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    "localId": "2661265",
    "label": "Commins, Mary Petronilla",
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    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Commins, Mary Petronilla",
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    "coverageEndDate": {
        "day": 17,
        "logicalDate": "1945-10-17",
        "month": 10,
        "year": 1945
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        "logicalDate": "1938-02-03",
        "month": 2,
        "year": 1938
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{
    "seq": 22,
    "pageIndex": 0,
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    "ocrText": "M\nlary\n+\nJune 23,1943\nMiss Petronilla Commins\nNursing Service\nMidwestern Area\nAmerican Red Cross\nMy dear Miss Commins:\nAs the months go by and we know that we cannot predict any date when\nRed Cross nurses will be laying aside uniforms and going back to civilian\ndress, I find that there are some principles connected with the wearing\nof a uniform which I do not think you have thought about enough so that\nyou believe they are of real importance. To me they are very important,\nand that is why I an writing you about our Red Cross nurse's uniform today.\nI confess that I have been shocked and hurt at certain large gatherings\nI have attended where Army, Navy, and Red Cross nurses were together, at\nthe lack of meticulous observation of Red Cross nurse uniform regulations\nin contrast to the Army and Navy.\nA nurse's uniform stands in the eyes of the public for certain qualities\ninseparable from an. ideal nurse. A Red Cross nurse's uniform stands for\nthese qualities and also for those inseparable from war nursing. Briefly,\nthis-so great t debire so help the wounded fighting man that one is\nwilling to undergo great danger and hardship in order to do so. The\nAmerican Red Cross is as you know semi-governmental. The President of the\nUnited States is our Red Cross President and we act under his orders.\nOur Red Cross nurse's uniform, therefore, worn only in time of war, stands\nfor our government in a similar manner to that worn by Army and Navy nurses.\nIt means that those who wear it conform to a pattern of service set down\nby superior officers. Honor, integrity, obedience, unselfish devotion to\nduty, courage, that kind of patience which results in unrelenting persis-\ntence in our efforts to relieve our patients, the best possible use of\nour intelligence sometimes hard to exercise under the discipline inseparable\nfrom war; all these qualities are associated with the Red Cross nurse's\nuniform. It is a symbol of them. It is en identification of us with the\nI\ngreat army of Red Cross nurses who went before us and who have left us a\nheritage too precious to be talked about very much."
}