New Exhibit at WW II Museum-- Part 3: Lt. Fox and Rep. Rankin 'It's a Wrong Method to Settle a Dispute'

Another thumbnail sketch is about  Lt. Anne G. Fox who was chief nurse at the Army Nurse Corps at Hickam Field during the Pearl Harbor attack.  She was the first woman to receive a Purple Heart for her actions that day.  She was, however, not wounded, but back them being injured in the line of duty was not the only qualification for the decoration.

When criteria for the honor was changed, Fox was awarded the Bronze Star for her heroism on December 7, 1941.  She died in 1987 at age 93.

While Fox and Miller are in the display for bravery during the action, another person is in it who was not at Pearl Harbor during the attack.  She is U.S. Representative Jeannette Rankin.  She was in Washington, D.C..  A Republican from Montana, she was the only House member to vote against the declaration of war that FDR asked for.

"As a woman, I can't go to war," she said, "and I refuse to send anyone else."

Two days later, she voted "present" when Congress declared war against Germany and Italy.

Of course, this was the end of her political career and she knew it but had no regrets.  "If you're against war, you're against war, regardless of what happens.  It's a wrong method to settle a dispute."

She died in 1973 at the age of 92.

--GreGen