Anne Mandzak Kakos

Always interested in Nursing (on the prevention of illness and injuries area). After completion of Cadet Nurse training (1943-1946), I was engaged in Public Health and as a School Nurse-Teacher. When I enlisted in the Cadet Nurse Corps, I believed it was the MIlitary Service since I pledged to serve to the end of WW II hostilities . I am on a mission to see that our U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps members (180,000 enlisted) will be remembered as serving our Nation during that "infamous time."  Many of my young fellow classmates left high school to serve this great Nation, and after graduation, I enlisted to be "one of them".

Anne Kakos received a Special Recognition Award to honor her service as a member of the World War II U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps and her efforts to preserve the history of the Cadet Nurses. Since 2000, Kakos has been actively involved in the movement to have the members of the Cadet Nurse Corps officially recognized as veterans for their service during World War II. She has had numerous articles published in local papers and has been interviewed by several magazines. Representing members of the WWII Nurse Corps, Kakos testified at the 2009 House of Representatives Veterans Affairs Subcommittee hearings for the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corp Equity Act. The Yonkers City Council, the State Senate, the State Assembly, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Crestwood Historical Society have recognized her efforts. She completed her own three-year nursing course at Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre, Pa., as a U.S. Cadet Nurse in 1946.

See Congressman Eliot Engel's report on the November 3, 2013, event at which Anne Kakos was honored.

See this article in the NYSUT News.