process paper: words 498 individual performance junior ... · process paper: words 498 . i chose...

The Remarkable Ruby Bradley

Louisa Blackmoore Junior Division

Individual Performance Process Paper: Words 498

I chose Ruby Bradley for my performance because of my World War II interests. Even

though women had served as nurses and soldiers (often incognito) during earlier wars, it was

during World War II that women’s roles changed prominently. With many men serving in the

w ar, more women worked outside the home to help the war effort and keep the economy going ,

and many of the freedoms women gained during the war continued afterward. I decided on

Bradley after my initial online and secondary research revealed two of the many ways she broke

historic, social, and gender barriers: she survived a POW camp and was the most decorated

woman in U.S. military history.

Bradley was not featured in any books at my local library, so I focused on online

materials, including those on the US Army Medical Department website and a historical

reenactment done by the West Virginia Humanities Council. Through these, I got a basic

overview of Bradley’s life and discovered two important sources: Angels in Fatigues (Polette)

and Bradley’s personnel file. I used this 700-page file at the National Archives to explain her

Army career and prove how Bradley broke barriers in her Army service. Bradley was also

featured in an NBC Nightly News special that I used to frame my performance. To get a sense of

current Army life for women, I contacted the Missouri Veterans Commission and interviewed a

recent veteran. Finally, I returned to secondary sources about the period and old newspaper

articles from The New York Times and Chronicling America to put Bradley’s life and

contributions into historical context.

I decided to do a performance because I love acting and fashion. I used photographs from

the Library of Congress, the Truman Presidential Library, and Bradley’s personnel file to

reconstruct her uniform and military insignia; I wore a shawl and walked with a cane to show

age. For other characters, I changed posture and tone. For my scrapbook, I used color copies of

primary sources from the National Archives. I started writing my script by telling the story of

Bradley’s life through her own eyes; then I used other characters to give historical context and

explain the connection to the theme. Because I was not able to do a live performance, my script

contains some details about character shifts and stage directions.

Bradley’s life connects to the theme breaking barriers in how she challenged gender,

social, and historical stereotypes. In choosing a career outside of the home and surviving

imprisonment and the traumas of war, she proved that women must not always be wives and

mothers, that they can make valuable contributions to their country, and that they can’t be

stereotyped as weak. Breaking these barriers resulted in saving thousands of people, opening the

door for women to make their own choices about how they want to live their lives, allowing

women to serve in the Army on equal footing with men, and moving toward a more equal society

for all genders.

Annotated Bibliography

Primary Sources “Angels of Bataan’ All Accounted For: Nurses Freed at Manila Pitch into Work of Caring for

Wounded Liberators.” Timesmachine.nytimes.com , New York Times, 6 Feb. 1945, timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1945/02/06/88191411.html?pageNumber=3. Accessed 18 Feb. 2020. I consulted numerous articles from The New York Times between 1945 and 1953, including several that mentioned Ruby Bradley directly and others that referred more generally to women nurses, WWII, and the Korean War. This one identified all the nurses who had been freed from the Santo Tomas Prison Camp and their closest living relatives. The descriptions in the article were useful in writing the part of my script about Bradley’s internment in the camp.

“‘Angels of Bataan’ Smile Through Tears on Landing in United States.” Evening Star [Washington, DC], 25 Feb. 1945, sec. A, p. 4. Library of Congress, Chronicling America , chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1945-02-25/ed-1/seq-4/. Accessed 15 May 2020. This news article was about the Angels of Bataan, the women who were stationed in the Pacific during WWII. Bradley was among those women who were captured by the Japanese and taken to an internment camp in the Philippines for 3 years. The article provided a timeline of events right before the nurses were captured until right after they were freed, which I used for writing the World War II part of my script.

“Army Nurses in Korea Mark 52nd Anniversary.” Key West Citizen [Key West], 19 Jan. 1953, p. 8. Library of Congress, Chronicling America , chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83016244/1953-01-19/ed-1/seq-8/. Accessed 10 May 2020. This newspaper had a small clipping about how Ruby Bradley was organizing a celebration for the 52nd anniversary of the US Army Nurses Corps, the branch of the Army that Bradley served in throughout her career. While this was interesting, the newspaper was mainly helpful because it let me get a better sense of the time period and what life was like during the early 1950s. There were cartoons, comic strips, a chapter of a book, and an article about Disney.

“Army Nurses Liberated from Manila Internment Camp.” Timesmachine.nytimes.com , New York Times, 5 Feb. 1945, timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1945/02/22/91092816.html?pageNumber=5. Accessed 20 May 2020. This was one of many articles I read from The New York Times . This one was particularly helpful because it had a photo of both Ruby Bradley and her fellow nurses when they were freed from the POW camp in Santo Tomas. This was helpful for putting together my costume because it showed what Army nurses wore during this time period. It also gave a sense of Bradley’s emotional state when she was released and helped me develop her character in my performance.

