Army, wife alumna reflects on historic career, life - Summer 2008 Wartburg Magazine - Wartburg College

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Army, wife alumna reflects on historic career, life

Col. Erna Thompson ’31

by Andrew Barnd ’09

If you talk with retired Col. Erna Thompson ’31, she’ll tell you she is just an average individual who has led a wonderful life.

But don’t let her deceive you; the records show Thompson and her life are nothing short of extraordinary. For example, Eleanor Roosevelt was Thompson’s pen-pal, and she was highest-ranking woman in the U.S. Army at that time.

Living in a retirement home in San Antonio, Thompson, 93, remains more active than many. She no longer drives, but she is involved with a Sunday morning church service every week at a local Army base. When she’s not doing that, she attends an exercise program for residents of her retirement home.

Thompson dedicated her life to nursing, and her story begins 93 years ago in Ada, Minn.

Born Sept. 1, 1914, to a Lutheran pastor and his wife who emigrated from Germany, Thompson was struck with a desire to help others from a very early age.

“I wanted to be a nurse ever since I was old enough to play—maybe 3 or 4 years old,” she recalled. “Everyone got a bandage.”

Like her older brother Herman, Thompson was sent away to college at Eureka Lutheran Academy in Eureka, S.D. Eureka Lutheran would later move to Waverly, Iowa, and become part of Wartburg College. But unlike her brother, she was second in line to receive financial support from the family and was forced to be self-sufficient.

Working as a housekeeper in the president’s home and as a beautician, she was able to put herself through school and graduated in 1931.

Wanting to become a nurse, Thompson continued her schooling and received her master’s degree from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1939. As she focused on obstetrics, her thesis on the care of women and their children during pregnancy became the primary text on the subject and was used in the field for years.

For Thompson, 1939 would continue to be significant when on May 26 she married John R. Thompson. Several months later, everything would change when Hitler’s forces invaded Poland, effectively beginning World War II.

John Thompson’s career in the military began two years later when he was drafted into the Army and underwent training with the Signal Corps as a cryptologist. When the United States entered the war on June 6, 1944, John was assigned to the 7th Army headed by Gen. George S. Patton.

Back at home, Erna Thompson wanted to help out with the cause through her experience as a registered nurse, but standing in her way was the rule that married nurses were not allowed to serve in the military. What she did next would become history.

“My husband was in the Army, and we didn’t have any kids, so I wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt, and she sent me the paperwork. I filled it out and sent it in, and that was that,” she explained.

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt convinced President Franklin D. Roosevelt that married women should be allowed in the armed forces because of Thompson’s petition. Eleanor Roosevelt sent back a letter instructing Thompson to report to Fort Snelling, Minn., making her the first married woman ever to be admitted into the Army.

After an Army physical deemed her fit for service, 2nd Lt. Erna Thompson first experienced what it was like in the Army Nurse Corps at Camp Hale in Leadville, Colo. There she learned to march in uniform as a member of the 10th Lightning Division bound for Europe.

The Army eventually discovered John Thompson was already in Europe, and as a married couple, they were not allowed to be in the same war zone. By the end of 1942, she was sent to Tacoma, Wash., which served as an assembly point before shipping out to the Pacific Theater.

During the next two years, Erna Thompson would see the devastating effects of war firsthand in the injured young men brought to her and the other nurses. In the South Pacific, she received patients from some of the most important battles in the Pacific Theater, such as Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima.

When Japan surrendered Sept. 2, 1945, ending World War II, Thompson needed a break and requested to be discharged from the Army.

However, this would only be temporary, Thompson was called back to service at the Army Hospital in Puerto Rico where John was stationed. During the next 20 years, she switched between roles as a civilian and an enlisted woman.

In 1966, she reached the pinnacle of her military and professional career when she became the Chief Army Nurse at the U.S. Hospital in Berlin, Germany. Within three years, she was promoted to colonel, which was the highest rank ever attained by a woman in the Army at the time, with 500 personnel working under her.

In 1971, with a combined total of 49 years of military service between Erna and John, the two retired in San Antonio.

Of course, Erna Thompson didn’t put an end to her lifelong mission of helping others. She has been and continues to be charitable with her time and resources to countless organizations and causes.

According to her, the ability to do what she has done exists in us all, but it takes personal sacrifice and strong commitment.

“Most importantly, they should be willing to serve—loving to serve,” she said.

Although she has spent a lifetime making the world a much better place, Thompson would probably be the last to tell you so.

“I don’t think I really achieved that much,” she said. I’ve had some marvelous experiences in my life. I’ve been able to do more than I could ever have dreamed of. I’m perfectly happy.”

Barnd is a communication arts and Spanish major from Marion, Iowa.