Wilma Leona Jackson Uniforms

This collection has not yet been digitized.

https://uncg.as.atlas-sys.com/repositories/2/resources/208

This collection consists of navy uniforms and uniform accessories from the mid-1950s.

Wilma Leona Jackson (1909-1998) served in the Navy Nurse Corps from 1936-1958. Jackson was born in Union, Ohio, in 1909. She graduated from Butler Centralized School in Vandalia in 1927 and earned her nursing degree in 1930 at Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, Ohio. She joined the Navy Nurse Corps in July 1936 and served at the Naval Hospital in Philadelphia until 1939, when she transferred to the Naval Hospital in Brooklyn, New York. The following year, she was sent overseas to the Naval Hospital at Guam. When the Japanese captured the island in December 1941, Jackson, along with three other navy nurses and all other United States military personnel, was taken prisoner. Jackson was freed in an exchange of prisoners in August 1942. She was assigned to the Navy's Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED) in Washington, D.C., until 1944, when she was promoted to lieutenant and returned to Guam. There, she served as the Senior Nurse Corps Officer at Fleet Hospital #103 until December 1945. After WWII, Jackson served at hospitals in Washington D.C., Oakland, California, and Portsmouth, Virginia. She returned to school in 1950 and graduated with degrees in nursing administration from Columbia University in 1952. In 1954, Jackson was appointed third director of the Navy Nurse Corps. She retired in 1958 as a Captain and returned to Ohio, where she died on 23 March 1998. Jackson was a recipient of the American Defense Service Medal, the Asiatic Victory Medal, the National Defense Service Medal and a Commendation Ribbon.

Women's History
Military

Navy -- Navy Nurse Corps

World War II era (1940-1946)

World War, 1939-1945
United States. Navy--Women

Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries