... r ""

- 1 The ship. !Official U. S. Navy Photos) ~ -· .. ?

in size and will take from 26 to 58 . The double-decker bunks have comfortable mattresses, and the i\~ • orthopedic wards are equipped with _ , " fracture beds which have appliances for any necessary traction. All the lower bunks have regular standard frames and can be adjusted to the patients' needs. Small trays fastened to the bunks replace the more familiar bedside stands and help to keep the patients' personal belongings within reach. Each bunk is equipped with a bedside lamp as well as earphones over which the p!f:­ tient can hear the transcribed pro­ grams from the Armed Forces Radio Aboard a Service and the religious services from the ship's improvised chapel. Most of the wards have their own diet kitchens, equipped with electric Many a Navy nurse remembers with pride her time food-warming tables from which as a real (tsailor." One of them tells about it here. piping hot food can be served. Also included in the hospital spaces are three large operating rooms, pathol­ By Eleanor Harrington ogy laboratory, and x-ray and phy::;­ iotherapy departments. An EENT clinic is equipped with its own oper­ HE familiar fog hanging over the staff of 25 doctors, 3 Medical Service ating room and optical laboratory. A T Bay Area shrouded San Fran­ Corps officers, 194 hospital corpsmen, complete dental clinic and the latest ci::;co in a gray mist. Aboard the U.S. 3 dental officers, and G dental corps­ electrocat·diographic and encephala­ hospital ship Haven, the order came men in addition to the line crew, graphic machines complete a modern clearly over the ship's intercommuni­ whose teamwork is always at our general hospital. cation system, "Go to your stations, service. At last we reached Pusan, our home all the special sea detail." Shortly The day began with the announce­ port for several months. Here our afterward, the ship backed away ment to the crew over the "squawk primary responsibilities were to pro- . from the pier, and once again sailed box," "Reveille, Reveille, all hands vide care for the troops of under the Golden Gate Bridge to heave out and trice up. The smoking the United Nations Forces. Our sister commence her second tour of duty in lamp is lighted in all authorized ship, the Consolation, was waiting for the Far East. She carried a staff of spaces." Aftet· a hearty breakfast, each us to relieve her. As we approached 30 nurses. Some were reserves re­ corpsman proceeded to his particular her a military band on her flight deck cently recalled to active duty; sailing job assignment-some to the wards, welcomed us with, "If I knew you on a hospital ship was a new exper­ others to the various clinics. were coming I'd 'a' baked a cake." ience for most of them. Although they The 18 wards aboard the ship vary This became our theme song in Korea. all knew their destination, no one at that particular time spoke of it. They were busy getting acclimated to their new surroundings. Before long they were used to shipboard living, ac­ quainted with their shipmates, and quite familiar with many of the nau­ tical terms. The U.S.S. Haven is a floating hos­ pital that can accommodate 795 pa­ tients. She can be moved to any port where her facilities are needed. Be­ sides the nursing staff, she carries a

Tho whirloy-bird brings the patients.

584 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF NURSING

I • -

Margaretta Craig (center), Principal of the College of Nursing in New Delhi, India, and her assistant (in white I, Edith Buchanan, unpack a collection of new nursing books delivered by CARE.

chief in Japan takes pains to point out that these students "merit every aid they can be given in their chosen . profession," for they could earn a great deal more for far less work, if they had gone into other fields. Incidents such as these give con-

