Fall 2007
Vol. 14/ No. 2

In 1937 the world was a different place. The nation had seen the first “Great War” two decades before and was on the cusp of the second epic military conflict of the century. The University of Missouri-Columbia's nursing education program (not yet a named school in its own right) was only beginning to produce registered nurses, and Dorothy Denney was one of the first.

Denney finished her clinical nursing courses at MU in 1936. However, because there was no official nursing graduation ceremony until 1937, she walked across the stage a year after completing her education. Now the MU Sinclair School of Nursing's oldest living alumna, Denney recalls her nursing career, which included almost eight years caring for military personnel and their families through the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Thus began a long history of MU nursing alumni who have chosen to serve their country through military or governmental service. While their experiences and circumstances have differed considerably, reflecting the changing course of U.S. military history, the individuals interviewed for this article share one thing in common: they'd do it all over again.

Denney's career with the VA Hospital in Poplar Bluff, Mo., began when she learned that the new hospital was looking for experienced nurses. A mother of two who had been working as a private-duty nurse, she thought the new facility sounded appealing and applied for a job.

As veterans of World War II joined retired military personnel on the hospital's wards, Denney witnessed an intriguing intersection of opinions and backgrounds among enlisted men. The 91-year-old Boonville, Mo., resident remembers one particular episode in which the four-bed ward under her supervision contained veterans of four different military conflicts. Soldiers who had served in the War of 1812, the Spanish-American War, World War I and World War II shared the room, “and they all got along very well,” she says.

VA nursing during World War II ensured a full hospital census, although Denney doesn't recall dealing with the type of post-traumatic stress reported among many current veterans and soldiers. However, she admits that her work as a nightshift supervisor may have limited her exposure to patients' emotional needs. “They weren't ready to talk in the middle of the night,” she says.

Denney's impressions of the VA system are overwhelmingly positive. “They had the highest moral, legal and ethical standards possible,” she says, “and they were wonderful people to work for. There was a combination of strict military standards and good people working in the system.”

One of the benefits Denney (Denney's profile) credits her VA nursing with was the opportunity to continue learning new skills and techniques. “Educational programs went on continually, and they were absolutely wonderful,” she says. “I went to them on my own time. I wouldn't have had to do that, but I wouldn't have missed those classes for anything.”

Denney would have continued her work at the VA, but she developed a severe visual defect that left her legally blind. “I fell below the minimum physical standards and had to resign,” she says. But fate favored this remarkable woman by placing a brand new opportunity in her path.

“On the day I resigned, I went home and found out that I had gotten second place in a literary contest that had been available for nurses to enter,” she recalls. Realizing that she had a talent with words and a desire to help children with disabilities, Denney began teaching children with severe handicaps in a local church basement.

Her classroom skills caught the attention of the Missouri Department of Education director, who visited the church-based school and requested a meeting with the gifted teacher he observed. Thus began Denney's second act as an educator for the state.

“I was very fortunate,” Denney says. “Things worked out just beautifully.”

Almost 20 years after Dorothy Denney graduated from MU, Marie Pattison earned her bachelor's degree in nursing. In 1955, America was enjoying a period of economic prosperity and the Vietnam War had not yet begun.

With an urge to travel and a background in public health nursing, Pattison turned her attention to the U.S. Foreign Service after noticing an ad in a magazine. Her first assignment took her to East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) where she provided nursing care to local government officials at a small office in the American consulate, which was stocked with medical supplies.

“Very little was available in East Pakistan at that time,” she says. In most cases, American citizens who were seriously ill or injured were evacuated to medical facilities in Germany or the Philippines . Therefore, much of Pattison's work revolved around health care for local residents who needed physicals, immunizations or treatment for minor health problems.

Pattison's East Pakistani assignment lasted three years, and she has fond memories of her time there. “I knew I was doing good there,” she says. “The local people had so little, and the children were often hungry. The things I could do meant a lot to them.”

Her next assignment took her to Yugoslavia , which was under communist rule. Despite the stigma of communism, Pattison says she felt safe in Belgrade because the government had tight control over the country and allowed for no dissent. An obvious police presence added to the secure surroundings. Monrovia , Liberia , was Pattison's next base of operations where she helped treat the largest contingent of U.S. government employees and their families outside of America at the time. With an office located just outside the U.S. Embassy, Pattison learned that many of the local population had little in the way of written health information or history. In fact, few were able to report their age with any accuracy.

Pattison's nine years abroad expanded her horizons about health care and the world. They also provided an invaluable hands-on education in which she learned how to made do with little in the way of technology and resources.

Returning stateside, Pattison's career took a different direction, although she continued to put her nursing know-how to use in the service of her country. This time, however, she found herself face-to-face with the nation's top elected officials as nurse to the U.S. Congress.

In her Capitol Hill office, Pattison (Pattison's profile) worked alongside three Naval physicians to provide primary-care services to senators and representatives during the Vietnam era.

