A hospital field worker, Esther Richards of San Francisco was the first American Red Cross woman killed on the European Continent in World War II, losing her life in February 1944 during a German bombing raid on the Anzio beachhead in Italy. Richards, wounded in a previous action, received the Purple Heart and was also posthumously awarded the War Cross of Military Valor by the Italian government. Hers was not an unusual case.

At home, millions more served in paid and volunteer roles, in production, blood donor service, and motor corps, and in other roles that evolved to support America's war efforts. At times it cost them their lives. More than 300 women died during World War I at home and abroad, including nurses who battled the Spanish influenza pandemic in 1918, and over 50 perished overseas during World War II. One woman who survived years of internment in the Santo Tomas civilian-prison camp in the Japanese-occupied Philippines was Hospital Field Director Marie Adams who received "the Bronze Star Medal for meritorious achievement while in the hands of the enemy in caring for the sick and wounded." Red Cross women willing to sacrifice also served with distinction during the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the more recent Persian Gulf War, enduring the oftentimes harsh conditions that accompany conflict.