Lessons from the 1940s - No Complaints

They waded ashore in chest-deep water in Algeria and took shelter behind sand dunes. Snipers and strafing fighter planes aimed for them. They ate cold K-rations and dug slit trenches and dealt with fleas, mosquitoes, lice, and flies. And they were women.

Lately I've been researching nursing in the Mediterranean Theater (North Africa, Sicily, and Italy) in World War II, and I've been struck by the conditions these young women worked in.

They had a difficult job to begin with. Work schedules vari...