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Flikke (1879-1965) was born in rural Wisconsin, but moved to Chicago following the death of her husband from tuberculosis in 1911. Here she trained at the Augustana Hospital School of Nursing, returning a few years later as assistant superintendent after post-graduate study at Columbia University’s Teachers College in New York.
Flikke enrolled in the Army Nurse Corps in March 1918, and traveled to France where she served as chief nurse. After a short period in the United States after the war, she completed tours of duty in places such as the Philippines and China before spending a number of years at the Walter Reed Hospital in Washington D.C. where she was promoted to the rank of captain and appointed Assistant Superintendent of the Army Nurse Corps.
In 1937 Flikke succeeded the highly respected Julia Stimson as Superintendent, and was promoted to the rank of major. This was the highest rank available to women at the time, although it was much lower than the men who headed up other parts of the Army.
As the advent of the Second World War saw the United States Army expand at a swift pace, Flikke oversaw the growth for the ANC from around 700 nurses in 1940 to tens of thousands by 1943. It was during this period that the government passed Public Law 828, which authorized commissions up to the rank of colonel for Army nurses.
Three months later, on 13 March 1942, Flikke became the first woman in the United States Army to hold the rank of colonel. Although her rating was only temporary, it marked in important step towards the Army-Navy Nurse Act of 1947 that made such appointments permanent.
Julia Otteson Flikke (March 16, 1879 in
Viroqua, Wisconsin – February 23, 1965) was an American nurse. Her service to the
United States Army Nurse Corps spanned
both world wars and included overseas assignments in the
Philippines and
China. In
1927, she was appointed Assistant Superintendent of the ANC and was promoted to the relative rank of
captain. In
1937, she succeeded
Julia Stimson as Superintendent with the relative rank of major. She was the last superintendent to hold the office before the statutory limitation of four years was placed on the tenure. She was also the first woman to hold the rank of full colonel in the Army. Although the rating was
temporary then (1942), it marked a step forward to granting of full military rank and privileges in 1947. She retired [age 65] due to disability in
June 1943.
Julia O. Flikke was born in
Viroqua, Wisconsin, on March 16, 1879. She would receive her early education there. Flikke married in 1901, but her husband died ten years later. The following year, she entered the School of Nursing of the Augustana Hospital in
Chicago. She graduated in 1915, and, after several months of
postgraduate education, Flikke accepted a post as assistant principal of her old school. She would stay there until entering the United States Army Nurse Corps on
March 11, 1918, and (after being promoted to chief nurse) serving in
Lakewood Township, New Jersey as well as
Staten Island. Flick moved to Base Camp No. 11, in France in 1918, serving in several hospitals before returning to the United States in
1919. She first worked at
Camp Upton, and subsequently travelled around the country, before setting in
Walter Reed General Hospital, where she would work for twelve years.
