For a navy only practiced using females
in the role of nurse;
This is the story of the woman doctor
allowed aboard a ship,
she was America’s very first.
From bruises to bones,
from hives to hypertension
Just treat pain both scalpel and a stitch;
Will the sailors to tell a woman
about that shore-leave purchased itch.
Bernice was born before women could vote.
Graduated from a simple school in Brooklyn,
the same one that covered me.
On to the first American medical college for women
where she earned her advanced degree.
In this world seemingly liberated
from living through such baser things;
When we offer up our salutes or our pity
You should know she was dark haired, slender,
soft featured, light skinned and yes, properly pretty.
The lady doctor became a licensed pilot.
Adding to her many skills and followed this
where she flew Women's Service planes.
When she met and married a naval aviator.
Then on to the Navy she was sent to train.
To be with her husband, she tried to serve aboard.
Before her only women at sea were the nurses.
As she happily got her call to sail away,
received news that her husband had died;
Helicopter crash ended it on his very last day.
Brave, Intelligence, Stubborn,
And by now a dedicated surgeon,
“Still a woman”, never left the admirals minds
Held back from the fight in the Korean War
Okay for a ship but not the front lines.
Then 20 years followed on vessels and bases.
Retired with rank of commander,
To live near the Hawaiian Sea,
Bernice found a second husband,
Bernice died age sixty-three.
-Kevin Bergin (Class 0f 1990)
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