© Mary T. Sarnecky
Mildred Irene Clark, the youngest
daughter of five children, was born on 30 January 1915 in
Elkton, North Carolina. Her mother was Martha Darling
Clark and her father, William James Clark, was a farmer
and Methodist minister. After receiving her diploma from
Baker Sanatorium Training School for Nurses in Lumberton,
North Carolina, in 1936, Clark attended two six-month
postgraduate courses. The first was a curriculum in
pediatrics offered by the Babies Hospital in Wrightsville
Sound, North Carolina. The second program at the Jewish
Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, prepared
specialists in operating room administration and
technique. Elizabeth Pearson, an instructor in Clark's
training school, initially sparked her student's interest
in the Army Nurse Corps. Pearson had served in the Corps
in World War I and proudly demonstrated her status in the
American Red Cross First Reserve after the war by always
wearing her Red Cross pin. This mentor instilled in Clark
the idea of patriotic service. Knowing that competition
among applicants for the Army Nurse Corps was formidable,
the determined Clark submitted her request for active
duty one year in advance while still a student in the
postgraduate course. Surprisingly, within fourteen days
Clark received a request to report to Walter Reed General
Hospital for a physical examination. Clark's application
undoubtedly reflected her genuine love of country and
convinced the gatekeepers that she was a prime candidate
for the Army Nurse Corps. After completing her course
work, Clark was ready to become an Army nurse. Her
parents opposed Clark's plan. They were reluctant to
allow their daughter to be exposed to the rigors of
nursing in what they perceived to be a rough and ready
military environment. However, Clark rarely was diverted
from achieving a goal. She requested an initial
assignment at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, hoping the
close proximity to her home would allow her parents to
visit and thus allay their fears. Her ploy was
successful.
Clark's characteristic diligence and enthusiasm soon
marked her for greater challenges far in advance of her
peers. Just six months after signing in at Fort Bragg,
the chief nurse queried Clark as to her interest in
attending an anesthesia course at Jewish Hospital in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Clark seized the opportunity.
Two assignments as an anesthetist at the station hospital
at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas and the general hospital at
Schofield Barracks, Hawaii followed. It was during her
stint at Schofield Barracks that the Japanese bombed the
installation and adjacent Wheeler Field and Clark again
demonstrated her mettle. In 1943, Clark began her
administrative career variously assuming responsibilities
as assistant chief nurse and principal chief nurse at
Ashburn General Hospital, McKinney, Texas; Brooke General
Hospital, Fort Sam Houston, Texas; Cushing General
Hospital, Massachusetts; Halloran General Hospital, New
York; Station Hospital, Camp Stoneman, California; and
the 382d Station Hospital, in Korea. In 1947, she became
the Director of Nurses of the XXIV Corps in Korea and
less than a year later, Chief Nurse of the Far East
Command in Tokyo, Japan. Late in 1950, Clark was among
the five Army nurses who attended the first Medical
Officers' Advanced Course at the Medical Field Service
School (MFSS), Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Her follow-on
assignment as Assistant Chief Nurse at Fitzsimons General
Hospital in Denver, Colorado lasted for only three months
after which she matriculated at the University of
Minnesota and earned a bachelor's degree in nursing
education. While a student there, Clark fell ill with an
undiagnosed viral condition that involved some leg
paralysis. This ailment lingered and occasionally
hampered Clark's activity. She accepted an assignment at
the Nursing Branch of MFSS in hot, humid San Antonio,
Texas after graduating with her degree. However, her tour
there was curtailed after seven months due to an
exacerbation of her malady. A cooler, drier climate was
indicated and Clark transferred to Sandia, Base, New
Mexico where she served as chief nurse. One of her most
lengthy and significant assignments followed as
Procurement Officer in the Surgeon General's Office
beginning in September 1955. In this role, Clark faced
enormous recruiting difficulties in the midst of an
enduring nation-wide nursing shortage. Her creativity and
sense of industry furnished an answer to the recruitment
quandary in the form of the Army Student Nurse Program.1
Clark conceptualized and developed a myriad of other
vehicles to enhance the drive to recruit bright, young
men and women for the Army Nurse Corps. Among these
projects were radio scripts, film productions, television
appearances, lectures, brochures, and articles in the
professional and lay literature.2 Clark also
wrote "The Prayer of an Army Nurse" which
enjoyed a wide dissemination and served as an
inspirational public relations tool. A musician set the
words of the prayer to music and the United States Army
Band performed the composition. Clark served as the de
facto author of Mary M. Roberts' book The Army Nurse
Corps--Yesterday and Today3 when the 83
year old Roberts could not complete the project.4
A brief assignment as chief nurse of the 6th U.S. Army at
the Presidio of San Francisco, California followed in
1961. In September 1963, a board of officers designated
Clark as the next chief of the Corps to replace the
retiring Colonel Margaret Harper.5
Clark served as chief from 1963 until 1967. Following
her retirement in 1967, she married another retired
officer, Colonel Ernest Woodman, and settled in Ann
Arbor, Michigan.6 Until her death on 25
November 1994, Clark continued her activism and interest
in the Army Nurse Corps, veterans' issues, and
organizational concerns of professional nursing. She was
buried in the Nurses' Section in Arlington National
Cemetery. On 27 July 1999, Womack Army Medical Center at
Fort Bragg, North Carolina, dedicated a 57,000 square
foot health care facility, the Clark Health Clinic, the
first building to be named in honor of a woman at that
installation.7
Photo of Colonel Clark
- General Reference and Research
Branch, The Historical Unit, USAMEDD, Fort
Detrick, Maryland, "A Curriculum Vitae of
Colonel Mildred Irene Clark, ANC," April
1975, 1-2; Colonel Mildred I. Clark, ANC,
Retired, Interview by Nancy R. Adams, 1986,
Project 86-2, transcript, U.S. Army Military
History Institute, Carlisle Barracks,
Pennsylvania, 1-10, 113, 123-125, 131-138,
151-153, 157-163, 175-185, 260-263.
- "Enclosure 2," Remarks
by Major General Phillip Mallory at the unveiling
of Clark's portrait during her retirement
ceremony, 1967, ANC Archives, U.S. Army Center of
Military History, Washington, D.C.
- Mary M. Roberts, The Army Nurse
Corps: Yesterday and Today (Washington: Army
Nurse Corps, 1957).
- Ernest A.H. Woodman, "Colonel
Mildred Irene Clark, . . . A Brief
Biography," 5 unpublished manuscript, ANC
Archives, U.S. Army Center of Military History,
Washington, D.C.
- General Reference and Research
Branch, The Historical Unit, USAMEDD, Fort
Detrick, Maryland, "A Curriculum Vitae of
Colonel Mildred Irene Clark, ANC," April
1975, 1-2.
- Colonel Mildred I. Clark, ANC,
Retired, Interview by Nancy R. Adams, 1986,
Project 86-2, transcript, U.S. Army Military
History Institute, Carlisle Barracks,
Pennsylvania, Appendix I, Biosketch.
- "COL Mildred Clark Clinic
Opens," The Connection, Retired Army Nurse
Corps Association 24 (September 1999):3.