Boyce, Westray. “Women's Army Corps (WAC) Colonel Westray B. Boyce with Other WACs.” 1943. Westray Battle Boyce Long Papers, Director, Women's Army Corps, 1945-1947 , Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, www.trumanlibrary.gov/photograph-records/2014-3367. Accessed 3 May 2020. This collection of photos and documents was from the collection of Colonel Boyce, the Director of the Women’s Army Corps when Ruby Bradley was serving in World War II. The photos were helpful because they showed what the nurses’ uniforms looked like and provided good visual insight into what life was like during World War II. I used these in developing my costume and to learn more about the roles and responsibilities of nurses.

Bradley, Ruby. “Official Personnel File of Ruby G. Bradley.” National Archives Catalog , National Archives, catalog.archives.gov/id/40925780. Accessed 28 Feb. 2020.

This was by far my most valuable source. Ruby Bradley’s Army personnel file had 701 pages of original documents including personal and administrative letters from when Bradley was applying to Walter Reed Nursing School, several hundred forms and letters of recommendation from superiors describing her work throughout her thirty-year career, dozens of pages of her personal medical records, correspondence between the Army and her family when she was captured by the Japanese, a copy of the speech she gave as a Victory Loan Drive Speech, and at least one hundred certificates and commendations. The document copies I used in my performance scrapbook all came from this file at the National Archives. I used the entire file to help prove Bradley’s connection to the theme because the documents showed how she broke barriers with the number of awards she won and the kinds of jobs and responsibilities that she was given. They showed how hard she worked and how much she was respected by the people she worked with. Showing this was an important part of my performance.

Bradley, Ruby. “Prisoners of War in the Far East, an Essay by Col Ruby G. Bradley.” Army Nurse Corps Historical Documentation, Office of Medical History , U.S. Army Medical Department, history.amedd.army.mil/ANCWebsite/bradley/bradley.html. Accessed 15 Feb. 2020. Bradley wrote this essay as part of a history on the Army Nursing Corps. It focused on her 37-months in the Santo Tomas internment camp in Manila during World War II. This essay was helpful because while other sources summarized her experience, this put it in her own words. Bradley’s essay went into great detail about the POW camp’s conditions, which helped me write that section of my script.

“Missouri Veterans Initiative.” Missouri Department of Public Safety Veterans Commission , mvc.dps.mo.gov/service/women/. Accessed 13 May 2020. This was the website that I used to find Ms. Moss, the Army veteran I interviewed. It is a website about the women Army veterans in Missouri. When I asked my social studies teacher if he had any ideas about women veterans that I could interview, he recommended this website.

Moss, Grace. Email interview. 15 May 2020. I was extremely happy to be able to find a women veteran to talk to about her service in the Army for nine years. I sent Ms. Moss an email with questions such as: Were you treated differently because you were a woman? How do you think that the women who served before you affected your profession today? This interview was very valuable to my project because, even though Moss did not serve at the same time as Ruby Bradley or in the same wars, she gave me valuable information on how women are treated in the Army today. This was helpful because it showed how much Ruby Bradley was part of breaking barriers for women in the Army, and it showed how women continue to be treated differently than men in some ways.

“Nine Washingtonians Liberated from Jap Prison at Manila.” Evening Star [Washington, DC], 6 Feb. 1945, sec. A, p. 2. Library of Congress,

Chronicling America , chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1945-02-06/ ed-1/seq-2/. Accessed 1 May 2020.

This news article was about Ruby Bradley and the other prisoners who had been freed from the Manila POW camp. The article had pictures and basic background information on the camp. There was also a small portion of the article about just Ruby Bradley. It talked about her service and how she was in the POW camp. I used this article to write and edit the part of my script about Bradley’s time in the camp.

"Nurse Catching up on History Made in Three Years Internment." Evening Star [Washington,

DC], Sunday ed., 4 Mar. 1945, sec. B, p. a. Library of Congress, Chronicling America , chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/ 1945-03-04/ed-1/seq-19/. Accessed 10 May 2020. This newspaper article was about Bradley finally being released from the POW camp after three years. In this article, there were quotes from Ruby Bradley talking about her experience. There was also a photo of her. This article helped me understand how uncomfortable and difficult the conditions were in the camp and how happy everyone was to have the people come home. This helped me write the part of my script about Bradley’s time in the Philippines during World War II.

Roosevelt, Franklin D. Day of Infamy Speech. 7 Dec. 1941. Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum , Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, www.fdrlibrary.org/. Accessed 15 May 2020.

I quoted the beginning of this speech for the part of my script about Pearl Harbor to show Americans had joined the war effort. It was helpful because it was able to let me switch characters in my script and set the scene before Bradley was captured and sent to a POW camp.

