Ollie Josephine Bennett was an Army doctor born in Decatur, Illinois, in 1873 and always wanted to be a doctor. She met a man when she was 16 and eloped with him with his promise that he'd put her through medical school.
She was a doctor when World War I started for the United States and signed a contract with the U.S. Army as a contract surgeon.
The army at the time didn't have a uniform for female doctors and she was asked by the quartermaster general to design one.
Her job was to supervise the health and care of 1,100 female employees of the Army and she had tents set up alongside the National Mall in Washington, D.C..
She trained to go to France, but the war ended before she could go.
She is considered the first female medical doctor commissioned by the Army.
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