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Article Title: “Overseas with the ANC: Experiences of Nebraska Nurses.”

For more articles from this special World War II issue, see the index to full text articles currently available.

Full Citation: Michele L Fagan, “Overseas with the ANC: Experiences of Nebraska Nurses,” Nebraska History 76 (1995): 106-121

Notes: The experiences of twelve Nebraska nurses overseas showed what could happen to ordinary young women carrying out their professional duties under extraordinary circumstances. All twelve served in the European Theater of Operations.

URL of Article: http://www.nebraskahistory.org/publish/publicat/history/full-text/1995_War_07_Nurses.pdf

Photos: 167th General Hospital near Cherbourg, France, April 1945; ANC nurse Florence Fattig and others; Harvard Medical Unit, summer 1942; ANC nurse Ida Britton Clark; Jeanette Meyer Davis; Ida Britton Clark bicycling in the English countryside; triage area used by 104th Evacuation Hospital; Dressing patient wound, summer 1941; Orthopedic surgery in tent hospital; Lt Jean Painter Knudsen, ANC nurse in 1944; German prisoners carrying a litter at the Fiftieth General Hospital near Carentan, France; Fiftieth General Hospital nurses washing clothes in buckets, 1944; Blood bank equipment at the 104th Evacuation Hospital; Florence Fattig receiving the Bronze Star from George S Patton, February 22, 1945; Nurses of the 179th General Hospital at lunch on the road to Paris, September 1945 Overseas With the ANC:

in World War II

By Michele L. Fagan

Advertising did not come naturally to could happen to ordinary young Before the war began several of the nurses in the 1940s, so few people later women carrying out their professional women had moved west-to California, realized that American nurses served duties under extraordinary circum­ Washington, Oregon, and Hawaii. Mary overseas during World War II, some­ stances. Their stories also show the ef­ Rupprecht lived and worked in Seattle. times under conditions as strenuous fects of combat on servicemen and give A native of the Columbus area, she and dangerous as those many service­ some insights into medical care during graduated from St. Catherine's in 1931 men experienced. "The selflessness of World War II. The women whose stories and moved to the West Coast in 1933. nurses' training was so inbred" that appear here do not represent a proper When the war broke out she was on a these women who joined the Army statistical sample of all nurses in the surgical ward of the Harborview Hospi­ Nurse Corps CANC) during the war ANC or even of all Nebraska members. tal. Phyllis Vavra Johnson of Schuyler "made little attempt during or since the Starting with my mother, I used the and Barbara Gier of Seward, both 1940 war to draw attention to their record." A "snowball sampling" technique to inter­ St. Catherine's graduates, were living in historian of nurses in another war, Viet­ view or correspond with women willing Los Angeles and working at St. Vincent's nam, commented that she had not real­ to share their memories. In two cases I Hospital. After graduation they had be­ ized that nurses had served in Southeast drew on interviews or recollections al­ come nurse-stewardesses for the Union Asia, although ANC members provided ready done. All twelve women served in Pacific Railroad and worked on trains nursing care during the entire conflict. I the European Theater of Operations and running between Omaha and Los Ange­ The experiences of twelve Nebraska six attended the same nursing school­ les. When the UP eliminated the posi­ nurses who went overseas showed what St. Catherine's in Omaha. Nine worked tions to free nurses "for the war effort," in general hospitals, one was assigned the two joined the staff of St. Vincent's Michele L. Fagan is university archivist and to a hospital train for three months, and Hospital. Catherine Flannery Prussa, a head ofthe special collections department at the University ofNebraska-Lincoln Libraries. another did some detached duty in a St. Catherine's graduate from Atkinson, She has previously published articles in field hospital. Three were in evacuation lived in the most exotic location. In Nebraska History and other scholarly journals. hospitais.2 June 1941, after nursing in Los Angeles,

--.----_.. __._------­------~-,,---

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. I .. _-" '~j _~_ r...L.- _" _ ".=c tt ., j The 167th General Hospital near Cherbourg, France, In April 1945. Courtesy of Elizabeth Feehan Fagan

106 Nebraska Nurses she took a job at the Queen's Hospital worrien were in italy, New Guinea, the Hospital), served in an evacuation hos­ in Honolulu, Hawaii, not far from the Philippines, India, Persia, Iceland, pital in the Mediterranean Theater. War­ major naval base at Pearl Harbor. Alaska, the Aleutians, North Africa, Aus­ time censorship prevented the newspa­ Florence Shotkoski Fattig from near tralia, New Zealand, China, or Burma. pers from stating which hospital, but the Loup City (also in the 1940 St. None were among the army and navy reporters did disclose that the nurses in Catherine's class) went to Roseberg, nurses held prisoner by the Japanese af­ her mobile evacuation unit in North Af­

