Lieutenant Mildred Jeanette Dalton, A Soldier's Story
Lieutenant Mildred Jeanette Dalton, A Soldier's Story
First Lieutenant Mildred Jeanette Dalton was born on July 11, 1914, in Barrow County, Georgia. Drawn to nursing early, she attended the Atlanta Grady Memorial Hospital School of Nursing, graduating in 1937. For several years, she worked as a civilian surgical nurse, gaining experience that would soon be tested under far harsher conditions.
In 1939, Lieutenant Dalton joined the U.S. Army Nurse Corps. She later said she enlisted to travel and see the world, and in 1941, she specifically requested an assignment to the Philippines. She arrived there in October of that year, just weeks before the Pacific was thrust into war.
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese forces rapidly advanced through the Philippines. Along with seventy-seven other Army nurses, Lieutenant Dalton continued caring for the wounded as hospitals were forced into tents and eventually into an underground tunnel system. When U.S. and Filipino forces surrendered in May 1942, the nurses were captured.
For nearly three years, Lieutenant Dalton and the other nurses were held at the Santo Tomas civilian internment camp in Manila. Despite severe shortages of food, medicine, and basic supplies, they continued nursing under conditions of chronic malnutrition, disease, and uncertainty. Their survival depended as much on discipline and endurance as it did on medical skill.
Lieutenant Dalton was liberated on February 3, 1945. When asked later about her experiences, she summarized them simply: “I had a job to do. I was a nurse.”
After the war, she briefly toured to support war bonds before marrying and resigning her commission. She settled in Jacksonville, Florida, where she spent the rest of her career as a civilian nurse, continuing the work that had defined her life.
In 1994, she moved to Hopewell, New Jersey. First Lieutenant Mildred Jeanette Dalton died on March 8, 2013. She is laid to rest at Washington Crossing National Cemetery.
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About the Author
a.d. elliott is a wanderer, photographer, and storyteller traveling through life
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