Alene Duerk had a long military career and was a trailblazer for women in the Navy. She is a Veteran of World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam War. In 1972, she became the Navy’s first female admiral.
Background
Duerk was born on March 29, 1920, in Defiance, Ohio, United States. When she was very young, the family home was frequented by nurses tending to her father, who had faced a mustard gas attack while serving in the Second World War. He died when Alene was four and her mother struggled to care for her and a younger sister.
Education
Alene attended the Toledo Hospital School of Nursing and graduated in 1941.
Duerk received a Bachelor’s degree in advanced nursing in Cleveland before joining the naval reserve.
Career
Alene Duerk's first assignment was at the Naval Hospital in Portsmouth, Virginia. She spent about 6 months there before transferring to the hospital in Bethesda, Maryland.
In April 1945, Duerk boarded the Navy hospital ship USS Benevolence. She departed on the ship from New York, passed through the Panama Canal and headed towards the Pacific. The ship spent time at both Hawaii and Guam before joining the Third Fleet in preparation for the invasion of Japan. However, the war ended before the planned invasion took place.
The mission of the USS Benevolence changed. Instead of participating in an invasion, the ship docked in Tokyo Bay and evacuated two prisoners of war camps in August 1945. For the first 36 hours, Duerk and her shipmates processed nearly a thousand American prisoners of war before transferring them onto other ships going back to the United States. Duerk remained on the ship in Japan which served as a hospital for the fleet until November 1945.
The following year, Duerk left active service and attended Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1948 she earned her degree in Ward Management and Teaching, Medical and Surgical Nursing. She then began teaching nurses at Highland Park General Hospital and joined a Naval Reserve unit in Detroit.
The Navy called her back into active service in 1951 during the Korean War. She was assigned to the Naval Hospital Corps School in Portsmouth, Virginia where she trained hospital corpsmen for about 5 years. In 1956, Duerk became an education coordinator at Naval Hospital in Philadelphia and later served at the Naval Recruiting Station in Chicago until 1961.
For the next ten years, Duerk served at multiple locations and held many different positions in the Navy. She served in hospitals in Long Beach, California; San Diego; Yokosuka Japan; Subic Bay, Philippines; Chicago; and Washington, D.C. She held supervisory positions at each of these assignments.
In May 1970, the Navy appointed Duerk as the director of the Navy Nurse Corps.
Views
Quotations:
"She raised us to be independent and have a career so that the same thing wouldn't happen to us that happened to her when my father died. She felt too dependent and helpless."
"The most important thing, as far as the navy was concerned, was that I learn how to fill out all the right forms. That hasn't changed. I was a quick learner."
"Being the first of anything has its responsibilities I'm more than an officer. I'm a symbol, for women in the navy and the military. Women thinking of careers like mine can know that the ultimate is possible."
"I traveled a lot and made extensive trips, both here and oversea. And whenever I visited naval hospitals and naval facilities, I tried to speak with the women serving in the navy, and not just the nurses."
"I never mapped it out like this. I didn't go into the navy for a lifetime - I went in for six months. But I had an amazing career and have a lot of good memories. I hope I did my duty."
Personality
Alene Duerk helped push the recruiting effort to draw more women into the Navy and became a symbol of opportunity for women. Duerk’s continuous climb in the Navy served as an example to other women showing what they accomplish in a military career.
After retiring from the navy in 1975, Duerk taught English to Vietnamese immigrants and volunteered with groups including Meals on Wheels.
Quotes from others about the person
"Alene Duerk was a strong and dedicated trailblazer who embodied the very principles that continue to guide Navy Medicine today. She will forever be remembered as a servant leader who provided the best care to those who defended our nation, honoring the uniform we wear and the privilege of leadership." - Vice Admiral Forrest Faison, Navy surgeon general
"It took 197 years and a forward-looking Chief of Naval Operations, Elmo Zumwalt, to break with tradition before Alene Duerk became the first woman admiral in the U.S. Navy. But the credit goes to Duerk. From the crucible of caring for wounded sailors, Marines, and prisoners of war during World War II in the Pacific, she blazed a trail of stellar performance in tough jobs, serving as an inspiration for an ever-increasing number of women officers who have followed her path." - Sam Cox, director of Naval History and Heritage Command
Connections
Alene Duerk never married. She didn't have children.