Button from a Reconstruction Aid uniform of 1918-1920. |
In 1917, Congress required that all veterans from World War
I receive rehabilitative health services.
The Army Surgeon General then developed a training program for women
aides. Six locations were selected and
women high school graduates who could pass a physical exam recruited.
Harriet Forest responded and entered a program at Reed
College which included courses in anatomy, physiology, hygiene, psychological
aspects of recovery, hospital management, massage, and “corrective gymnastics.”
The students also attended clinics in orthopedic surgery. Graduates appointed
as Reconstruction Aides received fifty dollars per month (sixty dollars if
serving abroad) and living expenses. They
cared for wounds, and treatments to keep up muscle tone and help soldiers
recover from fractures, paralysis, and amputation. Sixteen of the “re-aides”
later founded the American Physical Therapy Association.
After completing the program, Harriet Forest traveled to the
mobilization center in New York City, expecting to be sent to France. Her orders were cancelled and she ended up
serving at Camp Gordon and Fort McPherson in Georgia and at Walter Reed
Hospital, Bethesda, Maryland. She served in the program from 1918 to 1920,
followed by a year doing physical therapy for the Public Health Service.
Harriet Forest Moore in Reconstruction Aide outdoor uniform. |
After service, Harriet enrolled at Oregon Agricultural
College, graduating with a B. S. in 1922.
In 1924 she received one of the first M.S. degrees in vocational
education awarded by OAC.
After marrying James Moore in 1922 and raising two children,
she became involved in local history, recording headstone information for the
DAR and writing a history of the Corvallis Presbyterian church. In 1955, she
took a job as an assistant in cataloging at the OAC library. From 1961 to 1966 she served as the
university archivist, work which won her the Oregon Historical Society’s Henry
C. Collins award from the collection and preservation of local history. She also collected many of the photographs in
the Benton County Historical Museum’s collection.
Harriet Forest Moore |
Although the Reconstruction Aides were sworn into the army
and given orders by the Army doctors, and paid by the military, Congress
reclassified these aides, plus telephone operators and other female military
workers as civilian employees. As such,
they were not considered veterans and not eligible for benefits. In 1977, the G. I. Bill Improvement Act
ordered the Department of Defense to accept applications for veteran status from
women with wartime service. In 1981,
reconstruction aides were officially recognized as such. When several years later Harriet Moore
applied for veteran’s benefits, the army said its records showed that she had
served only a short time and was not eligible.
She submitted documents to show otherwise but the issue was not resolved
before she died in 1992.
By
Martha Fraundorf, Volunteer for Benton County Historical Society, Philomath,
Oregon
is she in this photo from Walter Reed? https://www.flickr.com/photos/47756470@N03/26200908977/
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