 A member of the Army Nurse Corps since 1917, Blanchfield was commissioned following the passage of the Army-Navy Nurse Act of 1947 by Congress. Blanchfield had served as superintendent of the Army Nurse Corps during World War II and was instrumental in securing the passage of the Army-Navy Nurse Act. In 1951, Blanchfield received the Florence Nightingale Award from the International Red Cross. In 1978, a U.S. Army hospital at Fort Campbell, Kentucky was named in her honor.