Intermission Stories (6)

BrigGeneral Anna Mae McCabe Hays

Brigadier General  Anna Mae Hays

Anna Mae V. McCabe Hays was born on 16 February 1920 in Buffalo, New York to parents who both were Salvation Army officers.  Religion, music and a spirit of service were guiding lights in the McCabe household.  After completing high school, Hays attended the Allentown General Hospital School of Nursing.

When approached by a representative of the 20th General Hospital, the University of PA unit, a sense of duty and patriotic fervor inspired Hays to join the Army Nurse Corps.  In January 1943, Hay’s unit proceeded to Ledo, Assam, India, 1,000 miles above Calcutta at the beginning of the famous Ledo Road, which cut through the jungles into Burma.  She remained there for 2½ years; while she was home on leave, World War II ended.

Field hospital, Korean War

In the summer of 1950, Hays traveled with the 4th Field Hospital to Inchon, Korea, landing shortly after MacArthur’s invasion operation at Inchon.  During both of her combat tours in WWII and the Korean War, Hays spent part of her off-duty time assisting chaplains by playing a field pump organ for weddings and church services, often on the front lines.  After receiving enough points to leave Korea, she transferred to Tokyo, Army Hospital and spent another year there.

Her subsequent assignment was Fort Sam Houston Texas followed by three years duty at Walter Reed General Hospital.  During that time, she was assigned to be the private duty nurse for Pres. Eisenhower during his brief illness.  Hays was married in 1956, but became a widow in 1962.  After receiving her bachelor’s degree in nursing education, her next assignment Head Nurse of the Nuclear Medicine and Radioisotope Clinic at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.

A return trip to Korea in 1960, she was the chief nurse of the 11th Evacuation Hospital in Pusan, then another tour at Walter Reed, then the Office of the Surgeon General as special assistant to Colonel Harper brought Hays to her selection as Assistant Chief of the Army Nurse Corps 1963-1968.  After earning her master of science in nursing degree she served as the 13th Chief of the Army Nurse Corps, 1967-1971.

Hays and Mamie Eisenhower at the promotion ceremony

On 11 June 1970, Colonel Anna Mae Hays was promoted to the grade of general and became the first woman in the United States Armed Forces to wear the insignia of a brigadier general.  The Army Chief of Staff, Gen. William Westmoreland and the Sec. of the Army, Stanley Resor officiated at the ceremony.  The Army Surgeon General, Hal B. Jennings, pinned the stars on Hays’ uniform.

At the new general’s promotion, she expressed her view that the stars “reflect[ed] the dedicated, selfless and often heroic efforts of Army nurses throughout the world since 1901 in time of peace and war.”  She then quoted Albert Einstein’s words, “I must remind myself a hundred times each day that what I am I owe to the lives of other men…and that I must exert myself in order that I may give in the same manner that I receive.” as her philosophy of service to her country.

This wonderful story was taken and condensed from the Army Nurse Corps Association.org website; originally written by Mary T. Sarnecky.

Click on images to enlarge.

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World War II update – 

Please to enlarge and read.

Courtesy of The Palm Beach Post

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Farewell Salutes – 

Jack Alexander (85) – Georgia & Palm Bch., FL; US Air Force, fighter pilot

Aldo Becci – Vienna, VA; US Army, WWII, Transportation Corps

John F. Corrigan – Kelowna, British Columbia, RCAF, WWII, ETO, Wing Commander (Ret.) Distinguished Flying Cross

Susan Curry – Wichita, KS & D.C. – US Army, Lt. Colonel, (Ret.) 27 years

Philip Kneifl – Ft. Worth, TX; US Air Force

Arthur S. Lord – Whakatane, New Zealand; RNZAF # 405576, WWII, 14th Army, Burma

William Pogue – Okemah, OK; US Air Force; Korea, fighter bomber (Astronaut for NASA, 3 SkyLab missions)

William W. Smith – Biloxi, MS & San Diego, CA; US Navy, WWII & Korea

John Taylor – Levittown, NY; US Navy, WWII, Sea Bee

Ben Vasquez – Grand Prairie, TX; US Army, WWII, ETO, Battle of the Bulge

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