 And on the 9th of July, 1947, in a ceremony held at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, General Dwight Eisenhower appointed Florence Blanchfield to be a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, making her the first woman to hold permanent military rank. A member of the Army Nurse Corps since 1917, Blanchfield was commissioned following the passage of the Army-Navy Nurse Act of 1947 by Congress. Blanchfield had served as superintendent of the Army Nurse Corps during World War II and was instrumental in securing the passage of the Army-Navy Nurse Act.