Mildred D. Manning | Ex-POW Army nurse, 98

Mildred Dalton Manning, 98, an Army nurse who was held captive for almost three years in the Philippines and who was the last known female military prisoner of war from World War II, died March 8 at a hospital in Hopewell, N.J. She was being treated for pneumonia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, her son, James Manning, said.

Mrs. Manning, then known as Millie Dalton, joined the Army Nurse Corps in 1939 in her native Georgia. She asked for a transfer to the Philippines because she wanted to see more of the world. She arrived in Manila late in October 1941. About six weeks later, Japanese forces attacked U.S. installations at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and also bombed a U.S. air base near Manila.

Mrs. Manning was one of about 100 military nurses who cared for wounded soldiers around the clock. She worked for two months at a makeshift outdoor clinic on Bataan and at a hospital set up in a tunnel on the island of Corregidor. She and the other nurses became collectively known as the Angels of Bataan and Corregidor.

When U.S. forces were overrun in May 1942, Mrs. Manning was one of 77 military nurses taken prisoner. (There were several civilian nurses and medical workers held captive, as well.) She and her colleagues were among almost 4,000 people detained at a prison camp on the grounds of Manila's Santo Tomas University and run by Japanese civilians.

Mrs. Manning later said the prison camp had no showers, beds, or kitchens. A single toilet was used by hundreds of people. Yet she and the nurses maintained strict military order among themselves, always wearing their uniforms and caring for the sick.

Finally, on Feb. 3, 1945, a U.S. tank battalion broke through the gates of Santo Tomas, ending the captivity of Mrs. Manning and many others. - Washington Post