Red Cross and Red Star nurses make a long procession through the streets of Portland during a parade on April 6, 1918. The event was the Third Liberty Loan march.

The American Red Cross nursing corps was started in 1909, and by the first World War there were 24,000 nurses who served the country through the Army and Navy Nurse Corps. They served in Europe and on the homefront. The Red Cross provided the vast majority of the nurses who served in both the Army and the Navy.