Rosener, Ann. Walter Reed Hospital, Washington, D.C., U.S. Army Nurses. Lot 833 (21). 1943. Prints and Photographs Division, Farm Security Administration- Office of War Information Photograph Collection , Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/2017860094/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2020.

I used this collection of photographs of World War II Army nurses to develop my costume for my performance and recreate the pins and insignia Bradley wore on her uniform. These photographs were particularly useful because they were of Walter Reed Hospital where Bradley worked for six years after she became a nurse.

Ruby Bradley, Colonel, United States Army: Army Buries Nurse with Honors for Career of Courage Under Fire." Arlington National Cemetery , 2 Dec. 2006, www.arlingtoncemetery.net/rbradley.htm. Accessed 9 May 2020.

This source was part of a press release about Bradley’s death. It was helpful because it provided details about the military funeral she received and some additional background about her early life. Reading this source really showed me how much the government valued her contributions to her country. Many of the sources I found focused on her WWII service, so sources like this that included information about other parts of her life were important for writing the rest of my script.

“Ruby Bradley -- Forgotten Heroes.” Narrated by Bob Dotson. NBC Evening News , hosted by Tom Brokaw, NBC, 23 Feb. 2000. YouTube , www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO7CvfhVcrg. Accessed 13 Feb. 2020.

This is the interview with Bradley on NBC that I used to frame my performance. The program was part of a series on “Forgotten Heroes” from the “Forgotten War,” the Korean War. The segment featured original footage of Bradley, photographs of the war, and voice recordings from the interview. I used this interview to write the portion of my script related to her experiences during the Korean War, particularly the story about the ambulance exploding. This was one of the most eye opening and helpful sources because it helped me get a sense of her mannerisms. I appreciated getting to hear her direct thoughts and experiences “live” instead of just reading about them.

Secondary Sources

Atwood, Kathryn J. Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater: 15 Stories of Resistance, Rescue, Sabotage, and Survival . Chicago, Chicago Review Press, 2017. When I was searching for a person for my History Day research, I read this book. It helped me decide that I wanted to portray a woman from the World War II-era. This book’s focus on the Pacific front of WWII was useful since Bradley was in the Philippines during the war.

---. Women Heroes of World War II: 26 Stories of Espionage, Sabotage, Resistance, and Rescue .

Chicago, Chicago Review Press, 2011. This was one of the books I started off reading at the beginning of my project to try to find a person to study. Although Ruby Bradley was not featured in this book, reading it helped me learn about the gender and social barriers that women who served had to overcome. It also gave me good background information about WWII and the time period.

Col. Ruby Bradley . Performance by Becky Bolte, Library Television Network. West Virginia

Humanities Council -- History Alive , YouTube, www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZtHH6Bp_V8. Accessed 12 Jan. 2020. This historical re-enactors performance on Ruby Bradley was part of a program by the West Virginia Humanities Council. This was another very useful source for me because it helped me understand more about Bradley’s important life events. Having this context was helpful for writing and shaping large parts of my script, particularly her early life. At the end of her performance, the re-enactor talked about how she did her research, and this helped me find more sources to consult, including Bradley’s personnel file at the National Archives and the Polette book Angels in Fatigues.

Polette, Nancy. Angel in Fatigues: The Story of Colonel Ruby G. Bradley, the Most Decorated Woman in the History of the United States Army . St. Charles, Blessinks, 2013.

This book was written from the perspective of Ruby Bradley. It was my most useful secondary source because it gave me important insight into who she was, what she did, and why she did it. It helped me understand her entire life and how everything tied together. It was particularly useful for writing my script because it provided so much detail about her nursing education, Army experience, what it was like being in a POW camp, and how she courageously saved many peoples’ lives during the Korean War.

Ruby Bradley, Office of Medical History, US Army Medical Department. US Army Medical Department , US Army, history.amedd.army.mil/ANCWebsite/bradley/ bradleyres.html. Accessed 20 Mar. 2020.

This website included a timeline with all Bradley’s education, civilian and military jobs, promotions, military assignments and awards. This information was very useful in helping me understand her long career. It helped me put all her many accomplishments in the right order, and I used it to provide overall structure for my script.

Schatz, Kate, and Miriam Klein Stahl. Rad American Women A-Z. San Francisco, City

Lights Books, 2015. I got this book when I first started doing research. This was before I knew I wanted to do a woman who was involved in World War II. It provided context about the roles of women throughout history and helped me understand how women’s roles have changed over time. This was important for showing Bradley’s connection to the theme of breaking barriers.

Tabler, Dave. “Hometown Wisdom in Time of War.” Appalachian History: Stories, Quotes and Anecdotes , Dave Tabler, 23 Nov. 2018, www.appalachianhistory.net/ 2018/11/hometown-wisdom-in-time-of-war.html. Accessed 23 Jan. 2020.

