The United States (U.S.) Cadet Nurse Corps (CNC) for women was authorized by the U.S. Congress on 15 June 1943 and signed into law by president Franklin D. Roosevelt on 1 July.

The legislative act contained a specific provision that prohibited discrimination based upon race, color, or creed.

The USPHS established a separate division to administer the CNC program and Parran appointed Lucile Petry a registered nurse (RN) as its director.

[4] The council submitted its federal aid request for fiscal year 1 July 1941 to 30 June 1942 to the U.S. commissioner of education, who approved it and moved it on to the Bureau of the Budget.

[9][Note 1] It also contained a provision requiring that those trained under the act would comprise a uniformed body but without military status.

[11] The Division of Nurse Education was established in the USPHS to supervise the program; it was answerable to the surgeon general of the United States, Thomas Parran Jr.

[Note 2][13] On 25 June 1943, the committee met for the first time with government officials to establish the rules and regulations to carry out the act.

[14] The surgeon general then sent telegrams that outlined the program to 1,300 nursing schools in the United States and Puerto Rico.

[15] After issuing these regulations, the surgeon general said:The schools of nursing are free to select students, to plan curricula, and to formulate policies consistent with the Act and the traditions of the institution concerned.

In exchange, student cadets were required to pledge to actively serve in essential civilian or federal government services for the duration of World War II.

The Federal Works Agency projects started in September 1943 and ended in November 1944; during this period, about 400 applications consisting of 160 for training facilities, 172 for construction, and 68 for the purchase, lease, or renovation of existing buildings were cleared.

[23] The USPHS recruiting campaign was aimed at reaching the maximum number of potential applicants in the shortest period of time.

[26] Appeals to join the CNC reached more than 7,000,000 newspaper and magazine readers, and millions of radio listeners and movie patrons around the country.

[24] The Eastman Kodak Company sponsored a full-page advertisement in Life magazine (24 January 1944) touting the CNC as a way to serve the country in "a war job with a future".

Applicants were assured they could wear something "frilly and feminine" instead of uniforms for dances, that they would have time for dating, and that many schools allowed students to marry.

[27] In the same year, a motion-picture company produced a recruiting film about the CNC called Reward Unlimited for the USPHS.

Mary C. McCall Jr. wrote the story and Dorothy McGuire played the lead role of Peggy Adams, a cadet nurse.

[36] The non-discrimination provision in the CNC legislation of 1943 had a positive effect on encouraging young African American women to enter the nursing profession.

[37] The African American press helped the CNC in its efforts to recruit black women as did community leaders.

Some of these cadets took part in public ceremonies and were the subject of special feature stories released to their local newspapers.

[38] The bombing attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 by the Empire of Japan caused hysteria among residents along the Pacific coast where many Japanese Americans lived - including the Nisei generation.

[40] Among those interned included Nisei women students who were attending nursing schools in the coastal states of California, Oregon, and Washington.

[42] Many of these students volunteered to staff relocation hospitals, and so did other Nisei women after completing nurse's aid training.

[43] The non-discrimination provision in the CNC legislation of 1943 opened the portal for more than 400 Japanese (Nisei) American women to become cadet nurses.

[44] Too few nursing schools were open to Japanese American women;[39] it was perceived that hospital staff and patients would not trust them.

[54] With his rule-making powers, the surgeon general issued these regulations:Congressional hearings on appropriations stressed all schools should be allowed to take part in the program.

They would be judged by criteria that included the qualifications and number of instructional personnel, their clinical facilities, the curricula, the weekly schedule of hours, and the health and guidance programs.

[60] The federal government spent $160,326,237 on the Nurse Training Act of 1943 for administration, uniforms, maintenance, tuition, fees, and stipends.

[65] Florence Blake Ford: Frankly I jumped at the opportunity to become a cadet nurse because it was free, and if I completed the course I could earn more money than I currently made as a clerk.

[68]Thelma M. Robinson[Note 4]: The corps gave me the eagerness to move forward in my learning and to gain new skills and insights so I could broaden my horizon and provide a better nursing service.