By Gordon Williams 

Tucked away in a quiet corner of Joint Base Lewis McChord, the vast military base near Tacoma, WA, is a piece of historic American Red Cross memorabilia. It is the uniform worn by Mary Nesbitt during the many decades she served the Red Cross as a volunteer nurse.

For the record, Mary retired from the Red Cross in 1987. A medal presented to her at that time credited her with 35 years of volunteer service. 

The uniform was presented to the Red Cross Service to the Armed Forces (SAF) team at JBLM by Mary’s grandson, Russell Nesbit of Olympia. He found it packed away and long forgotten in a closet. Now it is on display for visitors to the Red Cross office to see — a uniform, cape, hat, and belt. 

It's hard to pin down exactly how Mary Nesbitt served the Red Cross. Records of her service proved hard to come by. Russell says he was aware of his mom's work but never saw her in action. He remembers visiting her at JBLM, but spent most of his time there in the garden trimming weeds. 

Because she was a trained nurse, the assumption among present-day workers is that Mary served doing some form of nursing work. That she was honored with a medal when she retired indicates her work had an impact. 

After many decades of volunteer service, Mary retired from the Red Cross in 1987. Her uniforms were carefully packed and put away in closets — first in the Northeastern U.S., where Mary lived for years, and then in Olympia when she moved to Washington.

When Mary moved into assisted living, possession of the Red Cross gear passed to Russell’s family. “We wondered how to put them to use,“ Russell says. Before deciding to donate the items back to the Red Cross, the family had considered using them as Halloween costumes.

Then, he gave the JBLM office a call. “They were very interested in receiving my grandma’s uniforms,“ he says. “We packed them up and shipped them to the base. They were very excited to get them.” 

The Red Cross offices at JBLM offer a bit of history on their own. They are located in a building that first became the Red Cross office at the base at the beginning of World War II. The structure holds many bits and pieces of historic memorabilia — the newest, of course, being the uniforms that volunteer Mary Nesbitt first wore more than six decades ago.