This source was helpful because it included many quotes from Bradley about her experiences in nursing and serving her country. It was especially important because it directed me to the Becky Bolte History Alive performance and the US Army Medical Department website, both of which turned out to be very valuable sources for my project.

The History of the Army Nurse Corps . Narrated by Nancy Cantrell, AMEDD

Television, 2013. US Army Medical Department , YouTube, www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDExHl_aVQ8&list=UUiPX96lTaNjB54dg8VZYxxw&inde x=1. Accessed 16 May 2020. Ruby Bradley was a member of the US Army Nurse Corps, and this was a good historical overview of the corps’ history from when it was founded to the present. It was very helpful because it covered background information on the role of these nurses in World War II and the Korean War. I already had a lot of information about Bradley specifically, but this provided contextual details that I needed for my performance. It gave me statistics about how many women served as nurses during each war. The video also mentioned Ruby Bradley and the other “Angles of Bataan” who were released from the POW camp.

“Women in the Army: History.” Women in the Army , US Army, www.army.mil/women/

history. Accessed 6 May 2020. This was a website about women's roles in every American war. It was helpful because it showed how women are now allowed to serve next to men on the front lines, thanks to all the hard work women who had served in earlier wars. This proves how women like Bradley really helped break gender barriers and make things more fair for women in the Army.

NHD PERFORMANCE SCRIPT COVER PAGE

Please Note: All text in this template must be in 12 point font.

Times New Roman, Arial, or Calibri fonts accepted.

PERFORMANCE INFORMATION Project Title The Remarkable Ruby

Student Name(s) Louisa Blackmoore

Division Junior

Performance Runtime 9:55

Thesis

Through her extraordinary determination, bravery, and compassion, Ruby Bradley broke countless gender, social, and historical barriers, saving lives, winning more respect for women in the professions, and ultimately paving the way for women to be treated more equally in society and the military

PERFORMANCE OVERALL SCENARIO Story Setting(s) Timeframe 92-year-old Ruby Bradley sits at a small table in her living room reviewing her scrapbook of documents, certificates, and awards from her career as a nurse.

1926 - present

Story Synopsis

CHARACTERS Character Performer Description/background for the character

Ruby Bradley Louisa Blackmoore US Army Nurse Newscaster, NBC Louisa Blackmoore Nightly News voiceover announcing segment on Forgotten Heroes Head Nurse Louisa Blackmoore Nurse in charge of Bradley and nurse probationers in Philadelphia Nurse Lieutenant Louisa Blackmoore Nurse Supervisor at hospital in Manila Bay Franklin Roosevelt Louisa Blackmoore President announcing the bombing of Pearl Harbor Dr. Jacobs Louisa Blackmore Field doctor during the bombing of Camp John Hay Korean Army Pilot Louisa Blackmoore Pilot flying plane to evacuate Bradley during Korean War

Narrator Louisa Blackmoore Conclusion, theme, and impact statement

OVERALL STAGE SETTING Describe the Stage(s) of the Performance Add Photo of Stage (if possible)

Color Use Scheme

Plain background with simple chair and old-fashioned table covered with a doily.

Background Design

Props

COSTUMES & PROPS BY SCENE Please add or remove costume & props by scene as needed. This is only a template.

Scene #1 Costume(s) Visual(s) or Costume(s) Description(s) Set Design & Props

Ruby Bradley wears her Army uniform covered with a shawl to suggest her age. She wears reading

glasses and walks with a cane.

Background Design

Props Shawl, glasses, cane. Scrapbook of documents from Army personnel file at the National Archives.

COSTUMES & PROPS BY SCENE Scene #2 Costume(s) Visual(s) or Costume(s) Description(s) If costumes and props remain the same, write “same as scene # in the boxes below”

Set Design & Props

Newscaster Background

Design

Props Microphone


Set Design & Props

Younger Bradley -- no shawl, glasses, or cane Background

Design

Props


Set Design & Props

Army Nurse Bradley -- Army uniform and Army hat Background

Design

Props Army hat


Set Design & Props

Franklin Roosevelt -- desk, glasses Army Nurse Bradley -- Army uniform and Army hat

Background Design

Props


Set Design & Props

Narrator Background

Design

Props

PERFORMANCE SCRIPT BY SCENES Please add or remove scene pages as needed. This is only a template.

SCENE 1 - SCENARIO Purpose of the Scene Key Elements ● Introduce Ruby Bradley; set the scene for who

she is.

Setting Bradley’s living room

Timeframe 2000

Characters Ruby Bradley

Summary of the Scene Bradley reviews scrapbook of accomplishments. She marvels over her successes.

DIALOGUE - SCENE 1 Character & Action Dialogue

Ruby Bradley (Louisa Blackmoore) Opening: 92-year-old Ruby Bradley sits at a small table reviewing her scrapbook of documents, certificates, and awards from her career as a nurse. She is wearing her Army uniform covered with a shawl to suggest her age. She wears reading glasses and walks with a cane. Ruby looks up from her scrapbook to address the audience. Ruby hears a call from offstage. She closes the scrapbook and rises with the help of a cane. She walks slowly stage left.

