Photo By Pamela Sleezer | Lt. Gen. Xavier Brunson, left, I Corps commander, Col. Ann Sims-Columbia, middle,...... read more read more
JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. – On Women’s History Month, Col. Ruby Bradley, one of the most decorated women in the United States military history, had her name memorialized as a street in a housing neighborhood on Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
Previously known as Pickett Circle, it will now be known as Col. Ruby Bradley Circle, in accordance with the Department of Defense guidance of military installations’ renaming of any property that currently has Confederate figures as their namesakes.
According to Col. Phil Lamb, JBLM commander, there was only one street sign on the entirety of the installation to change in accordance with the DOD guidance. Lamb said, “We also have an opportunity here to celebrate this month of women’s history and celebrate this great service member.”
Even though Bradley has no immediate ties to the Pacific Northwest, she qualified under the category of American heroes whose valor, courage, and patriotism exemplify the best of the United States military, according to the DoD guidance.
“Long after we’re all gone from this place, and this story is lost to antiquity,” said Lt. Gen. Xavier Brunson, I Corps commander, “we’ll be familiar with the fact that we were here on the day when this street was renamed.”
With the month of March being Women’s History Month, Bradley was chosen based on her service and contributions. She was an Army Nurse Corps officer, a prisoner of the Japanese in World War II, and one of the most decorated women in military history.
A native of Spencer, West Virginia, Bradley entered the United States Army Nurse Corps as a surgical nurse in 1934. She was serving at Camp John Hay in the Philippines when she was captured by the Japanese army three weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
For the next several months, she provided medical help to the prisoners and sought to feed starving children by shoving food into her pockets whenever she could, often going hungry herself.
“I just came back from the Philippines (for exercise Salaknib), the same place where she was a prisoner of war for some 37 months,” said Brunson. “I do know she got down to 86 pounds, and at 86 pounds, she was still giving her food away to others that needed help.
“I would encourage you to find her story and study her story, because it’s something we can all be proud of.”
The weight she shed made room in her uniform for smuggling surgical equipment into the prisoner-of-war camp that she used to assist in 230 operations and deliver 13 children, according to her biography.
On Feb. 3, 1945, U.S. troops stormed the gates of the Japanese camp and liberated Bradley and her fellow prisoners, ending her three years of captivity.
“She was one of handful of Soldiers who remained in uniform after the liberation in 1945,” said Col. Ann Sims-Columbia, chief nursing officer at Madigan Army Medical Center. “Many of them were simply too sick or have had enough.”
Later, Bradley served as a frontline Army nurse in evacuation hospitals in Korea.
“She believed that service in the Army was her source of meaning in life, and she went to her next duty assignment a short few weeks after returning home from internment,” said Sims-Columbia.
Bradley retired from the U.S. Army in 1963.
Her military record included 34 medals and citations of bravery, including two Legion of Merit medals, two Bronze Stars, two Presidential Emblems, the World War II Victory Medal, and the United Nations Service Medal.
She was also the recipient of the Florence Nightingale Medal, the Red Cross' highest international honor.
When asked in an interview in 1991 to sum up her service, Bradley said, “I want to be remembered as just an Army nurse.”
Bradley died in May 2002 at the age of 94, and was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery, nearly 40 years after she retired from the U.S. Army. She was honored with a military funeral in the historic cemetery overlooking the nation's capital.
| Date Taken: | 03.30.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 03.30.2023 18:46 |
| Story ID: | 441616 |
| Location: | TACOMA, WASHINGTON, US |
| Web Views: | 206 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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