Grace Berg - Cobber Angel of Mercy

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

While attending Concordia she was involved in the music program - singing in the choir, playing in the band, and involved in the Music Club. She was 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. After the start of the war, America need 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 countries as they were transported from warzones to safe hospitals away from the fighting. Hospital ships were considered neutral and protected from attack by international law as long as 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 home in Moorhead, the Concordia College newspaper called Grace Berg the “Cobber Angel of Mercy.” While on leave in 1944, she told the Fargo Forum about her time at sea taking care of men. She said that there was no "giving up" in them and that they were hopeful for the future. Berg’s ship followed where the fighting was, first tending to those wounded on the battlefields in North Africa, then going along for the invasions of Sicily, Italy, and southern France. 

During the war, Grace fell in love with the ship’s pharmacist, Robert Harkrider.  The two married in May of 1945, 11 days after Germany surrendered.  They 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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