HENDRICKS-LUCILLE

NO  LONGER  FORGOTTEN

Lucille C. Hendricks was one of three Navy nurses who served together during World War II and will no longer be forgotten.  The trio were nurses at the Naval Hospital in Norco, California.  Although the hospital no longer exists, Norco is the site of the George Ingalls Veterans Memorial Plaza which features a 70-foot flagpole surrounded by a “Circle of Honor” recognizing all Norco veterans.  There is also a “Lest We Forget” wall which honors those Norco veterans who paid the ultimate price.

Historical records report that Lucille C. Hendricks, a Texas native, arrived at the Naval Hospital in Norco on December 22, 1941 with instructions as Chief Nurse to assist setting up the hospital.  She was a pioneer in the nursing field and had previously helped train the largest group of Mayo Clinic specialists outside the famed Minnesota hospital, and established in Norco what would become a groundbreaking medical treatment center that included the first neurosurgery unit in Navy history.  In March 1944, Hendricks was reassigned as the Chief Nurse to the Naval Hospital at Dutch Harbor, Alaska.  Here she was in charge of creating and expanding treatment centers at several Alaska bases and outposts so she made frequent trips to other naval installations to teach medical personnel new techniques in plastic surgery, spinal cord operations, and treatment of brain injuries.

Ensign Helen Mary Roehler and Ensign Ruby Toquam met during nurse training in Maryland and upon graduation they enlisted together in the Navy in July 1942.  They were assigned to the Naval Hospital in Norco a few weeks later and worked under Hendricks’ supervision.  After Hendricks’ transfer to Dutch Harbor, both Roehler and Toquam requested transfer to Dutch Harbor which was approved.  Shortly after arrival at Dutch Harbor, the trio was aboard a Navy plane on April 23, 1944 with plans to visit outlying Navy installations.  Unfortunately, the trio died instantly when their plane crashed into Mount Idak, a 1,791oo-foot mountain on Umnak Island in the Aleutian Islands.

In 2017, a Norco historian was researching historical records and discovered the forgotten tragic story of the death of the three Navy nurses who had served together at the Norco Hospital during World War II.  On May 29, 2017, the names of Hendricks, Roehler, and Toquam were engraved in black granite in the “Lest We Forget” wall.  They are the first women to be enshrined on the wall and join 24 men who were former Norco residents who were killed in action or died of a service-related injury or illness.

Lucille C. Hendricks was laid to final rest at Forest Park Cemetery in Houston, Texas.

               

A photograph of the flag draped caskets of the three nurses and the pilot who died in the crash was taken in a chapel in Alaska and published in U.S. newspapers.

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