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Military
Trailblazer
Remembering a woman who felt
called to serve after Pearl Harbor.
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Alan Muskovitz
Contributing Writer
apt. Ethel Shilmover Grossman
of Southfield — wife, mother,
grandmother, devoted registered
nurse, community leader and decorated
WWII veteran — passed away at age 95
on March 13. Born in Baltimore, Md.,
on Aug. 19, 1921, Ethel was the eldest
of four children of Celia and Israel
Shilmover. Israel was a veteran of WWI.
Ira Kaufman Chapel in Southfield is
helping coordinate Ethel’s May 4 inter-
ment in Arlington National Cemetery,
which will include an official flag-
folding ceremony and bugler. Ethel will
then be laid to rest beside her beloved
husband, Lt. Col. Manuel A. Grossman
of Detroit, who preceded her in death
on March 6, 1994, at age 84. Husband
and wife, both proud veterans of our
Greatest Generation, will finally be
reunited.
While researching the life of Capt.
Grossman, it became abundantly clear
I was writing more than just the final
chapter of a life well lived. Instead, the
more I learned, the more I felt I was
blowing the dust off a treasured history
book filled with experiences deserving
more of a screenplay than a column. It’s
a remarkable story of courage, sacrifice,
love, and an unbridled devotion to one’s
family and country.
From an early age, Ethel was a trail-
blazer. In 1942, she became the first
Jewish graduate at what was an all-
Catholic school: Baltimore’s St. Agnes
School of Nursing. Proving she wasn’t
interested in the path of least resis-
tance, Ethel put on hold any career
ambitions, and instead shocked her
parents by applying for the Army Nurse
Corps.
Her younger brother, the late Samson,
was already in the Navy in part of the
same China-Burma-India theater of war
his sister would soon be serving in. The
Shilmovers would proudly display an
official service banner at their home,
highlighted by two silver stars that sig-
nified how many family members were
serving overseas.
In January 2008, Ethel was inter-
viewed by Vietnam veteran Daniel
Brightwell, then chairperson of the
Southfield Veterans’ Commission and
now a Southfield City Council mem-
ber. The interview is now part of the
American Folklife Center of the Library
of Congress. In the interview, Ethel
explained the impact the bombing of
Pearl Harbor had on her decision to
enlist.
“After Pearl Harbor, I felt very patri-
otic. I felt [the service] was where I
belonged,” she said then. Determined
to serve, Ethel, then 20, admitted she
had to say she was 21 to qualify. No one
in authority chose to corroborate her
story, paving the way for her entry into
the Army Nurse Corps.
On May 26, 1942, following an abbre-
viated training period, newly commis-
sioned 2nd Lt. Ethel Shilmover set off on
a dangerous journey across the Pacific
to Fiji. She described the ominous voy-
age for the 1994 edition of Michigan
Jewish History, published by the Jewish
Historical Society of Michigan:
“The Battle of Midway and the Coral
Sea were in progress when we left
San Francisco. We zig-zagged 17 days
through treacherous Pacific waters to
reach the Fiji Islands in a large convoy,
which included troop ships, destroyers,
cruisers and airplane carriers. One of
our pastimes on board was to watch
continued on page 26
24
April 6 • 2017
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ABOVE: Ethel Shilmover
before her marriage and
during her time in the
Army; Ethel received rec-
ognition for her work on
the Southfield Veterans’
Commission in 2013.
LEFT: Ethel and Manuel
Grossman. They met in
in Fiji, where they were
serving in the same unit.