Los Baños Internment Camp - This is really war: the incredible true story of a Navy nurse POW in the occupied Philippines

The dozen nurses who served in the Santo Tomas and Los Baos prisoner of war camps as of January 1942. All but Basilia Torres Steward were members of the Navy Nurse Corps.

DOROTHY STILL: California native who was twenty-seven years old and near the end of her two-year assignment in the Philippines when Cavite was bombed. Had orders to return to the United States on January 1, 1942.

MARY FRANCES CHAPMAN: Twenty-eight years old, recently engaged; had submitted her resignation to the navy. Planned to return to her family in Chicago while waiting for her fianc to finish his service.

LAURA M. COBB: Chief nurse. Longtime veteran of the navy who was strict with her nurses but fiercely protected them when she was able to do so. Almost fifty years old; originally from Kansas.

BERTHA EVANS: Thirty-seven years old. Also trained as a dietitian. Originally from Oregon; recently engaged.

HELEN C. GORZELANSKI: Thirty-four years old; from Nebraska.

MARY ROSE HARRINGTON: Considered an Irish beauty, with auburn hair. Native of South Dakota. Moved her widowed mother to San Diego after she enlisted. Age twenty-eight.

MARGARET PEG NASH: Thirty years old; recently engaged. Originally from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Petite, energetic, and bright.

GOLDIA OHAVER: Age thirty-nine; from Iowa. Practical and efficient yet warm in personality. Also trained as a surgical nurse.

ELDENE PAIGE: Turned twenty-eight on the day of the Cavite bombing. Originally from South Dakota but raised in Southern California. Petite, shy, and kind.

SUSIE PITCHER: Born in Iowa in 1901. Nurse anesthetist who had been in the navy for more than a decade. Heavy smoker; living with emphysema.

BASILIA TORRES STEWARD: Twenty-eight years old. Filipina married to an American naval officer. Served alongside the navy nurses throughout their captivity.

CARRIE EDWINA TODD: California native who had the same assignment as Dorothy Still and was expecting new orders. Known as Edwina; age thirty at time of capture.

Other Medical Personnel

ANN BERNATITUS: Navy nurse with surgical experience. Became the only nurse from Cavite to escape imprisonment after the army requested her service and then evacuated her to Australia.

DANA NANCE, MD: Civilian. Surgeon at Los Baos prison camp.

GWENDOLYN L. HENSHAW: Army nurse POW; native of California. Reunited with fellow nursing school graduate Dorothy Still at Santo Tomas prison camp.

Eleven of the twelve anchors. Seated, left to right: Mary Rose Harrington, Eldene Paige, Laura Cobb, Peg Nash, Edwina Todd, Bertha Evans. Standing, left to right: Mary Chapman, Goldia OHaver, Dorothy Still, Susie Pitcher, Helen Gorzelanski. Not pictured: Basilia Torres Steward. Courtesy of Bureau of Medicine and Surgery