Muriel Engelman, a veteran Army nurse who served on the front lines of World War II, died June 30, The Washington Post reported July 20. She was 101.
As a second lieutenant in the Army Nurse Corps, she treated wounded soldiers at a field hospital in Belgium near the front lines of the Battle of the Bulge. Nearly 20,000 American forces were killed during the battle, known as the bloodiest for Americans on the Western Front during World War II.
One of nearly 60,000 American nurses who volunteered during the war, Ms. Engelman was humble about her service.
"I'm not brave," she told The Orange County Register in 2012. "I didn't do anything different from what anyone else did. I was just one of many."
In 2008, Ms. Engelman published a memoir titled "Mission Accomplished: Stop the Clock," which details her experience growing up during the Great Depression through her time as a war nurse. Ms. Engelman was appointed to the French Legion of Honor in 2018 for her wartime service.
She became a registered nurse in 1942 after studying at Cambridge Hospital, now Mount Auburn Hospital, in Cambridge, Mass. She is survived by two children, two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
To read more about Ms. Engelman, click here.