Bonnie Papin

Not every war hero stood in the line of fire. Some did the healing and repairing caused by battle. Bonnie Papin was a young nursing school graduate still in her twenties when her brother was shot in Germany. No one knew whether or not he had survived. Bonnie credits that event with her own drive to become part of the war effort. She spent three years working as a nurse anesthetist in an Army tent hospital on the island of Okinawa, Japan. Okinawa is Japan’s largest island and was the site of our largest Pacific battle – lasting 82 days, wounding 50,000 and killing 14,000 Americans. We paid a high price to be there because we needed a staging ground from which to launch attacks on Japan. Bonnie’s skills were part of that heroic effort. When she returned home, she continued her work as a nurse anesthetist in Fort Smith, Arkansas.