Florence Aby Blanchfield (April 1, 1884 in

Shepherdstown, West Virginia Shepherdstown is a town in Jefferson County, West Virginia, United States, located in the lower Shenandoah Valley along the Potomac River. Home to Shepherd University, the town's population was 1,531 at the time of the 2020 census. The town wa ...

– May 12, 1971 in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

) was a

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

Colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...

and superintendent of the Army Nursing Corps, from 1943 to 1947. She was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal in 1945, and the

Florence Nightingale Medal The Florence Nightingale Medal is an international award presented to those distinguished in nursing and named after British nurse Florence Nightingale. The medal was established in 1912 by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), f ...

by the

International Red Cross The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is a aid agency, humanitarian organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, and is a three-time Nobel Prize laureate. The organization has played an instrumental role in the development of Law of ...

in 1951. In 1947 Blanchfield became the first woman to receive a military commission in the regular army.

Early life

Florence Aby Blanchfield was born in

, the fourth of eight children of Mary Louvenia (), a nurse, and Joseph Plunkett Blanchfield, a mason and stonecutter. She grew up in Oranda, Virginia, attending public school until 1898, when she attended the private Oranda Institute. In addition to having a mother who was a nurse, Blanchfield's two sisters also became nurses, and her maternal grandfather and an uncle were physicians. She graduated from Southside Hospital Training School in 1906. She then studied with

Howard Atwood Kelly Howard Atwood Kelly (February 20, 1858 – January 12, 1943) was an American gynecologist. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts, B.A. degree and Doctor of Medicine, M.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He, William Osler, William Stewart ...

Johns Hopkins Hospital Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH) is the teaching hospital and biomedical research facility of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1889, Johns Hopkins Hospital and its school of medicine are considered to be the foundin ...

Career

Blanchfield was operating room supervisor at Southside Hospital and Montefiore Hospital,

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

. In 1909, she was superintendent of a training school at Suburban General Hospital, in Bellevue, Pennsylvania. In 1913, she worked as an operating room nurse and an anesthetist at the Ancon Hospital in the

Panama Canal Zone The Panama Canal Zone (), also known as just the Canal Zone, was a International zone#Concessions, concession of the United States located in the Isthmus of Panama that existed from 1903 to 1979. It consisted of the Panama Canal and an area gene ...

. During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, she enlisted in the US Army Nurse Corps (ANC), and served as acting chief nurse, in

Angers Angers (, , ;) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It is the Prefectures of France, prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Duchy of Anjou, Anjou until the French Revolution. The i ...

, and

Coëtquidan Académie militaire de Saint-Cyr Coëtquidan (, , abbr. AMSCC) is a French military educational facility located in the Morbihan department of Brittany in France. It forms a part of the commune of Guer and covers an area of approximately 64 ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, from August 1917 to January 1919. She was assigned to many military hospitals. She returned to civilian life for a period after the end of the War, but was drawn back to active service. In 1935, she was assigned to Washington D.C. to the office of the superintendent, for personnel matters in the corps. She became assistant superintendent in 1939, acting superintendent in 1942, and served as superintendent from 1 June 1943 until September 1947. She was instrumental in gaining full rank for nurses, by the Army and Navy Nurse Corps Law of April 16, 1947. This was preceded by temporary full commissioned status granted in 1944. During World War II, she also saw the rapid growth of the ANC from several hundred members to more than 50,000. In 1947 she became the first woman to receive a military commission in the regular army. For her accomplishments on behalf of the ANC, she was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal in 1945. Blanchfield was also awarded the

by the International Red Cross (1951) and West Virginia's Distinguished Service Medal (1963). She is buried in

Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery is the largest cemetery in the United States National Cemetery System, one of two maintained by the United States Army. More than 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington County, Virginia. ...

in section 21, site 641.

Decorations

Colonel Blanchfield's ribbon bar included:

Legacy

Colonel Florence A. Blanchfield Army Community Hospital at

Fort Campbell, Kentucky Fort Campbell is a United States Army installation located astride the Kentucky–Tennessee border between Hopkinsville, Kentucky and Clarksville, Tennessee (post address is located in Kentucky). Fort Campbell is home to the 101st Airborne Divi ...

was named for her in 1982.

References

External links

"Col. Florence Blanchfield, Advocate for Military Nurses"
''Working Nurse'', Suzanne Ridgway,
"Florence Aby Blanchfield"
''West Virginia Encyclopedia'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Blanchfield, Florence A. 1884 births 1971 deaths United States Army personnel of World War I Female United States Army nurses in World War II Burials at Arlington National Cemetery People from Shepherdstown, West Virginia Recipients of the Distinguished Service Medal (US Army) United States Army Nurse Corps officers American women in World War I Florence Nightingale Medal recipients People from Shenandoah County, Virginia Military personnel from West Virginia Military personnel from Virginia Nurses from Virginia United States Army colonels Nurses from West Virginia Nurse anesthetists American Nurses Association Hall of Fame inductees Perioperative nurses