“Physically and morally of the highest standards.” “A person of great determination.” “She combines dignity and maturity with an affable humor and social personality.” “A truly outstanding representative of the nursing profession.”

I still find it hard to believe they were talking about me. It all seems especially remarkable when you consider the fact that the first time I applied for a nursing position, I wasn’t accepted. And now my contributions to my country are so well known that I’ve got a whole living room full of people waiting to see my television special with Tom Brokaw air on NBC Nightly News. Coming-- Be there in a minute.

SCENE 2 - SCENARIO Purpose of the Scene Key Elements Introduce project thesis and Bradley’s connection to the theme.

●

Setting Newscast

Timeframe 2000

Characters Newscaster, Ruby Bradley

Summary of the Scene Voiceover announces Bradley’s interview on NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw.


Newscaster (Blackmoore) Break to newscaster with microphone. Show character change with voice and manner.

Good evening. It’s February 23rd, 2000. Welcome back to our special segment Forgotten Heroes. Today's program is about Ruby Bradley, the most honored woman in U.S. military history. How many women do you know who survived three years in a Japanese POW camp and heroically put their lives on the line for their country? Through Bradley’s determination, bravery, and compassion, she broke countless gender, social, and historical barriers, saving lives, winning more respect for women in the professions, and ultimately paving the way for women to be treated more equally in the military.

Bradley (Blackmoore)

They got the breaking barriers part right, but there’s a lot more to the story.

SCENE 3 - SCENARIO Purpose of the Scene Key Elements Explore Bradley’s early nursing career, the changing roles of women after WWI, and how Bradley’s work broke barriers.

Setting Nursing hospital

Timeframe 1926 - 1934

Characters Ruby Bradley and Head Nurse

Summary of the Scene Bradley trains as a teacher and then as a nurse, braving harsh words and criticism from her supervisors.


Bradley (Blackmoore) Ruby walks to the back of the chair, rests her cane against the table, removes her shawl, and stands up straighter to suggest that she is now younger. Walk stage right. Step forward.

You might say it all started back in 1926 when I graduated from Spencer High school in West Virginia. This was an exciting time for women in America. We’d just won the right to vote and the percentage of women working outside of the home rose 25%. Even still, most women would get married and have their husbands take care of them. Not me! I wanted to be able to support myself, so I decided to learn how to be a teacher, which was one of the most common jobs for women at the time. My first job was in a one room schoolhouse. I taught ten hours each day and graded papers long into the night. I taught for four years and even though I loved it, I felt like something was missing.I yearned for excitement and a bigger challenge. I went to visit my sister, an Army nurse at Walter Reed Hospital. This one choice would change my life forever. I knew then that I wanted to be a nurse. I had to go through a long application process with interviews, references, and a transcript from two years in college. Ultimately, I was accepted and started my new job on July 1, 1930. I remember stepping out of the taxi into the warm air and just gazing at the hospital in Philadelphia, knowing that inside held adventures. Soon I met up with the other nurse probationers and was ushered to the cramped, sparse nurses’ quarters.

Head Nurse (Blackmoore) Character change to Head Nurse. Place hands on hips. Use stern voice.

You will rise every morning at 6 am and work until 11 at night. You will have a full day of classes, nursing duty, and studying. You will be constantly running up and down stairs, getting equipment, cleaning rooms, and feeding and bathing patients.

Bradley (Blackmoore) Step forward to return to Ruby Bradley character.

The program was rigorous and demanding, and the head nurses would find anything to criticize. But no matter what barriers or hurdles they put in front of us, I always did my best and tried to go above and beyond what was asked of me. I did not crumble under the pressure of their scrutiny. Soon, I was getting bigger jobs such as assisting surgeons in various operations.

SCENE 4 - SCENARIO Purpose of the Scene Key Elements

● Establish Bradley as an Army nurse who broke barriers in her service to her country during the Great Depression

Setting Army hospital

Timeframe 1934 - 1941

Characters Ruby Bradley, Nurse Lieutenant

Summary of the Scene Ruby Bradley joins the U.S. Army Nursing Corps


Bradley (Blackmoore) Ruby gestures to uniform and puts on an Army nursing hat. Walk slowly to stage left.

In October of 1934, I took the next step in breaking the traditional barriers facing women who desired to have a career outside the home and serve their countries by joining the Army as a nurse. It was the Great Depression. Many men had lost their jobs, and more and more women were going to work to support their families. Never had I felt so proud as I did the first time I put on my Army uniform.

I was given the rank of a second Lieutenant, which was a relative rank and carried very few privileges. The pay was also considerably less than men’s and we had to salute the men but they did not have to salute us. Of course, all that would change down the road, thanks to women like me who broke gender barriers in the military. In fact, 56,000 nurses served in World War II, 30,000 more than in World War I.

