IN Brentwood-Baldwin-Whitehall Summer 2016 | Page 17

“It was that day I remember the most because I knew we were going
to go home,” Bertha says.
She was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for “meritorious
achievement” during her hospital and battlefield nursing tours in
Hollandia, New Guinea. It is estimated that fewer than 100 women
received the Bronze Star during WWII. Bertha also received the
American Campaign Medal for her service in the American Theater
and the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal for service in the Pacific
Theater as well as the World War II Victory Medal. The campaign
medals were issued as striped bars for World War II service and later
changed to medals in 1947. She is also represented on the Women in
Military Service for America Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Bertha returned home in December of 1945, one month
following her fiancé. They were married in February 1946 and lived
in Overbrook until they moved to Baldwin in 1954. They had five
children, three boys and two girls, and raised them happily.
The neighborhood in which they lived was booming with children
after the war and Elva Bertha became the resident nurse of the
neighborhood, tending to the minor injuries of the children on the
street. “Once a nurse, you’re always a nurse,” she said.
When her children were nearly grown, Bertha continued her
nursing career at Bell Telephone as an industrial nurse for 15 years
until she retired at 65. She still felt the calling to help others and began
volunteering for Meals on Wheels in Castle Shannon, which she
continues to do, at age 97, once a week. “She loves to help and gets to
meet some really nice elderly people—who are younger than she is,”
laughs Bertha’s daughter, Diane Reutzel.
The nurses of the 27th General stayed in touch and would get
together every few years, but it’s been over 10 years since the last
meeting because the majority have passed away. Bertha may be the
only one still living.

Elva and her husband, Paul Bertha

“Nothing could really prepare you
for the emotional side of war.”
She has attended some of the local VFW meetings and occasionally
meets another WWII veteran, and more rarely one who is a woman.
She has also worked at the election polls, volunteered at clinics and
kept busy with her six grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren. Her
husband passed away in 1994.
More than 50 years after the war, Bertha’s service is still being
honored. She is represented on the Women in Military Service for
America Memorial that was completed in 1997 at the entrance to
Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. She proudly took a
trip to visit it with her family a few years later.
Reflecting on her military years, Bertha says, “It breaks my heart
to think of what happened to so many of those men. We all thought
we were going to promote longtime peace.” While that may not have
lasted, to answer her calling brought much satisfaction and a lifetime of
continuous service, whether through nursing, Meals on Wheels, or her
family. n
Brentwood-Baldwin-Whitehall | Summer 2016 | icmags.com 15