Pattison says that she would encourage today's nursing students to consider military or government service following graduation. “People who serve this way may not realize how much good they do,” she says. “I commend Dean Porter at the school for taking students to South America and exposing them to the good they can do in such places. A course on third-world nursing would be outstanding.”

Michael Beebe, BSN ‘72, had a more harrowing overseas experience in the military during Operation Desert Storm. His service began in 1968 when he received his nursing license and U.S. Army draft notice on the same day. Beebe's work as an officer during the Vietnam War took him no further than Ft. Leonard Wood in mid-Missouri. He served two years there before completing his bachelor's degree at MU while serving in the Army Reserves.

“The GI Bill paid for my education at MU, which made all the difference in the world,” he says. “I made a decent living as an officer while going to school.” After graduating from MU, Beebe continued his pursuit of higher education at Boston University where he earned a master's degree in nursing and was one of the first nurse practitioners in Boston's Harvard Community Health Plan. A nursing doctorate at Indiana University preceded Beebe's work as chair of the Point Loma Nazarene College Department of Nursing in southern California .

Throughout his rise through professional nursing ranks, Beebe also continued his military career as an Army reservist. “I left America to pursue a master's degree in health information systems in Victoria , Canada , on the day that Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait ,” he recalls. Eight weeks into his new educational program, Beebe's reservist status was changed to active duty, and he was deployed to Riyadh , Saudi Arabia .

As the officer in charge of information systems for a 3,000-bed military hospital, Beebe built a system that managed data regarding casualties with his reports sent daily to Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, commander of allied forces. “I was called into a room full of boxes and told to set up the computers, train the staff and be prepared for bombing to begin in 48 hours,” he recalls. “I was working 20-hour days, six-and-a-half days a week with continual bombing that meant I sometimes had to do my work in a full gas suit.”

While Beebe (Beebe's profile) primarily worked with data, his presence was required at times on the wards where he helped care for Iraqi prisoners of war and U.S. troops.

Beebe's deployment lasted only three months, and he enjoyed the technical challenges of health information systems development under extreme conditions. However, his voice grows thick with emotion as he recalls the tense atmosphere of the military hospital and he pauses frequently while talking about his experiences there.

“I know I was making a significant contribution,” he says. “I had rank – I was a colonel by then – so I had some freedom, and I learned a lot. As a nurse, it was amazing to do that kind of work. But we were constantly sleep deprived, and I remember coming back from dinner one night and watching Scud missiles coming in. It wasn't fun. In war, you have to do what you have to do, and you don't know for sure if you'll live through the next day.”

The sense of uncertainty still resonates with Beebe. He recalls the fear of the unknown and the need to collaborate with those around him in order to survive. And, he notes, that collaborative spirit is one of the traits of most nurses, making nursing and military service complimentary.

Upon returning to North America, Beebe picked up his studies where he had left off and completed his Canadian master's degree program in health information systems with the fresh knowledge he had gained overseas to help him make up for lost time.

When summing up his military experience now, he says, “It was real world experience of the most painful kind.” Yet it prepared him to help create health information systems now adopted by the Department of Veterans Affairs. A current resident of Seattle, Beebe continues to con-tribute to the field through his work at the VA's national test site for clinical software. “The VA has made a commitment to have clinical tools that are usable by everyone,” he says. “We need to set the pace for society, and we are. I'm glad to be involved, but it's been a wild ride.”

Through his unique experience in military hot-spots and relatively safe stateside locations, Beebe's conclusions about the traits most valuable to current nursing students and recent graduates reflect what he learned along the way: good interpersonal relations and cooperation are key.

“I do appreciate individualism, but the real world is about working together to make good things happen,” he says.

And when asked about his view of today's military nurses, he says, “I pray for our soldiers. It makes me very sad to see good people die, but I want to do what I can to support our troops. I guess I did my little bit both in the military and now in VA nursing. It's been my privilege to serve.”

Persian Gulf

Operation Iraqi Freedom

For today's nursing graduates who are pursuing military careers, there is no guarantee that they will be able to serve on a safe military base in America. Cheryl Bausler, assistant professor of clinical nursing at MU, served in the U.S. Air Force where she cared for patients at a military hospital in Tucson. “I think the military is a commendable profession,” she says. “Our freedom is important, and I admire the young people going into the service.”

As she recounts watching the impressive commissioning ceremony for several recent graduates, Bausler muses that “you know some might not come back from the places they'll be sent to serve. They're putting their life on the line.”

Debra Gayer, assistant professor of clinical nursing at MU, agrees. After 20 years serving in the Army Reserves, Gayer recognizes the benefits and risks of military service. “For students who want adventure, it can be a good option,” she says. But with today's unsettled world, she admits that the decision to enlist is not as easy as it once was. Still, she notes that “military nurses have great opportunities. It's motivating and interesting. And we should all be grateful to our military nurses for the fine service they provide.”

Warior Forge