Page 81 - JSOM Fall 2022

It was there that she and several other imprisoned nurses She felt joining the Navy was a way to help free Korea
earned the title “Angels in Fatigues” from fellow cap­ from the harsh Japanese colonial era rule and was eager
tives. For the next several months, she provided medical to join the Navy to fight the Japanese. She worked her
help to the prisoners and sought to feed starving chil­ way up in the Navy, becoming an instructor on Link
dren by shoving food into her pockets whenever she Trainer flight simulators in 1943, teaching aviators how
could, often going hungry herself. As she lost weight, to maneuver in a simulator cockpit. Later she became
she used the room in her uniform for smuggling surgical the first female aerial gunnery officer in the Navy—in
equipment into the prisoner­of­war camp. At the camp other words, she trained fighter pilots how to shoot
she assisted in 230 operations and helped to deliver 13 down enemy aircraft. She knew how to work some guns
children. men were having difficulty with. In Willow Tree Shade,
Cha describes one incident where a white male pilot
Bradley served in the Korean War as chief nurse for the protested having to take directions from Ahn Cuddy be­
171st Evacuation Hospital. In November 1950, during cause she was Asian and female. “Down here, you will
the Chinese counteroffensive, she refused to leave until shoot when I tell you to shoot!” she told the pilot.
she had loaded the sick and wounded onto a plane in
Pyongyang while surrounded by 100,000 advancing Chi­ Ahn Cuddy eventually became a lieutenant and went
nese soldiers. She was able to jump aboard the plane just on to work for US Navy Intelligence and the Library of
as her ambulance exploded from an enemy shell. In 1951, Congress. She worked for The National Security Agency
she was named chief nurse for the Eighth Army, where in Washington, DC. During the Cold War, she was in
she supervised over 500 Army nurses throughout Korea. charge of a think tank of over 300 agents working in
the Russia section. She received a fellowship from the
Colonel Bradley was one of the most decorated women National Security Agency to study at the University of
in US military history and the nation’s most decorated Southern California in 1956. Ahn Cuddy worked on
female veteran. Her record included 34 medals and cita­ many top­secret projects for the Department of Defense
tions of bravery, most notably two Legion of Merit med­ and other agencies during her service with the US gov­
als, two Bronze Stars, and a UN Korean Service Medal ernment until 1959.
with seven battle stars. Bradley left Korea with a full­
dress honor guard ceremony, the first woman to receive Even in her personal life, Ahn Cuddy proved a trail­
such a salute. She also received the Florence Nightingale blazer. In April 1947 she married Chief Petty Officer
Medal from the International Red Cross. Bradley was Francis X. “Frank” Cuddy, an Irish American. They de­
promoted to the rank of colonel in 1958 and retired fied anti­miscegenation laws and wed at the only place
from the army in 1963. Toward the end of her military that would marry them: a Navy chapel in Washington,
career, she served as the director of nursing at Brooke D.C. Francis also worked for Navy Intelligence and the
Army Medical Center in San Antonio. NSA. He was a code­breaker and helped the US free
Korea.

SUSAN AHN CUDDY
FIRST LIEUTENANT
SUSAN AHN CUDDY was the REBA ZITELLA WHITTLE
first female gunnery officer in
the US Navy. She was the FIRST LIEUTENANT REBA ZITELLA
eldest daughter of Korean WHITTLE was a member of the US
independence activist Ahn Army Nurse Corps during World War
Chang­ho and Helen Ahn, the II. She became the only American mil­
first married Korean couple to itary female prisoner of war in the Eu­
immigrate to the US in 1902. She joined the Navy in ropean Theater after her casualty
1942 and served until 1946, reaching the rank of lieu­ evacuation aircraft was shot down in
tenant. She was the first Asian­American woman to join September 1944.
the US Navy. Whittle was born in Rocksprings, Texas, and studied at
After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Ahn Cuddy en­ North Texas State College before attending the Medi­
listed in the US Armed Forces and enrolled in the US cal and Surgical Memorial Hospital School of Nursing
Naval Reserve Midshipmen’s School at Smith College in San Antonio. After graduating, Whittle enlisted in
in Northampton, Massachusetts. This was at a time the Army Nurse Corps on 10 June 1941 at Fort Sam
when anti­Asian sentiment in the country was high and Houston. With the rank of second lieutenant, she was
women were still battling over sexism in the military. assigned the Station Hospital at Albuquerque Army Air
She told biographer John Cha, who wrote Willow Tree Base, New Mexico, where she served as a general duty
Shade: The Susan Ahn Cuddy Story (2002), “A lot of ward nurse. In 1943, Whittle was accepted by the Army
people thought that women didn’t belong in the service. Air Forces School of Air Evacuation to train as a flight
That made us try harder.” nurse at the school at Bowman Field, Kentucky. The

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