After 6 years at Walter Reed Hospital, I was shipped off to the Philippines. The Americans were not yet officially in the war, but tensions were on the rise. Germany had invaded Poland in 1939 and spent the summer of 1940 on the attack. Meanwhile, Japan was working double time to produce weapons and their army was training harder than they even had before. All for their attack on the USA.

When we arrived at the hospital in Manila Bay, I was in awe. It was clean and beautiful and had everything we could ever need to help a sick or wounded person. The lieutenant came in and laid out all the rules:

Lieutenant Nurse (Blackmoore) Small step forward. Hands on hips. Speak in a stern voice.

No being late! You must always wear a uniform while on the job! And always follow orders -- even if you don't agree or don't want to.

Bradley (Blackmoore) Walk back to center stage.

I was sent to a hospital at Fort Mills, a small, rocky island off the coast of Corregidor, a place that turned out to play a very important role during the invasion and liberation of the Philippines from Japanese forces during World War II. I was disappointed to leave the comforts of the Manila Bay hospital, but those were my orders, and I had to follow them if I wanted to get ahead. My work paid off when, in 1941, I was given the assignment of head surgical nurse for the station hospital at Camp John Hay on Baguio. And then. . .


● Explain how Bradley’s service during WWII and the Korean War relate to the theme of breaking barriers.

Setting The Philippines and Korea

Timeframe 1941-1963

Characters Franklin Roosevelt, Ruby Bradley, Dr. Jacobs, and Pilot

Summary of the Scene America enters WWII. Bradley describes her imprisonment in the POW camp in the Philippines as well as her heroic acts during WWII and the Korean War.


Franklin Roosevelt (Blackmoore) Sit at desk.

Breaking news. . . [Beep, beep, beep sound effect.] “Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 -- a date which will live in infamy -- the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”

Bradley (Blackmoore) Rise, step forward.

Hours after bombing Pearl Harbor, the Japanese bombed Camp John Hay in a surprise attack that destroyed almost all of the US airpower in the Philippines. Our hospital beds filled quickly with severely wounded people. Serious injuries arrived one after the other in cars, trucks, wagons -- anything on wheels. There was blood everywhere.

Dr. Jacobs (Blackmoore)

Show character change by deepening voice and widening stance

“Use anything you can, tourniquets, compression bandages. . . even your fingers if they are clean. . . We’ve got to stop the bleeding now.”

Bradley (Blackmoore) Step behind chair. Start to walk stage right.

We braved two more weeks of bombs before evacuating. We made it three miles northeast of Baguio when we were captured by the Japanese and taken to an internment camp. 500 Americans were sent to a barracks meant for fewer than 75 soldiers! The camp had no toilets and poor sanitation. The men in our POW camp built an outside toilet which we appropriately named, “the new odor of the far east.” I slept on the floor, lived out of boxes, showered with 20 other women, and stood in long food lines -- for terrible food. Rice was always thickly populated with weevils, which I did not particularly mind but cockroaches and worms with eyes staring me in the face was a different situation and often made swallowing difficult. Surviving the conditions during the bombings and my internment required extraordinary mental and physical strength, yet another way I overcame the barriers that were put in front of me. It was the happiest day of our lives on February 5, 1945, when after 37 months, we were freed. When the the grand smell of American gasoline-powered tanks and the sound of American voices hit us, we knew we had been saved at last. The camp was the single worst experience of my life. I left it at 87 pounds, compared to my normal weight which has always been around 130. Two more examples of how I defied traditional expectations during my long service career happened during the Korean War.

I was rapidly loading wounded patients onto a small plane for us to evacuate. Screams and shouts came from the plane begging me to get in. Chinese soldiers were quickly approaching, but I would not leave until every last person was safely aboard. The second I made it onto the plane, the ambulance I had just been in exploded.

Another time, I was on a plane with other medical personnel when the pilot turned to me and said. . .

Pilot (Blackmoore) Freeze. Deepen voice and assume a broader stance.

Madam, if anything goes wrong, you will be the first one to jump in case of an emergency.

Bradley (Blackmoore)

That's what you think.

People expected women to be afraid or to be the first to try to escape. My behavior helped break down the barriers that stereotyped women’s behavior as weak or cowardly. I proved that women could be both brave and heroic.


● Conclude Bradley’s life, restate thesis and evidence tying her work to the theme of breaking barriers, and connect to modern-day impact of her life.

Setting

Timeframe Present

Characters Narrator

Summary of the Scene Bradley died at the age of 94 having broken numerous social, gender, and historical barriers. Thanks to her, and others like her, women are now able to live and work on much more equal footing with men than ever before.


Narrator (Blackmoore) Break character, walk to center stage, and step forward. Bow head.

