at the order's annual meeting on august 22, 1903, the order of spanish–american war nurses debated the nature of the memorial they wished to erect. the original intent of the order was to honor all trained nurses, untrained "immune" nurses, catholic sisters, male contract nurses, and any enlisted hospital corpsmen buried in the section. but none of these were actually buried at arlington in the section assigned for the memorial. in fact, by july 1903, only two immune nurses and two soldiers were buried in section 21. president mcgee said members had expressed their disinclination to commemorate all nurses from all wars buried at arlington, and the order was barred from erecting a memorial to itself. mcgee proposed that the memorial honor all female nurses from the spanish–american war (whom she called "our comrades"), or just trained female nurses. she asked the delegates to consider the issue, and make an explicit choice when it voted the following day.