In Bangkok, Thailand, Laor Musikabukka this program. To make certain that helps Dr. Jajaval Osathanoudh, Direc­ tor of the University of Medical Sciences, nursing agencies receive the books unpack a gift of badly needed books sent through the CARE Book Fu nd. they want and need, and to facilitate packing and shipping, CARE accepts scientific and technical categories for only cash contributions to buy and educational institutions in 41 coun­ deliver new volumes. tries of Europe, Asia, Africa, and Your donation for nursing books, South America. But CARE can buy sent to any CARE office, will enable those books only if funds are volun­ us to help nurses in countries stant evidence of the need for help tarily contributed. throughout the world. Your gift can to nursing schools and services in The bibliography from which be sent to a school you choose, to a many other countries. Yet for every CARE selects nursing books was com­ school chosen by the International school that CARE has been able to piled by the American Nurses' Asso­ Council of Nurses or the American help with gifts of new American ciation and is kept up to date with Nurses' Association, 01· to one on books provided through its Book the ANA's assistance. CARE can buy CARE's own Book Fund list. What­ Fund, dozens more must go unan­ and deliver the books at list prices. ever amount you contribute, you will swered. From Greece, for example, Its purchases for each institution are be helping nurses to meet the needs 23 nursing schools, universities, and based upon requests gathered by of the sick and weak and injured of ·other health agencies have sent urg­ CARE mission chiefs who work in every land. To borrow from Miss ent requests for nursing books-but cooperation with UNESCO delegates, Craig's letter again, your gift will CARE has been able to send com­ ministers of education and health, help "build positive things in a world paratively small book collections to and health agencies in each country. distressed with so much that is nega­ only eight of them. "Please send us No used books can be accepted for tive." books on nursing in tuberculosis." "We need to know the new methods for treatment of malaria." "Our nurses know nothing of antibiotics." Requests pour into CARE offices A Woman's World? from Yugoslavia, Pakistan, Indonesia, Thailand, and every other country The earning woman is so neces­ She has not only equal place sary in the modern world that with married women but a re­ where CARE operates. The Amer­ she knows the world cannot do volving place; she can be one or ican Nurses' Association and the In­ without her. She need never re­ the other without comment. She ternational Council of Nurses receive linquish her skills, her talents, has won completely in the argu­ many similar requests. her earning capacity or that un­ ment of whether married women equal pay which she will make should work or not.... Inflation These appeals can be answered more equal to that of men in the helped her to win the battle but only with books. CARE has the ma­ next decade. she will not give up when infla­ chinery to deliver them. But it has no She has been p'aid by her own tion is controlled. endowment funds. It is a nonprofit growing unself-consciousness, her She has the respect of men and sense of place in the world oui­ a new kind of admiration and a agency, set up to enable organizations side the home. She has freedom new kind of love, with a more di­ and individuals to send books, food, and right to live-and proudly­ rect approach to it. She has a clothing, hospital equipment, and as a single woman. She has kept personal destiny and a philosophy other needed supplies to war-devas­ her health longer than women not derived from what men think countries. ever have. She has kept her looks, but from what she, as a woman, tated and underdeveloped and now the world of fashion thinks on a broader base of life Its Book Fund, launched in coopera­ caters to women in the earning and morals.-BANNING, MARGARET tion with UNESCO-United Nations world and gives them clothes for CuLKIN, Invisible pay. Independ­ Educational, Scientific, and Cultural their work. ent Woman 32: 104, March 1953. Organization-buys and delivers new books in nursing and in 22 other

