse Point Oral History Consortium | CLIR - Recordings at Risk

language:

English

relation:

541826

coverage:

1940s | 1950s | 1943-46 | 1951-52

rights:

Unrestricted