More should support honor for WWII nurses

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Wisconsin Democrat, has sponsored Senate Bill S. 2195 WWII Nurses Congressional Gold Medal Act in the 119th Congress (2025-2026). Sen. Baldwin along with Rep. Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican, are sponsoring legislation to award the Congressional Gold Medal for WWII nurses.

Some nurses were killed by enemy fire, others spent years as P.O.W.’s. Most returned home to quiet lives, receiving little to no recognition, 80 years after the war ended.

A coalition of retired military nurses and others is campaigning to award one of the nation’s highest civilian honors, the Congressional Gold Medal, to all nurses who served in WWII.

Other groups such as The Women Air Force Service Pilots of WWII and the real-life Rosie the Riveters have already received this honor.

I’m sure that there are many who read this whose fathers, grandfathers, uncles, great uncles or cousins made it through WWII, due in no small part their own existence to these “Angels of Mercy.” Time is short for the remaining nurses to get this long overdue honor.

And I was stunned to see that for right now that there are only eight senators who have signed S.B. 2195 as cosponsors and not one is from Illinois.

I would have thought that Democratic Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth would have empathy for these nurses, seeing it was military nurses working in concert with military doctors that helped save her life.

David Kumpula

Hoffman Estates