MAY 1953 • VOL. 53, NO. 5 583 A little help with Thanksgiving dinner At the Pusan orphanage, Korean children doesn't come amiss. a pathetic, appreciative little smile. like ice cream, too. The wounded were usually kept aboard the ship approximately three ------xt first view, Pusan was a con­ weeks, depending on the seriousness one of the Korean patients who had glomeration of rectangular huts clus­ of their injuries. Then they were befriended him when he was first tered by the thousands along dirty transported by plane to in admitted. Now that friendship had a \ paths. Koreans squatted impassively Japan and, shortly afterward, they place, he improved more rapidly. He in the doorways of their dimly-lighted were air-evacuated to the States. even sang as he assisted in caring huts. This was the place of refuge for Navy and Marine patients were sent for other patients. Like many other thousands of Koreans who had been to the U. S. Naval Hospital in Oak­ Korean patients, he shed tears and left homeless by the war. land, California, and then transferred wore a sad expression on the day he During the time the ship was tied to the nearest their left the ship and all the new friends to the pier, patients were received by home. However, many patients could that he had made. boat, hospital train, and . be returned to their own units di­ Approximately every three months A doctor, nurse, and four corpsmen rectly from the hospital ship. the ship returned to Japan, and the were assigned to each ward. The Since many of our patients were wounded were transferred to a hos­ nurses worked 8-hour watches, on ro­ Koreans, we had need to comprehend pital ashore. All personnel were tation, being on duty every fourth and to try to interpret customs and granted a well-earned leave which day. This meant that they must be language strange to all of us. Two we called "Rand R" (rest and recrea­ available when a new group of pa­ names, Lee and Kim, appeared most tion). In those happy and carefree tients arrived. When many casualties often on our records. days we temporarily forgot all the were to be admitted, every one re­ One Lee, like all patients on ad­ tragedies of war. Then it was back to ported back to her duty station. We mission, received a short haircut, a work again! were forewarned of the arrival of pa­ complete bath and n ecessary clean- One warm and tranquil day we en­ tients by the announcement, "Litter tered Inchon harbor. The sun shone and embarkation teams, man your down on us from the blue sky. For a stations." Lieutenant Harrington (St. Eliza­ moment one was almost inclined to The embarkation officer, a physi­ beth's, Brighton, Mass.), a member dream, "The world is at peace again." cian, screened the arriving stretcher of the Navy Nurse Corps since But we were quite disillusioned when cases. He evaluated the condition of 1935, writes out of her experience darkness fell and the sky had a cl·im­ as senior nurse officer on the Haven. the as to type of wounds, in­ son mist from anti- aircraft fire. juries, or disease, and then deter­ Our ship was not equipped at this mined to which service, ward, and time with a stationary flight deck to bunk (upper or lower) he was to be ing of his wounds. At first he was accommodate helicopters. Through the assigned. Ambulatory patients were frightened and bitter, because h e h ad ingenuity of our commanding officer, admitted through the record office. no occasion to trust us, especially a pontoon barge moored to each side As soon as a patient arrived on the after we had cut his hair. The men of the ship served as landing plat­ ward, the nurse and a corpsman he esteemed wore long hair; their forms for the "whirley birds" as they greeted h im. The next immediate task enemies wor e their hair short. He buzzed in from the front lines with was to clean him up. Sometimes this was frightened, too, by the necessary their burdens. Call to "Flight Quar­ was quite a task, too, especially if the but seemingly harsh treatment of his ters" at first was a novelty. But soon patient h ad been in his bunker when wounds. Lee had wounds in his right it came to mean more Bunker Hill he was hit. After he had been scrub­ side and his left leg had been ampu­ casualties-our marines. Bunker Hill bed from head to toe, he was com­ tated before he came to us. Under in Korea has no association with the fortably tucked between white sheets the constant care of the nurses and famed Boston land-mark. It is located under the protective care and ob­ corpsmen Lee's right foot improved northeast of Panmunjom and derives servation of an ever- attentive nurse until he was able to wear a new its name from the elaborate bunker who symbolized "home" to many. The shoe. It was a big moment for him system devised by the Communists. anguished expression on his counte­ when the shoes were issued, and he One morning a wounded man was nance disappeared, to be replaced by appreciatively gave the left shoe to taken from the flight deck to the

MAY 1953 • VOL. 53, NO. 5 585 /

operating room within a few minutes permit the operation to be performed. His voice saddened for a moment of his arrival on the ship. At the same Two days later, his first request when he said, "I hope Mom doesn't moment the operating room nurse ar­ was for the nurse to write his mother feel too badly about this. Louise sure rived. The patient, apparently in ex­ a letter. loves to dance." / tt·eme shock, was still dressed in • bat­ The long awaited day finally ar­ Dear Mom, . tle attire, lying on a field stretcher. I Just wanted you to know that I'm OK and rived. We were going home. Nine long Examination revealed severe wounds that they are taking fine care of me here on the hospital ship. This will be a shock to you, months had passed. We would soon along his entire right side with the but I have lost my right arm and probably be seeing the Golden Gate, gateway will lose my right leg. I'll probably be in exception of his head. The arm and Oakland at the Naval Hospital in about three to the U.S.A. leg were more severely wounded than or four weeks. Tell Louise toot I have a lot to talk over with her ... just talk. The majority of the medical staff the torso because of his bullet-proof and ship's company had orders to vest. An intravenous of blood plasma While leading a squad of men the other stations. Some were retmning was given at once and at the same day before he came to us, he had to civilian life. Only a few of us re­ time the anesthetist was giving oxy­ been hit by a mortar blast and had mained that night to hear: "Taps, gen. The operation itself was delayed been left bleeding and dying on taps, lights out. All hands turn into 35 minutes because of the patient's Bunker Hill. A Navy corpsman found your bunks-keep silence about the critical condition. Then came the op­ him and stemmed the flow of blood. deck. The smoking lamp is out in all eration-amputation of his right arm, He was brought by helicopter to our living and berthing spaces." and debridement of numerous scat­ ship. tered wounds on his torso and right "I'm all right nurse, don't worry. [The a uthor's opinions or assertions are her leg. His right leg was to be ampu­ I don't need anything." Never a com­ own, and are not to be construed as official or reflecting the views of the Navy Department tated as soon as his strength would plaint, never a whimper was heard. or the naval set·vice at large.!