The remarkable Ruby Bradley died in 2002 at the age of 94 from a heart attack. Ruby did not allow society’s barriers to stop her, like being rejected from nursing school, being an unmarried women who had a job and supported herself, surviving a POW camp, being brave in dangerous and bloody situations that most people could not handle, and winning more awards and decorations than any other women in the US Army. At the time Ruby joined the Army, women could only be nurses, but it is thanks to her and others like her that women can now serve alongside men on the front lines and choose their occupational specialties. While many people today have never heard of her, Ruby’s extraordinary commitment to freedom and her country broke social, gender, and historical barriers that saved thousands of lives and have helped make things more equal between women and men in America.

In the words of Ruby Bradley, “Freedom’s not free. People have fought for us for years. Otherwise we wouldn’t be enjoying what we have today.”

Picture of costume and select props.

The Remarkable Ruby Bradley Louisa Blackmoore Junior Individual Performance Script

[Opening: 92-year-old Ruby Bradley sits at a small table reviewing her scrapbook of documents, certificates, and awards from her career as a nurse. She is wearing her Army uniform covered with a shawl to suggest her age. She wears reading glasses and walks with a cane.]

“Physically and morally of the highest standards.” “A person of great determination.” “She combines dignity and maturity with an affable humor and social personality.” “A truly outstanding representative of the nursing profession.”

[Ruby looks up from her scrapbook to address the audience.]

I still find it hard to believe they were talking about me. It all seems especially remarkable when you consider the fact that the first time I applied for a nursing position, I wasn’t accepted. And now my contributions to my country are so well known that I’ve got a whole living room full of people waiting to see my television special with Tom Brokaw air on NBC Nightly News. [Ruby hears a call from offstage. She closes the scrapbook and rises with the help of a cane. She walks slowly stage left.]

Coming-- Be there in a minute.

[Freeze. Break to newscaster with imaginary microphone. Show character change with voice and manner.]

Good evening. It’s February 23rd, 2000. Welcome back to our special segment Forgotten Heroes. Today's program is about Ruby Bradley, the most honored woman in U.S. military history. How many women do you know who survived three years in a Japanese POW camp and heroically put their lives on the line for their country? Through Bradley’s determination, bravery, and compassion, she broke countless gender, social, and historical barriers, saving lives, winning more respect for women in the professions, and ultimately paving the way for women to be treated more equally in the military. [Return to Ruby Bradley.]

They got the breaking barriers part right, but there’s a lot more to the story. [Ruby walks to the back of the chair, rests her cane against the table, removes her shawl, and stands up straighter to suggest that she is now younger.]

You might say it all started back in 1926 when I graduated from Spencer High school in West Virginia.

This was an exciting time for women in America. We’d just won the right to vote and the percentage of women

working outside of the home rose 25%. Even still, most women would get married and have their husbands take care of them. Not me! I wanted to be able to support myself, so I decided to learn how to be a teacher, which was one of the most common jobs for women at the time. My first job was in a one room schoolhouse. I taught ten hours each day and graded papers long into the night. [Walk stage right.]

I taught for 4 years and even though I loved it, I felt like something was missing.I yearned for excitement and a bigger challenge. I went to visit my sister, an Army nurse at Walter Reed Hospital. This one choice would change my life forever. I knew then that I wanted to be a nurse. I had to go through a long application process with interviews, references, and a transcript from 2 years in college. Ultimately, I was accepted and started my new job on July 1, 1930. [Step forward.]

I remember stepping out of the taxi into the warm air and just gazing at the hospital in Philadelphia, knowing that inside held adventures. Soon I met up with the other nurse probationers and was ushered to the cramped, sparse nurses’ quarters.

[Character change to head nurse, hand on hips, stern voice.]

You will rise every morning at 6 am and work until 11 at night. You will have a full day of classes,

nursing duty, and studying. You will be constantly running up and down stairs, getting equipment, cleaning rooms, and feeding and bathing patients.

[Step forward to return to Ruby Bradley.]

The program was rigorous and demanding, and the head nurses would find anything to criticize. But no

matter what barriers or hurdles they put in front of us, I always did my best and tried to go above and beyond what was asked of me. I did not crumble under the pressure of their scrutiny. Soon, I was getting bigger jobs such as assisting surgeons in various operations. [Center stage.]

In October of 1934, I took the next step in breaking the traditional barriers facing women who desired to have a career outside the home and serve their countries by joining the Army as a nurse. It was the Great Depression. Many men had lost their jobs, and more and more women were going to work to support their families. Never had I felt so proud as I did the first time I put on my Army uniform.

[Ruby gestures to uniform and puts on an Army nursing hat.]

I was given the rank of a second Lieutenant, which was a relative rank and carried very few privileges. The pay was also considerably less than men’s and we had to salute the men but they did not have to salute us.

