M. Kathleen "Katie" Ruppert Mikowski

M. Kathleen "Katie" Ruppert Mikowski, 1920-2016

"Katie" Mikowski passed away on March 13, 2016 at ninety-five years of age. Born in Cumberland, she was a graduate of Catholic Girls Central High School and later attended the Allegany Hospital School of Nursing. It was then that she joined the U.S. Army Nurse Corps where she met and married her late husband, Edmund. Kathleen was stationed at various army hospitals throughout the South Pacific during World War II. Though separated for the duration of the war, Kathleen and Edmund reunited afterwards and Katherine served as a Registered Nurse in her husband's Philadelphia medical practice.

The United States Army Nurse Corps was formally established by Congress in 1901. At the beginning of World War II in December 1941, there were fewer than 1000 women in the Army Nurse Corps, and only about 700 in the Navy Nurse Corps. By war’s end the Army and Army Air Forces had 54,000 nurses and the Navy had 11,000. These were all women. All-black medical units saw service from 217 African-American nurses. As noted above, Mikowski served in the Pacific and at different locations. Nurses served in the Pacific from 1941 onward, and were generally assigned away from the front lines and combat zones for fear of capture and because of enemy guerrilla actions. Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, New Caledonia and the New Hebrides were among the posts they were stationed.