WW2 Fallen - Army nurse Dorothy Stanke, USS Comfort

Lt. Dorothy Stanke was army nurse on the hospital ship USS Comfort when it was hit by a kamikaze plane.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/73283596/dorothy-mildred-stanke
 http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/12/1206.htm

Dorothy M. Stanke never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, she sacrificed her life for our freedom.

If you have enjoyed reading the stories of the WW2 fallen, Can you help write some stories? It's a big project. The more help, the better.  Announcing "The Stories Behind the Stars", see https://www.storiesbehindthestars.org. This crowd-sourced national project has the goal of compiling stories of all 400,000+ of the US World War 2 fallen in one free-to-access central database.  Anyone visiting a war memorial or gravesite will be able to scan the name of the fallen with a smartphone and his story will appear on the phone.

Dorothy was born on April 5, 1920 in Oakesdale. Her parents Rolland and Josie were born in Wisconsin and Nebraska, respectively. Her father worked as a machine shop foreman. Dorothy had one older sister, two older brothers, and one younger sister. Her childhood dream was to become a nurse. By 1940 she had completed four years of high school and was still living at home. Dorothy graduated from St. Luke's hospital school of nursing in 1942.

She enlisted in the US Army Nurse Corp in May 1943. She was assigned to the 205th Hospital Ship Compliment which was placed on the hospital ship USS Comfort. She served 18 months in the South Pacific.

Comfort was one of three hospital ships ordered by the US Army and specially designed and built to support the war in the Pacific. It was commission in May 1944. The crew was navy and the medical staff was army. It provided medical care for casualties from the Philippines, Guam, and Okinawa.

Lt. Stanke was serving in the surgery of Comfort on April 29, 1945, off the coast of Okinawa, when it was struck by a Japanese kamikaze plane, despite clear markings as a hospital ship. All the doctors and nurses in the operating room, three decks down, where killed in the attack. There were 38 women on board, 34 of these nurses, and 10 were killed in the attack.

USS Comfort operating room after kamikaze attack.
http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/12/1206.htm 

Her grave is at Colfax Cemetery in Colfax, Washington. The gravestone gives the incorrect date of April 25, 1945 when it should show April 29.

Thank you Lt. Stanke for your sacrifice. Let's Earn It for Dorothy.

Last year on this date I profiled B-24 waist gunner Lawrence Barnett. You can read about Lawrence here.

On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!

I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.

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WW2 Fallen 100 is supported by

The Greatest GENERATIONS Foundation

“Where Every Day is Memorial Day”

http://www.tggf.org