09/18/2026
https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1523285579828187&id=100064402791214&post_id=100064402791214_1523285579828187&mibextid=Nif5oz
: Just days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Ensign Wilma Leona Jackson found herself on the front lines of another Japanese assault, only this time on Guam.
Wilma was one of five Navy nurses serving on the island when Japanese forces invaded on December 10, 1941. The nurses continued caring for their patients even as the hospital came under attack.
When Guam fell, Wilma, four other nurses, and the small contingent of US military personnel on the island became the first group of American prisoners of war to be captured by the Japanese during World War II.
The nurses continued working at the hospital under occupation before being transported to Japan. There, Wilma endured months of captivity, first at Zentsuji POW Camp and later in Kobe.
In 1942, she and the other nurses were repatriated as part of a prisoner exchange, arriving back in the United States that August, but in 1944, she returned to Guam with American forces, serving as the senior nurse at Fleet Hospital #103.
After the war, she continued a career that would take her to the highest levels of the Navy Nurse Corps. In 1954, she became the third Navy nurse to be appointed director, serving until her retirement as a captain in 1958.
Wilma passed away in 1998 at the age of 88. Today we remember her and all Navy nurses whose courage and devotion to duty carried them, and those they served, through some of the darkest days of World War II.
🎖️Today, an effort is underway to collectively recognize the service of World War II Army and Navy Nurse Corps members like Wilma with a Congressional Gold Medal. Find out more, including how you can help: https://www.wwiinursescgm.org/index.html
Source: https://navylog.navymemorial.org/jackson-wilma