Of course, all that would change down the road, thanks to women like me who broke gender barriers in the military. In fact, 56,000 nurses served in World War II, 30,000 more than in World War I.

[Walk slowly to stage left]

After 6 years at Walter Reed Hospital, I was shipped off to the Philippines. The Americans were not yet officially in the war, but tensions were on the rise. Germany had invaded Poland in 1939 and spent the summer of 1940 on the attack. Meanwhile, Japan was working double time to produce weapons and their army was training harder than they even had before. All for their attack on the USA.

When we arrived at the hospital in Manila Bay, I was in awe. It was clean and beautiful and had

everything we could ever need to help a sick or wounded person. The lieutenant came in and laid out all the rules: [Character break to supervisor. Small step forward. Hands on hips, stern voice.]

No being late! You must always wear a uniform while on the job! And always follow orders -- even if you don't agree or don't want to. [Return to Ruby. Walk back to center stage]

I was sent to a hospital at Fort Mills, a small, rocky island off the coast of Corregidor, a place that turned out to play a very important role during the invasion and liberation of the Philippines from Japanese forces during World War II. I was disappointed to leave the comforts of the Manila Bay hospital, but those were my orders, and I had to follow them if I wanted to get ahead. My work paid off when, in 1941, I was given the assignment of head surgical nurse for the station hospital at Camp John Hay on Baguio. And then. . . [Sit at desk. Breaking news - beep, beep, beep sound effect. Cut to the opening of President Roosevelt’s Day of Infamy Speech.]

Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 -- a date which will live in infamy -- the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

[Rise, step forward. Return to Ruby Bradley.]

Hours after bombing Pearl Harbor, the Japanese bombed Camp John Hay in a surprise attack that destroyed almost all of the US airpower in the Philippines. Our hospital beds filled quickly with severely wounded people. Serious injuries arrived one after the other in cars, trucks, wagons -- anything on wheels. There was blood everywhere. [Character changes to Dr. Jacobs. Show change by deepening voice and widening stance.]

Use anything you can, tourniquets, compression bandages. . . even your

fingers if they are clean. . . We’ve got to stop the bleeding now.

[Return to Ruby Bradley.]

We braved two more weeks of bombs before evacuating. We made it three miles northeast of Baguio when we were captured by the Japanese and taken to an internment camp. 500 Americans were sent to a barracks meant for fewer than 75 soldiers! The camp had no toilets and poor sanitation. The men in our POW camp built an outside toilet which we appropriately named, “the new odor of the far east.” I slept on the floor, lived out of boxes, showered with 20 other women, and stood in long food lines -- for terrible food. Rice was always thickly populated with weevils, which I did not particularly mind but cockroaches and worms with eyes staring me in the face was a different situation and often made swallowing difficult.

Surviving the conditions during the bombings and my internment required extraordinary mental and

physical strength, yet another way I overcame the barriers that were put in front of me. [Step behind chair.]

It was the happiest day of our lives on February 5, 1945, when after 37 months, we were freed. When the the grand smell of American gasoline-powered tanks and the sound of American voices hit us, we knew we had been saved at last. The camp was the single worst experience of my life. I left it at 87 pounds, compared to my normal weight which has always been around 130.

Two more examples of how I defied traditional expectations during my long service career happened during the Korean War.

[Start to walk to stage right]

I was rapidly loading wounded patients onto a small plane for us to evacuate. Screams and shouts came

from the plane begging me to get in. Chinese soldiers were quickly approaching, but I would not leave until every last person was safely aboard. The second I made it onto the plane, the ambulance I had just been in exploded.

Another time, I was on a plane with other medical personnel when the pilot turned to me and said. . .

[Freeze. Shift to pilot character. Deepen voice and assume a broader stance.]

Madam, if anything goes wrong, you will be the first one to jump in case of an emergency.

[Return to Ruby Bradley.] That's what you think.

People expected women to be afraid or to be the first to try to escape. My behavior helped break down the barriers that stereotyped women’s behavior as weak or cowardly. I proved that women could be both brave and heroic.

[Break character, remove hat, walk to center stage, and step forward.]

The remarkable Ruby Bradley died in 2002 at the age of 94 from a heart attack. Ruby did not allow

society’s barriers to stop her, like being rejected from nursing school, being an unmarried women who had a job and supported herself, surviving a POW camp, being brave in dangerous and bloody situations that most people could not handle, and winning more awards and decorations than any other women in the US Army. At the time Ruby joined the Army, women could only be nurses, but it is thanks to her and others like her that women can now serve alongside men on the front lines and choose their occupational specialties. While many people today have never heard of her, Ruby’s extraordinary commitment to freedom and her country broke social, gender, and historical barriers that saved thousands of lives and have helped make things more equal between women and men in America

In the words of Ruby Bradley, “Freedom’s not free. People have fought for us for years. Otherwise we

wouldn’t be enjoying what we have today.”

[Bow head.]

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