US NAVY CAPTAIN
Angeline G. Liakos “Nurse Angie”
04/15/1928-10/08/2022
October 21, 2022 - Today, a renegade mission between Patriot Guard Riders from So.Ca and San Diego came together to stand flag line in honor of “Nurse Angie”.
Nurse Angie was a friend of Medal of Honor recipient John Baca.
Obituary:
Angeline G. Liakos, daughter of George and Victoria Liakos born in Bayard Nebraska April 15th 1928. Graduated from Bayard High School in 1946. Attended University of Nebraska and graduated with a BS in Secondary education in 1950. Graduated from the University of Nebraska school of nursing 1953. Taught at the school of nursing in 1954 Scottsbluff Nebraska. Attended graduate school at the University of Colorado. Entered the US Navy Nurse Corp in 1958. Initiated the Navy nurse practitioner program. She served 24 years in the United States Navy. She served 13 of those years in San Diego California. Other duty stations Taipei Taiwan and Bethesda Maryland where she planned conferences and workshops for the Navy Nurse Corp. She was also a Family Nurse Practitioner in Memphis Tennessee. She advanced to the grade of Captain when she retired in 1983. She moved back to San Diego in 2003 where she lived the remainder of her life. She predeceased her 5 brothers Leo, Thomas, Gus, William, John, and sister Ann. She was known for her whit and sense of humor.
The following courtesy of the San Diego Union Tribute
11-13-2021
‘Guardian angels’ of the military: Veterans Day ceremony atop Mt. Soledad pays tribute to nurses.
Just as she had done for him more than 50 years ago, U.S. Army veteran John Baca kept Angela Liakos in his sight and under his care on a warm Saturday afternoon atop Mount Soledad in La Jolla.
With a Medal of Honor around his neck, the 72-year-old Baca was seated next to the frail Liakos, a 93-year-old retired Navy captain and nurse, at a Veterans Day ceremony at the Mt. Soledad National Veterans Memorial. The event honored all military veterans but also paid special honor to nurses such as Liakos who served in the Nurse Corps of the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force.
During the hourlong event, Baca would sometimes take Liakos’ hand and touch her arm. He removed his cap and placed it gently above her eyeglasses, on her head of curly silver hair, to shield her face from the sun. He smiled generously, being sure to make eye contact often, letting her know in unspoken terms that all was well.
“She’s my guardian angel,” said Baca, an Army specialist 4th class in Vietnam who was seriously injured in combat on Feb. 10, 1970.
That night, a grenade landed near him, and acting swiftly, Baca threw his steel helmet on top of it.
“Time kind of stopped, my life flashed before me,” Baca said. “I saw my mother’s face; I saw my sister.”
The grenade exploded, and Baca recalled absorbing the fragments with his body, the shrapnel singeing his abdomen.
“My lieutenant, John Dotson, he lay beside me removing all the burning metal from my stomach and my legs,” Baca said.
Baca saved eight soldiers from certain serious injury or death, and for his lifesaving action, he was presented the Medal of Honor in June 1971 by President Richard Nixon. Baca, who lives in Serra Mesa, has also been awarded the Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Air Medal.
It was when Baca was flown to San Diego to receive care that he first met Liakos at Balboa Naval Hospital, where she was running the nursing contingent. He said Liakos watched over him “like a second mother,” visiting him every day to check on his healing during his road to recovery.
“The nurses were our guardian angels in Vietnam,” Baca said. “I sat here a couple of years ago next to five Vietnam nurses, and they’ve seen more death and dying in their hospital beds than we did in the jungles. When we get together for reunions, they get overcome with emotions thinking about those they couldn’t save.”
The event — attended by a couple hundred people, including several uniformed Navy nurses and members of the Navy Nurse Corps Association of Southern California— featured a somber commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and a flyover with nine planes. The flyover also included a “missing man formation” that paid tribute to Bob Phillips, a Navy veteran and a longtime trustee and event organizer with the Mt. Soledad National Veterans Memorial Association who passed away recently.
At the close of the ceremony, Baca helped guide his former nurse from a wheelchair into a van driven by Liakos’ caretaker. Baca said Liakos had been on a path to becoming an admiral, but he was grateful that she did not end up “behind a desk at the Pentagon.”
“She’s one of the angels that watched over us,” Baca said. “I won’t forget.”
Rest Peacefully Nurse Angie
