Grace Berg - Cobber Angel of Mercy

​Grace Berg was the daughter of Lutheran pastor O. G. Berg and Lillie Berg. Originally from Nebraska, her family moved to Moorhead when she was a young girl. Berg would attend Concordia College between 1939 and 1941 and studied nursing.

​While at school she participated in the music program - singing in the choir, playing in the band, and attended the Music Club. She was also one of 57 students selected to be in the choir by Professor Paul Christiansen. 

Berg would transfer to Swedish Hospital in Minneapolis to finish her nursing studies. With the start of the war, America needed as many nurses as possible to care for the sick, injured, and dying service members fighting overseas. Berg enlisted in the Army Nurse Corp on February 4, 1943, and attended basic training at Camp Hale, Colorado. 

Lt. Grace Berg served as a nurse aboard the US Army Hospital Ship Shamrock in the Mediterranean Sea. She cared for wounded soldiers of all allied countries as they were transported to hospitals away from the fighting. Hospital ships were considered neutral and protected from attack by international law if they were only used for medical care. To make sure everyone knew it was a hospital ship, the USAHS Shamrock was painted white with green stripes down each side, had large red crosses painted on it, and was brightly lit with lights each night.

Back in Moorhead, the Concordia’s  newspaper called Grace Berg the “Cobber Angel of Mercy”. Berg, on leave in 1944, told the Fargo Forum about her time at sea caring for wounded soldiers.
She said that there was no "giving up" in them and that they were hopeful for the future. Berg’s ship followed the front, first tending to those wounded on the battlefields in North Africa, then going to Sicily, and southern France. 

During the war, Grace fell in love with the ship’s pharmacist, Robert Harkrider. The two married on May 19, 1945 - 11 days after Germany surrendered. The two raised four children together and made their home in Atlanta, Georgia. 

In the Mediterranean, aboard a defenseless ship designed to be as visible as possible, she bravely bet her life that our enemies would show mercy to her ship of wounded soldiers. 

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