GLENWOOD CITY — A World War II combat nurse from Glenwood City who was killed on duty served as the inspiration for a federal bill seeking to award medals to the women who cared for wounded troops during the war.
Despite being struck in the chest by shrapnel when her field hospital in Anzio, Italy, came under attack in 1944, 2nd Lt. Ellen Ainsworth still teamed with three other nurses to evacuate 42 patients to safety before succumbing to her injuries. As the nation marks Memorial Day 78 years after her death, the U.S. Army Nurse Corps member may still provide a boost to her fellow nurses through legislation honoring their service.
U.S. Sens. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Steve Daines, R-Mont., recently led the Senate introduction of the WWII Nurses Congressional Gold Medal Act.
The bipartisan legislation, introduced in the Senate and House, would award a Congressional Gold Medal, collectively, to the women who served in World War II as members of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps and U.S. Navy Nurse Corps.
“The patriotic nurses who served and sacrificed for our country deserve the upmost recognition and respect for their heroic service during WWII,” Baldwin said in a statement. “I was proud to introduce this legislation after hearing the story of Wisconsin’s own Lt. Ellen Ainsworth. … The service of tens of thousands like Lt. Ainsworth was not only crucial to the war effort, but exemplifies the courage and compassion of the Greatest Generation.”
Baldwin singled out Ainsworth’s story in a news release about the bill as an example of the kind of bravery by nurses that deserves commendation.
The attack that resulted in Ainsworth’s mortal injury came after nurses had moved all of the patients they could and then elected to stay with those who were in no shape to be moved. But the canvas tents of the hospital were no match for bombs and shrapnel that day on the Anzio beachhead often referred to as “Hell’s Half-Acre.”
One of those patients Ainsworth stayed with was 19-year-old Pvt. Broadus Giddens. His son Keith, of South Carolina, brought fresh attention to Ainsworth’s heroism when he visited Glenwood City in March to view a Glenwood Area History Center exhibit about Ainsworth and thank area residents for her successful efforts to save his dad’s life.
“She didn’t have to do that,” Keith Giddens said of Ainsworth, the lone Wisconsin woman to die from enemy fire in World War II, as several onlookers wiped away tears. “So, Ellen, thank you for doing a beautiful act of kindness that cost you deeply.”
Ainsworth and the other nurses involved in the attack on the 56th Evacuation Hospital were awarded the Silver Star for bravery — the first women so honored by the Army — and the bill would expand recognition to other American World War II nurses.
In 1935, fewer than 600 U.S. Army nurses and 1,700 U.S. Navy nurses served on active duty. By the time the war ended, more than 59,000 Army nurses and 14,000 Navy nurses had volunteered to serve, according to bill sponsors.
“America’s nurses who served our nation during World War II did so with honor and distinction,” Daines said in a statement. “The compassion and care they gave undoubtedly contributed to America’s victory, and for that they have earned Congress’ highest honor — the Congressional Gold Medal.”
The bill’s introduction was a thrill for Sally Berkholder, a former Glenwood City resident who started a tribute page to Ainsworth on Facebook and launched the effort to honor World War II nurses with the Congressional Gold Medal by proposing the idea to a Baldwin staff member in 2018.
“I’m extremely excited, humbled and gratified to see this bill introduced,” said Berkholder, now of New Richmond. “I just hope it passes.”
In explaining why she advocated for the legislation, Berkholder said the combat nurses proved to skeptical military leaders that women could handle frontline conditions.
“It’s time,” she said. “These brave service women from the Greatest Generation are so deserving of this tribute and award. To a world torn apart by war, our WWII nurses exemplified the best in American values and helped win the war.”
Berkholder’s grandparents were close friends with Ainsworth’s parents and Ainsworth occasionally babysat for Berkholder’s niece. While she didn’t know Ainsworth personally, Berkholder likes to help keep her memory alive and even visited Ainsworth’s gravesite at the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and Memorial in Nettuno, Italy. Through connections she has made, Berkholder said she has learned that Ainsworth was vivacious, charismatic and not afraid of anything.
Ainsworth, who was born and raised in Glenwood City, graduated from nursing school in Minneapolis in 1941 and then enlisted in the Army Nurse Corps the following spring, serving in Tunisia before being sent to Anzio, where American and British troops were planning a surprise attack on German forces.
Ainsworth has been widely recognized for her heroism, with a conference room at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., a residence hall at the Wisconsin Veterans Home in King, a health clinic at Fort Hamilton in New York and the post office and American Legion Post in Glenwood City all named for her.
The medal proposal was immediately supported by several state and national organizations.
“Despite historical inequities based on gender and race, women shared their expertise as nurses and physicians to foster wellbeing and mitigate suffering and death. I am deeply grateful for the resilience, legacy and inspiration of these extraordinary nurses and their colleagues,” American Red Cross chief nurse Linda MacIntyre said in a statement.
Likewise, Wisconsin Veterans Museum director Christopher Kolakowski said the medal would be a well-deserved honor for World War II combat nurses who served around the world.
“Their service was often arduous, sometimes leading to wounds or death, while a few nurses endured years of captivity,” Kolakowski said in a statement. “Through all of it, these women again and again did their duty to the highest standards of professionalism and steadfastness. ‘I never saw a nurse afraid,’ recalled General Carlos Romulo, who spoke for many. There’s a reason that the term ‘angels’ was used multiple times to refer to combat nurses.”
In asking Congress to “please honor those nurses by passing this bill,” Joseph Schorer noted in the news release that his mother, Avis Dagit Schorer, was among the combat nurses at Anzio who attended to Ainsworth after her injuries.
In a separate effort, retired U.S. naval officer Shawn Winter, Adjutant General of the Naples-Monte Cassino VFW in Italy, contacted Berkholder last summer through the Friends of 2nd Lt. Ellen Ainsworth Facebook page seeking more biographical information about Ainsworth to support his petition of the U.S. Army requesting an upgrade for Ainsworth from the Silver Star to the Medal of Honor.
If Winter’s effort is successful, Ainsworth would be the first woman since the Civil War to be so honored.
Contacted in Italy, Winter told the Leader-Telegram that he decided to pursue the medal upgrade while standing by Ainsworth’s grave and talking about her story with a cemetery employee on Memorial Day 2020.
“I decided at that moment she deserves the Medal of Honor,” Winter said in a just-released video supporting his petition.
He maintained the only reason that hasn’t happened is because Ainsworth is a woman and said upgrading her medal would be “correcting history.”
In the video, Melanie Resto, superintendent of the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery, called Ainsworth a role model and said women like her opened the door for females to serve their country in the armed forces.
Winter, who referred to combat nurses as the “unsung heroes” of World War II, has pleaded Ainsworth’s case in letters to officials including President Joe Biden, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Baldwin.
The Medal of Honor is intended for troops who risk their lives to save others during a battle with foreign adversaries, Winter said.
“She met those criteria,” Winter said of Ainsworth. “She put her life at risk. She didn’t have to go into that field tent to remove the patients, but that was the duty. That’s the type officer she was, that’s the type of woman she is and that’s the type of citizen that we aspire to be.”