Gen. Miley Honors Angels of the Battlefield: Medics, corpsmen, pararescuemen, doctors, nurses

Chairman Honors WWII Army Nurse, Others

OCT. 28, 2020 | BY DAVID VERGUN, BY TERRI MOON CRONK, DOD NEWS

Medics, corpsmen, pararescuemen, doctors, nurses and other military medical personnel were honored at a ceremony yesterday.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark A. Milley spoke at the Armed Services YMCA’s 14th annual Angels of the Battlefield Awards ceremony in Washington, D.C. Former Army 2nd Lt. Regina Benson, a member of the Army Nurse Corps during World War II, was one of those honored at the ceremony. She’s the oldest military nurse at age 100.
Benson worked countless hours in Army hospitals in the Pacific Theater from 1944 to 1946, including the Battle of Okinawa and the occupation of Japan following the end of the war, Milley said.

“She knows that her most significant act of mercy was simply, in her words, ‘to hold the hand of the young soldier, sailor, airman or Marine who’s about to pass so they would not die alone.'”

The chairman mentioned that “war is a terrible thing. But it’s people like Regina Benson [and others] who bring a bit of humanity to an otherwise brutal, bloody battlefield.”

Milley then presented the Angel of Honor Award to Benson.

“I was delighted and jumping for joy when the war was over and I could go back home and get married and go to work as a nurse,” Benson said after accepting the award.

“I’m proud that I was part of World War II serving our country and ensuring the freedom we have today,” she said. “It saddens me to think of how many lives were lost. But I made sure my patients never died alone. I was always there with them so that I could tell their mothers that they did not die alone.

“I accept this award not for myself but on behalf of all the medical personnel who served in World War II,” she said. “None of us deserved medals. We just did what millions of Americans did. We worked together, fought together and served together for our nation and for our freedom. It was a unique time of American unity and spirit that sadly may never be equaled again.”

Milley also recounted the history of heroic actions by many other medical personnel on the battlefields of this nation’s wars.

Retired Army Staff Sgt. Ronald J. Shurer II died a few hours before yesterday’s ceremony. Milley mentioned that Shurer, a Special Forces medic, earned the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions to save the lives of at least seven soldiers, despite being wounded and under intense enemy fire, during the Battle of Shok Valley, April 6, 2008, in Afghanistan’s Nuristan province.

“He’s an incredible recent example of an angel of the battlefield,” Milley added.

The chairman said both of his parents served during World War II; his mother in a Navy hospital in Seattle, Washington, treating the wounded coming back from the Pacific Theater. His father was a Navy corpsman with the 4th Marine Division on Kwajalein, Saipan, Tinian and Iwo Jima, “saving many lives during some of the bloodiest battles in American history.”

Milley also mentioned that his wife Hollyanne has been a nurse for 35 years. “She spent countless hours comforting the wounded and has grieved with the families of our fallen. She proudly represents the faithful service and sacrifice of all of our family members who are heroes in their own right and a core strength of our military’s resolve and skill.”

World War II was raging in 1944. American troops were instrumental in the effort to take back France, including the beach landings in Normandy that caught the Germans off guard. American forces took possession of Rome, and a Soviet counterattack pushed Germany back into Poland. 

Former Army Nurse, 100, Recalls WWII ExperiencesIn the Pacific,

Japan had gained more Chinese territory, but the communists’ presence limited Japan’s success. The Allies fought back by taking Saipan and invading the Philippines.

Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, 24-year-old nurse Regina Benson and three of her nursing school classmates joined the Army Nurse Corps right after graduation to serve their country. They were assigned overseas and remained lifelong friends.

Benson’s four brothers were also serving, so for her, joining the Army as a patriotic duty was not unusual.

“She was kind of fearless,” her daughter, Phyllis Benson, said in a recent interview.

Benson, of McLean, Virginia, is now 100 years old. She visited the Pentagon recently and was interviewed about her Army Nurse Corps service in Japan, Hawaii and Okinawa, from September 1944 until April 1946.

While in Hawaii, 2nd Lt. Benson met her future husband, Army 1st Lt. William Benson, who was a supply officer and a company commander. He stayed in the Army Reserve, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel. When Regina left the Army in 1946, she became a civilian surgical nurse, her daughter said.

Benson had some harrowing experiences during her wartime service in the Pacific.

“We were on a ship going across the Pacific, and we hit a bad storm,” Benson said. “So, the captain decided we would go down with the ship, and of course, everybody got on their knees and prayed and promised God many things. Then all of a sudden, the ship calmed down, and we went through the eye of the storm and everybody went back to what they were doing.”

After the Japanese announced their surrender on Aug. 15, 1945, and formally signed an agreement Sept. 2, American service members were welcomed into the homes of Japanese, Benson said. “We ate dinner with them, talked to them and stayed in some of the Japanese homes,” she said, adding that the Americans shared their rations with the Japanese.

She remembers well, the day the Japanese surrendered. “I was delighted, but the Japanese [troops] in the hills didn’t know that World War II was over, and they came down [from the hills] shooting at us,” she said. She said she jumped for joy when the war was over so she could return home, get married and work as a civilian nurse.

Benson believes “the United States is the greatest country in the world because of its freedoms and because people can carry out their dreams.” If she could speak to younger generations today, she said she would tell them “to love their country, and remember the price [service members] paid for your freedom. Remain true to your country. We can pursue our dreams and hopes.”

Regina Benson worked 12-hour shifts in Army hospitals in the Pacific; on wards and in operating rooms. She said the most important thing she did during the war was “to give comfort to those troops who were dying.”

According to Benson, the most rewarding part of her Army nursing career was to be able to tell the mother of a young service member that their son did not die alone, because she was there with them.