ould no longer disguise themselves as soldiers as many had done in wars in the past. And this was also the first time that women served in the Navy, the Marine Corps, and the Army Surgical Corps openly.Laura Frost Smith, a nurse during WW I, is the oldest known American veteran still living. World War I is a war that marked the first time that women were officially allowed to serve in the military. Mrs. Smith, unlike most of her colleagues, was able to survive and tell her story of her experience through the letters that she had wrote during the war and in a family memoir that she had written while in her 90's. Many of these stories tell a tale that is fearful to say the least. "Do I look bad?" the soldier pleads. Half his face is gone. Laura Frost hurriedly dresses the raw shreds that remain. There are still men moaning on gurneys in the rain outside the operating tent. Her hands shake from the chilling damp that seeps through the canvas walls. Her thin leather boots are coated with mud. Blood is smeared across her nurse's uniform. She tries to block out the sound of limbs dropping into enamel pails as surgeons saw through mangled flesh and bones. For a moment she presses her hand against her eyes. Sometimes the men in their misery make her cry (WW I left its enduring mark).Eventhough eighty years went by, she still feels emotional and begins to cry whenever she recalls that sight. Laura Frost Smith was just one of over 25,000 women that had served overseas during World War I. Another 15,000 worked as civilians through individual drive or with numerous volunteer agencies. Many of these were American nurses who went to serve in British, French, Serbian, Russian, and even German organizations during the war. Another 13,000 had joined the Navy with over 300 enlisting in the Marine Corps. These women did not go overseas, but they supported the cause of the war just as enthu...
