KOREAN WAR'S CHIEF NURSE ALICE GRITSAVAGE DIES AT 98

CALA, FLA Alice M. Gritsavage, who was chief nurse of the Far East command during the Korean War and Gen. Douglas MacArthur's nursing consultant, died on Monday in Daytona Beach, Fla. She was 98.

In the Korean War, Ms. Gritsavage revolutionized the command structure of the Army Nursing Corps, obtaining hospital supplies when equipment was scarce and helping get the military to commission male nurses on an equal footing with women. At the time male nurses were drafted as enlisted men but were forbidden to be commissioned with their female counterparts because the Army thought that nursing was for women only.

Her insistence that these men serve on an equal footing led to an effort to discharge her, which was stopped by General MacArthur, then commander of the American forces in the Far East. She was the only woman on the general's staff.

Reared in Glen Lyon, Pa., Ms. Gritsavage received her nurse's training at King's County Hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y., earned a pharmacist degree from Temple University in Philadelphia and a master's degree in nursing administration from Incarnate Word College in San Antonio. She joined the Army in November 1942 and during World War II served in Africa, France and Italy. Ms. Gritsavage received many medals and citations, including the Bronze Star and two Legion of Merit awards. She retired as a colonel in 1962 after 20 years of service, and became a vocal spokeswoman for veterans' affairs. The Korean War Veterans Association named its Ocala chapter after her, its first to be named after a woman. Ms. Gritsavage is survived by a sister, Jennie Clard.

New York Times – 22 APRIL 2002