Nurses' role celebrated at Legion post

MADEIRA BEACH -- They were once the caregivers. Now many of them could use a little tender, loving care themselves.

Although the all-nurses Jane A. Delano American Legion Post 122 has swelled to 63 members, only 12 -- all women mostly in their 70s and 80s -- showed up for the 62-year-old post's monthly meeting on Feb. 1.

They have no building of their own, so they meet at the American Legion Post 273 in Madeira Beach the first Friday of the month.

"It's important to continue to meet," said Joan Arcand, 73, a nurse during the Korean War and Post 122's commander for the past 10 years. (See related story.) "We are a part of history."

Betty Jane Rosenberger, 82, of Seminole, agreed. "We all speak the same language."

Rosenberger, who now uses a walker to get around, recalls her days in the Pacific in vivid detail.

"We went over on a hospital ship," said Rosenberger, who was stationed in the Philippines, Okinawa and Japan during 1944 and 1945 and remained a nurse for 21 years. "It was a long, rough ride."

One of her duties was to take care of American prisoners of war released by the Japanese. "It was sad, hard and inconvenient. And lots of times, you had to use your own fixins'. There weren't a lot of supplies."

Post 122, for military nurses, is the only all-nurses post in Florida and one of only six left in the country, Arcand said. At the end of World War II, there were 29, all named for Jane Delano.

Jane Arminda Delano, a distant cousin of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on his mother's side, was an executive war nurse who united the work of the Nurses' Associated Alumnae (renamed the American Nurses Association in 1911), the Army Nurse Corps and the American Red Cross.

Through her efforts, more than 8,000 well-prepared nurses were available when the United States entered World War I. She then helped supply nearly 21,000 trained nurses to meet the needs of that war.

Miss Delano died in France in 1919 while on a Red Cross mission. She received the Distinguished Service Medal posthumously and is now buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Post 122 was founded in 1939 by Katherine Matthews. She was one of 24 nurses caring for World War I nurses who were housed in a cottage at the VA Medical Center at Bay Pines. They were all being treated for mustard gas poisoning.

The post's members, who range in age from their 40s to 90s, have served from World War II through Desert Storm and includes four members who are on active alert today. The remaining World War I nurse died last year.

Members come from New Port Richey south to St. Petersburg.

Over the years, Post 122 has been involved in a number of community service projects, which also won it praise from the state American Legion organization.

Today, the post has parties for the Happy Workers Children's Center in St. Petersburg and gives out medals -- for honesty, integrity and service -- to schoolchildren from Starkey Elementary School in Seminole and Bay Point Elementary and Bay Point Middle schools in St. Petersburg.

"These women are so humble," said Teddy Aggeles, of St. Petersburg, a nurse (not in the military) who is writing a book about Post 122. "They don't think they've done anything for their country, but they've done a lot," she said.

-- Information from Times researcher Cathy Wos, Times files, the Army Nurse Corps History, American Association of the History of Nursing, the Encyclopaedia Britannica Online and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library was used in this report.

To learn more

The all-nurses American Legion Post 122 is open to (men and women) military nurses from World War II to the present day. The post meets at 1 p.m. the first Friday of the month, American Legion Post 273 in Madeira Beach. Annual dues are $22. To join or for information, call Joan Arcand, 392-5648.

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