Commander Frances Omori didn’t join the Navy until she’d already had quite a career in civilian life: after graduating from the University of North Colorado with a BA in Speech Communication and an MA in Communication and Television, the Hawaii-born Omori taught at Kamehameha School for five years, then moved into the television industry where she conquered television news reporting, news anchoring, and producing. At one time she was even assistant casting director for the television series Hawaii-Five-O! In 1984 she entered government service as Press Secretary and Legislative Assistant for US Congressman Cec Heftel and US Senator Daniel K. Inouye respectively. She was responsible for Senate Apopropriations Committee legislation on Defense, Military Contruction, Health and Human Services, Education and Labor and the Committee on Veterans Affairs.

In 1986, the US Navy beckoned. Omori worked for the Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Financial Management) for two years, analyzing and evaluating management effectiveness and methods of communication. From 1988-1991 she was a US/Soviet negotiator, dealing with issues concerning implementation and compliance of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces treaty (INF). As a Senior Military Fellow at National Defense University she worked in War Gaming and Simulation at the Institute for National Strategic Studies. She continues to work in her specialty field - national security policy and strategy.

It was while Omori was doing volunteer work for The Women’s Memorial (part sculpture, part museum, dedicated by President Clinton in 1997 to honor the more than 1.8 million women who have served in the U.S. military since 1776), collecting oral histories of female Korean War veterans, that she grew intrigued with the story of the quiet heroes, the Navy nurses who served close to the Korean front lines on board hospital ships and at Yokosuka Hospital, Japan. Although they too displayed uncommon valor, their contributions have not been recognized, even by themselves. Omori hopes to alleviate that neglect with this, her second book, Quiet Heroes: Navy Nurses of the Korean War, 1950-1953 Far East Command.