Today, we salute WWII Veteran Loretta Ford. In 1941, Loretta officially became a nurse. Shortly afterward, her fiance was killed in action during WWII. That inspired her to serve as a nurse in the Army Air Forces, the predecessor to the Air Force. She served at military base hospitals in Maine and Florida. In the 1950s, Loretta was a public health nurse in Boulder County, Colorado. The remote area’s lack of health care had Loretta thinking that nurses could fill in for doctors if given some extra training. In 1965, Ford worked with pediatrician Henry Silver to create the first nurse practitioner program in the United States at the University of Colorado. She earned a doctorate in education from the same university in 1961. At age 100, Ford received the Surgeon General’s Medallion — the highest civilian honor given by the Public Health Service. She was also inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame at age 91. Loretta Ford died on Jan. 22nd of this year at her home in Wildwood, Florida, at age 104. Thank you, Loretta, for creating such an important area of our healthcare, and THANK YOU for your service.
