Elizabeth Damon Beecher
I entered Massachusetts Memorial Hospital School of Nursing February of 1943. The following September I joined the Cadet Corps. In 1945 after 2½ years of training I was sent to the U.S. Marine Hospital, Staten Island, NY. In March of 1946 I received my R.N. and remained at the hospital until 1948. At that time I transverred to the Marine Hospital, Brighton, MA and was there until 1960.
2019 addendum:
During the Great Depression, when Elizabeth Damon Beecher attended school in the Shoe Mill Town of Rockland, Massachusetts, things were very different. Neighborhood school buildings like the one she attended on Webster Street didn't have indoor plumbing, and students went home for lunch between morning and afternoon studies. Recently inducted to the Academic Hall of Fame at Rockland High School, the 1942 graduate was honored for her years of service as a World War II U.S. Cadet Nurse. Beecher told the audience of High School students being honored for academic achievement that one of the most important things she learned from her teachers was "to make the right decision." She recalled that with young men enlisting to defend freedom, her high school graduation ceremony was a very somber affair and the fear that everyone was feeling discouraged any celebration.
She had hopes of going on to school and becoming a nurse. The war and financial burdens for her family made her waiver. Beecher turned to her school principal for advice, and he told her that she must not give up on her dreams. When she graduated from High School, she was able to work during the summer in a Rockland defense plant and earned tuition money for nursing school. She trained at Massachusetts Memorial Hospital School of Nursing in Boston. In February of 1943, she left her family and hometown and headed to the U.S. Marine Hospital at Staten Island, becoming one of the 180,000 U.S. Cadet Nurses who cared for American soldiers. Beecher is currently actively working on U.S. Senate Bill 997, which would ensure that the service of U.S. Cadet Nurses during the period beginning on July 1, 1943, and ending on December 31, 1948, is recognized as active military service. "It is about honoring and respecting the sacrifices so many young women made," she said. Introduced in the Senate in April of 2019, Bill 997 was referred to the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.
She summarized her advice for the high school students in three points, "Do not give up your dream. Make the right choices, And, think of what a precious privilege privilege it is to be alive!"
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