MCKAY-BERNADETTE

Source:  “NAVY MEDICINE” published by BUMED, issue of Nov/Dec 2008:

CAPT Bernadette Alice McKay, NC, USN (Ret), died on 11 October 11, 2008.  She was a native of New York City.  CAPT McKay received her basic nursing education at St. Vincent’s Hospital School of Nursing in New York.  She enlisted as an ensign in the Navy Nurse Corps Reserve on March 11, 1952.  In 1957, she transferred to the regular Navy.  Over the years she served as an operating room nurse at Naval Hospitals in Portsmouth, Virginia; Oakland, California; St. Albans, New York; as well as the Navy Medical Unit at Tripler Army Hospital at Oahu, Hawaii.  In November 1964, CAPT McKay joined a Navy surgical team of a provincial hospital at Rach Gia, Vietnam, where she served as a nurse advisor on detached duty to the Agency for International Development, Department of State.  Following her return from Vietnam, CAPT McKay served as operating room supervisor and assistant chief of the nursing service at Naval Hospital Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and later the Chief of Nursing Service at Lemoore, California.  In 1975, she became the Director for Administrative Services at the Naval Submarine Medical Center in New London, Connecticut.  She held the distinction of being first nurse in the history of the Navy Medical Department to serve in this executive position.  She retired from the Navy in 1986.  CAPT McKay held degrees from the University of Minnesota (BS, Nursing Administration, 1962) and Catholic University (MA, 1968).  CAPT McKay was buried at Arlington National Cemetery where her memorial marker carries the inscription:  CAPT – US NAVY - KOREA – VIETNAM – LEGION OF MERIT.

Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)