Shortly after the United States entered World War II following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, women signed up to join the military.
Dr. Margart Craighill was one of these women, giving up her duties as dean of the Woman’s Medical Center in Pennsylvania to join the United States Army -- and becoming the first female doctor to receive a military commission.
Craighill was responsible for inspecting the “field conditions of all women in the United States Army.” According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, she also was the women’s consultant to the Surgeon General of the Army and was in charge of the Women’s Health and Welfare Unit.
She also created the standards for the process of WAC medical care.
At the end of the war, Craighill became one of the first consultants on women veterans’ medical care, a post she was referred to by Gen. Omar Bradley. In this role, she worked alongside other specialists in Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals.
One newspaper story reported that Craighill’s promotion was “probably the most marked distinction that the war has brought any woman doctor in this country.”
She advocated for the expansion of women doctors in VA hospitals. In November of 1946, the first 10 women doctors were hired to serve alongside her. In a letter to one of her female colleagues, Craighill described her mission as giving “some suggestions on the care of women patients.”
She went on to write that it was a job she felt compelled to do after her experience at war.
Craighill helped in the formation of what would become the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services in 1951.
In July 1977, Craighill, 78, died in her home in, Southbury, Connecticut.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.
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This aticle was originally published March 18, 2021.
