Adventure Nannies Blog

Unexpected Heroes: Observing Memorial Day With Your Nanny Charges

 

 

 

 

Have your nanny kids been asking you about the upcoming holiday? Memorial Day is a national holiday celebrated in the United States to honor the people who have served and those who have sacrificed their lives in service to the armed forces.

 

Throughout your studies in childcare and as a student of life you have undoubtedly heard of many celebrated war heroes and veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of freedom. As a nanny or caretaker, you can inspire your young charges in an age-appropriate manner to develop a deeper understanding of the military and veterans. We wanted to help you begin the conversation with some amazing women served in the armed forces.

As with any complex conversations that you may have with your nanny kids, it is always best to check in with the parents to make sure you’re on the same page, prior to broaching the subject with the kids.

 

 

Harriet Tubman

One of the most celebrated heroines in American history, Harriet Tubman is best known for ushering slaves to freedom through the Underground Railroad in the 1850s. But not everyone knows that Tubman, who escaped slavery in 1849, set up a vast espionage ring for the Union during the Civil War. She served as a cook, a nurse, and even a spy for the Union during the Civil War, and also was the first woman in American history to lead a military expedition.

In one of her most dramatic and dangerous roles, Tubman helped Colonel James Montgomery plan a raid to free slaves from plantations along the Combahee River in South Carolina. Early on the morning of June 1, 1863, three gunboats carrying several hundred male soldiers along with Harriet Tubman set out on their mission.

Tubman had gathered key information from her scouts about the Confederates’ positions and knew where they were hiding along the shore. She also found out they had placed torpedoes — barrels filled with gunpowder — in the water. Ultimately, her group freed about 750 slaves — men, women, children, and babies — and did not lose one soldier in the attack.

Reporting on the raid to Secretary of War Stanton, Brigadier General Rufus Saxton said, “This is the only military command in American history wherein a woman, black or white, led the raid, and under whose inspiration. it was originated and conducted.” Sadly, Tubman was paid only $200 during her three years of service and was denied a pension for her spy work.

 

 

 

Elsie S. Ott

During World War II, the U.S. Army Air Corps pioneered military medical care through the development of air evacuations of wounded personnel. Contributing to this was 2nd Lt. Elsie S. Ott, a flight nurse on the first intercontinental air evacuation flight that demonstrated the potential of air evacuation. Born in 1913 in Smithtown, N.Y, Ott attended Lenox Hill Hospital School of Nursing in New York City after completing high school.

After several positions in area hospitals, Ott joined the Army Nurse Corps in September 1941. She was commissioned as a second lieutenant soon after and had assignments to Louisiana and Virginia before being sent to Karachi, India. It was during this assignment that she would participate in the first air evacuation. Originating from Karachi, India, patients were evacuated to Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C.

Ott was assigned to the flight with only 24 hours’ notice. Prior to this she had no flying experience and had never flown before. She gathered blankets, sheets, and pillows for the trip, but the only medical equipment available to her was nothing more than a first aid kit. No medical professional screened the patients who were to fly with Ott, and she and a sergeant with a medical background were the only people on board to care for patients.

The plane left Karachi with five wounded personnel Jan. 17, 1943. Of those five, two were paralyzed from the waist down, one suffered from tuberculosis, another with glaucoma and the fifth was suffering manic-depressive psychosis.  After stops along the way for refueling, the plane reached its destination nearly a week after beginning — normally a three month trip by ship.

Ott knew that her report on the trip would be crucial for further planning, and she immediately sat down to make notes for future flights. Among the suggestions she listed were the need for oxygen, more wound dressing supplies, extra coffee, and blankets. She also noted that wearing a skirt was impractical for this kind of duty.

Two months later, Ott received the first U.S. Air Medal, the first given to a woman in the U.S. Army, for her role in the evacuation flight. She would later be promoted to captain before being discharged in 1946. Nearly 20 years later in 1965, Ott was selected to christen a new type of air ambulance: the C-9 Nightingale.

 

 

 

Bea Arthur

Best known for her roles on the popular television shows “Maude” and “The Golden Girls,” the late Bea Arthur was also once a truck driver in the Marine Corps. She was one of the first members of the Women’s Reserve and, aside from driving military trucks, Arthur was also a typist.

She enlisted at the age of 21 in early 1943 under her original name, Bernice Frankel. Appraisals from her enlistment interviews described her conversation as “argumentative” and her attitude and manner as “over-aggressive” — fitting, given the cantankerous characters she would play later in life. In a handwritten note, the Marine interviewer remarked, “Officious–but probably a good worker — if she has her own way!”

Arthur was stationed at Marine Corps and Navy air stations in Virginia and North Carolina during her career and was promoted from corporal to sergeant to staff sergeant. She was honorably discharged in September 1945, married a fellow Marine (Private Robert Arthur) shortly afterward, and changed her name to Bea Arthur before enrolling in the Dramatic Workshop of the New School in New York in 1947.

After a successful Broadway career that included a Tony award, Arthur made a splash as “Cousin Maude” in the classic TV series “All in the Family” in the early ’70s, and went on to star in her own sitcom, and cement her celebrity fame and status as a gay icon in the long-running show “Golden Girls.”

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

Do you have a specific tactic when it comes to explaining Memorial Day or other holidays? We’d love to hear about it – reach out to us on Facebook, Instagram, and check out the other posts on the blog!

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h/t military.com

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