Since the dawn of the republic, military nurses have played an important role in treating and caring for our nation’s wounded returning from battle. From the Revolutionary War to America’s global war on terrorism, military nurses are on the front lines and true heroes in their own right.
Here are brief profiles of just two modern military nurse legends.
Army Lt. Gen. Patricia Horoho
Born in 1960 on Fort Bragg, N.C., the daughter of an Army officer, Army Lt. Gen. Patricia Horoho is the first woman and the first nurse to become Army surgeon general and commanding general of the Army Medical Command.
Horoho grew up in North Carolina. She received her nursing degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1982 and earned her master’s degree in as a clinical trauma nurse from the University of Pittsburgh 10 years later. She earned a second master’s degree from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces.
In her long, distinguished career, from 1982 to 2016, Horoho treated the injured in the 1994 “Green Ramp” disaster at Fort Bragg, N.C., in which an F-16 fighter jet clipped the wing of a C-130 transport plane while on a training exercise. While the pilots ejected safely, the fighter crashed into an area known as the “Green Ramp,” where paratroopers were waiting to board aircraft. The explosion killed 23 and injured more than 100. At the time, Horoho was head nurse of the fort’s emergency room and led the care of the injured.
Horoho went on to serve in Afghanistan, and was honored by the Red Cross for her actions at the Pentagon during the 9/11 terrorist attack. In 2008, Horoho led the 9,000-strong Army Nurse Corps and the Walter Reed Health Care System in Maryland.
Nominated by President Barack Obama to become commanding general of the Army Medical Command in 2011, Horoho led a health-care system rivaled only the Veterans Administration, serving more than 3.5 million patients.
Horoho retired in 2016 and was succeeded by her contemporary in her command by another “first woman,” Maj. Gen. Nadja West, the first black woman — and first active-duty black major general — to lead the Army Medical Command.
Rear Adm. Sylvia Trent-Adams
While her tenure was brief, Navy Rear Arm. Sylvia Trent-Adams was the first female nurse to serve as U.S. surgeon general. Trent-Adams led the public health agency as acting surgeon general from April to September 2017.
But the role as the first practicing registered nurse to lead U.S. Public Health Service was just another achievement for Trent-Adams.
Born in 1965 in Concord, Va., Trent-Adams heard the calling of being a nurse early in life, serving as a so-called “candy striper” at a local hospital at the tender age of 12. She followed her dream to Hampton University in Virginia, earning her nursing degree with the aid of an ROTC scholarship.
Following college, Trent-Adams served in the Army Nurse Corps from 1987-1992.
Drawn to public service, Trent-Adams followed her military career by joining the USPHS, where she managed the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program. She later became deputy administrator for the Health and Human Service Department’s HIV/AIDS Bureau.
Along the way, Trent-Adams earned her master’s degree in nursing and doctorate degree in public policy.
While she did not serve long as the country’s top medical officer, she elevated the profile of nursing and continues to champion the role of nurses.
“There is so much out there for us as a profession,” she told nursing graduates at a University of Maryland commencement ceremony.