 Navy nurse Ann Agnes Bernatitus, one of the "Angels of Bataan", nearly became another POW; she was one of the last to escape Corregidor Island in the Philippines, via the .Upon her return to the United States she became the first American to receive the Legion of Merit.In 1943, Thelma Bendler Stern, an engineering draftsman, became the first woman assigned to perform duties aboard a United States Navy ship as part of her official responsibilities.