| Goldia O'Haver | |
| Birth Name: | Goldia Aimee O'Haver |
| Birth Date: | December 3, 1902 |
| Birth Place: | Rock Island County, Illinois |
| Death Date: | April 30, 1997 |
| Death Place: | Apple Valley, California |
| Nationality: | American |
| Other Names: | Goldie O'Haver, Goldia O'Haver Merrill (after marriage) |
| Occupation: | Nurse |
| Known For: | Prisoner of war in the Philippines during World War II |
Goldia Aimee O'Haver Merrill (December 3, 1902 – April 30, 1997) was a United States Navy nurse who was held a prisoner of war in the Philippines during World War II, one of the Twelve Anchors.[1]
Goldia O'Haver was born December 3, 1902,[2] in Rock Island County, Illinois, the daughter of Joel Landon O'Haver and Cora Belle Hatton O'Haver. Her father was living in Hayfield, Minnesota during World War II.[3]
O'Haver joined the U.S. Navy as a surgical nurse in 1929. During World War II, she was stationed at Cañacao Hospital near Cavite Naval Base in the Philippines. In January 1942,[4] she and eleven other navy nurses were among the Americans taken prisoner by Japanese troops in Manila.[5] In May 1943, the navy nurses agreed to transfer to a prisoner of war camp in Los Baños. The 12 nurses built up an empty infirmary and cared for other prisoners, despite minimal supplies and chronic malnutrition.[6] O'Haver, one of the older nurses in the group, was a skilled seamstress; she used a sewing machine and scrap fabrics to make denim uniforms, muslin sheets, surgical gowns, and pajamas for the infirmary's patients.[7] She was held as a prisoner of war until February 1945, when the Los Baños prison camp was liberated.[8] [9] She was hospitalized in San Francisco upon return to the United States.[10] [11]
For her wartime service, O'Haver was awarded a Gold Star and a Bronze Star in September 1945, while she was working at a naval hospital in Long Beach.[12] [13]
Goldia O'Haver married Robert Heath Merrill, a fellow prisoner of war, soon after their release in 1945.[14] She retired from the Navy Nurse Corps in 1946, and the couple lived in Apple Valley, California.[15] She was widowed in 1985, and she died in 1997, aged 94, in Apple Valley. Her name, along with the names of the other military nurse POWs, is on a historical marker in Cavite City in the Philippines.[16] [17]