[spankalib]

In a post-rescue photo of Nash and her sister nurses, a white wear line runs horizontally across the front of the denim dress I saw in 1997. The line was worn into the fabric as Nash stood for thousands of hours at her dressing carriage, caring for the sick. For me this plain garment holds as much significance as a tattered battle flag, because it represents the courage, suffering, and spirit of American service women and men as they fought and won a great war for freedom.

Beautiful. Humbling.

[Rinnwald]

The posted excerpt is from the middle of Lieutenant Commander Nash’s story. Everyone should read the complete story at the Naval History site.

She was engaged to a naval ensign from USS Penguin, with the wedding date unfortunately set for Feb 1942. It never happened. The story doesn’t follow up on her fiance.

I was able to find records that USS Penguin was damaged and scuttled at Guam. Ensign Edwin A. Wood Jr. survived and was repatriated from captivity. That’s all I could find. I don’t know if Nash and Wood ever met again.