friday Mieography

This is Rear Admiral Alene B. Duerk.
She is a nurse, and, the first woman to be selected for the rank of Admiral in the US Navy.
She was born in Defiance, Ohio, and went all through school there, including her nursing training, which she received in a hospital in Toledo, Ohio. After 2 years of nursing, she was appointed as an Ensign in the Naval Reserve Nursing Corps. Her first assignments were in the Virginia area, but she eventually ended up on a hospital ship, the USS Benevolence (AH-13). It was stationed in the Pacific theater. After the war, her ship remained in pacific waters, off the coast of Yokosuka, Japan, where it assisted in processing the POW's that were liberated. In late 1945 the ship returned home with many of those servicemen, and she was eventually discharged from active service.
After that, she went back to school, and got her BS degree in Ward Management and teaching, Medical Surgical Nursing. She began to teach nursing in Michigan, and joined a Naval Reserve Unit in Detroit. By 1951 she was recalled back into active service, where she began to teach nursing to the Naval nurses. She taught both stateside, and in the Phillipines, and Japan. She continued her long career, traveling, teaching, and being in charge of many hospitals, and, gaining rank. June of 1972, she was promoted to Rear Admiral, the first woman to be given that rank. She retired in 1975.
Among her awards and decorations, she has gotten a Legion of Merit, American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign medal, with a bronze star, WW II victory medal, Navy Occupation Service Medal, and a National Defence Service Medal. She also was awarded with two honorary Doctorate degrees.