Fort Bliss, TEXAS – In a celebration of valor, compassion, and service, William Beaumont Army Medical Center Commemorated the 125th anniversary of the Army Nurse Corps on February 2nd, 2026, by inviting retired Army nurse and historian U.S. Army Col. Constance “CJ” Moore to share the ANC’s storied history with a captivated audience.
Moore, a 25-year veteran of the ANC, detailed the ANC’s evolution from its inception on February 2, 1901, when 202 women joined a skeptical Army Medical department, forever changing American nursing and military history.
“The army didn't know what to do with (the nurses),” Moore stated. “(They) were all volunteers while the Soldiers were generally conscripted. (They) had no military rank. (They) were barely paid. So how did (the nurses) achieve parity with the rest of the Army? (They) worked hard and carved (their) way into the hearts and minds of the Soldiers and gained the respect and awe of the American public."
She recounted the 1916 arrival of the first Army nurses to El Paso, which made front page news. The nurses came in response to Pancho Villa's raid on New Mexico and quickly proved their worth as they triaged and cared for wounded Soldiers at the train depot.
“When the civilians rallied around the wounded at the post hospital, they watched in awe that so many lives were saved because of the management of the wards by the nurses,” Moore explained. “Because so many Soldiers survived, citizens believed that nurses were an important medical asset rather than a strange military experiment.”
Moore emphasized that the ANC has always been a powerful force for three primary reasons: advocating for patients, responding to unexpected emergencies and breaking barriers to work across disciplines. She cited examples ranging from the nurse who lost his life responding to the 9/11 attacks in New York, to the nurses who rendered aid after the Boston Marathon bombing, to the massive deployment of nurses across the homeland during the COVID-19 pandemic.
She shared a poignant example of collaboration from the final days of the war in Afghanistan in 2021, when army nurses cared for babies passed over the barbed wire at the Kabul airport, coordinating with a chaplain to secure donated breast milk to ensure not a single baby was lost.
“This is the fierce and unwilling professionalism of the army nurse corps,” Moore declared. “They ensure their patients live. It has never changed. It will never, ever change because we have a sacred mission to provide for advancing the health of others.”
Moore, who previously served at Beaumont, has had a distinguished career. She was hand selected as a Pentagon Crisis Management team member after 9/11. Served as the commandant of the Graduate School of Nursing and was the official ANC historian before retiring in 2008.
Following Moore’s remarks, the hospital commander, U.S. Army Col. Wendy Gray, addressed the attendees.
“For 125 years, army nurses have stood where their nation needed them the most,” Gray said. “As we leave here, let's carry this moment forward... Let this anniversary be more than about stone, let it be a renewed commitment to excellent, to one another, and to the calling we share.”
The celebration concluded with a ceremonial cake-cutting, after which attendees eagerly gathered to speak with Moore, the celebrated historian who contributed to the ANC legacy.