Oregon. In August 1941 she decided to ter the fall of the Philippines. rica in 1943 U can take it, make no mis­ heed the urging of the Red Cross during There were other nurses from Ne­ take, and they are living and working the national emergency and join the braska who went overseas. By 1943, 119 under as rugged and trying conditions Army Nurse Corps for one year. She women in Omaha and 82 in Lincoln as the fighting men in the field." went to Fort Lewis, Washington. Bernice Wingerd was also one of the first nurses Tonjes DeLong of Pender graduated to land in Italy. She was wounded there from the Methodist Hospital nursing and received a Purple Heart.4 The stories school in June 1941. Like Fattig, she was of these other Nebraska nurses, culled interested in serving in the Army Nurse from the wartime newspapers, indicate Corps for one year before going back to what a large pool of unrecorded memo­ school. She also joined temporarily in ries there are. August 1941. Ida Britton Clark, a gradu­ The Army Nurse Corps grew out of ate of Mary Lanning Hospital in the surgeon general's request to appoint Hastings, was already in England when female nurses for government service the U.S. entered the war. While working during the Spanish-American War in at Mary Lanning she joined the Harvard­ 1898. In 1901 Congress established the Red Cross medical unit. She sailed to Nurse Corps as a permanent part of the Great Britain in the spring of 1941. U.S. Army's Medical Department, al­ The rest of the women remained in though the nurses were not commis­ Nebraska until after the U.S entered the sioned officers. The corps members war. Elizabeth Feehan Fagan from staffed regular military hospitals in Clarks, a 1938 St. Catherine's graduate, peacetime. The American Red Cross be­ was doing private duty nursing at St. came the authorized recruiter for the Catherine's when the war broke out. ANC. Nurses who were Red Cross mem­ Sarita Wilson from Trumbull was work­ bers, and many were, could be asked to ing at her alma mater, Mary Lanning in serve in the ANC in an emergency just Hastings. Since her graduation in 1933 as in the case of a natural disaster. In she had been in Scottsbluff, Nebraska; ANC nurse Florence Fattig (right) and a December 1942 ANC members received in Ogden, Utah; and had done some colleague pose with an anesthesiologist. relative military rank, which meant the graduate work in New York before Courtesy of Florence Fattig title, the pay, and the benefits of a com­ returning. missioned army officer. In 1944 they re­ Several of the women were still in joined the ANC through the Red Cross. ceived temporary commissions. It was school. Jeanette Meyer Davis was at the At least fifteen served in the Pacific The­ not until 1947, two years after the war, Methodist Hospital School of Nursing in ater. Among them was Viela Fleming that the nurses received actual commis­ Omaha. Wilma Dankert Kellogg from from Mitchell, Nebraska, who told a re­ sions. ANC members continued to serve Palmer did not graduate from St. Francis porter that uoverseas duty gives me the during peacetime and in subsequent Hospital school in Grand Island until feeling of being part of the forces that military conflicts.5 1942. Helen Louise Logan Knapp of will bring the war to a close. n Lucille Ida Britton Clark from Mary Lanning Callaway was at the University of Ne­ Chaloupka of Omaha was a flight nurse Hospital, Hastings, became the sole braska School of Nursing in Omaha un­ who had completed fifty round trips midwesterner to join the Harvard Medi­ til her graduation in 1944. from the Continent to England in Sep­ cal Unit. Her parents had immigrated The experiences of these twelve tember 1944. She had landed to help from England, and when she saw an ar­ barely touch on all the places army evacuate the wounded in France four ticle in the American Journal ofNursing nurses served and the conditions under days after D-day.3 about this unit, she wanted to join. Clark which they worked. There is no flight Another Omahan, Fern Wingerd, also knew she would never be able to nurse among them nor anyone who who graduated from Nicholas Senn Hos­ get to the British Isles as a tourist on a nursed in a field hospital. None of these pital School of Nursing (now Doctors' nurse's salary.6

107 Nebraska History - Summer/Fall 1995

Harvard University Medical Unit, summer 1942. The unit arrived in England in 1941 under ANC nurse Ida BriHon Clark, originally of the auspices of the American Red Cross. Courtesy of Ida Britton Clark HasHngs. Courtesy of Ida Britton Clark

The Harvard Medical School had duction to life in wartime England. The troops began to appear in England, sent a hospital unit to France during six nurses landed in Liverpool and were Clark and the other nurses had many World War I, and when war broke out in billeted overnight in a private home. Be­ chances to meet the local civilians. A Europe in 1939 the faculty and adminis­ cause they had missed dinner, one of number of the women became friends trators began to discuss how they could them asked their hostess if they could with a couple who owned a nearby pub help again. With the encouragement of have some sandwiches. The lady re­ and kept chickens. Often it was possible the British government, the school spon­ turned with a plate of tiny watercress to get fresh eggs from them, although sored the Harvard Public Health Unit to sandwiches. At first one of the American they were strictly rationed.9 aid the English civilian population in women thought this was a single serv­ The nurses of the Harvard Unit met nutrition, sanitation, and epidemic pre­ ing, but the little sandwiches had to sat­ Queen Elizabeth, the present Queen vention. It had public health teams and isfy all six. Clark recalled how guilty the Mother, while they were in London. "Do a small hospital with a laboratory for di­ nurses felt after realizing what they had you know, the Queen shook hands with agnosing and treating communicable asked for in a country with strict food ra­ each one of us. We were originally just diseases. The Harvard University Medi­ tioning. They also remembered how 11 nurses there and so it wasn't like cal School supplied the doctors and lab they had tossed frankfurters to the sea there was a line of 100. But that was a technicians, while the American Red gulls before their boat docked. "We thrilling moment. It just made your Cross recruited and paid the nurses. The thought, 'Oh, how this woman would spine tingle. She was so lovely and unit staff sailed to England in several dif­ have enjoyed those frankfurters we thanked us for coming .... And any­ ferent British convoys, one of which was threw to the birds:"a where we went they treated us the same attacked by German submarines. Sev­ The Harvard Unit hospital in way." 10 eral nurses died when their ship was Salisbury primarily cared for British ci­ Bernice DeLong and Florence Fattig torpedoed.7 vilians, including babies, with commu­ heeded the prompting of the Red Cross Clark sailed in another convoy. She nicable diseases. Before the United and joined the Army Nurse Corps for and her comrades had a forceful intro­ States entered the war and·American one year to help provide medical care

108 Nebraska Nurses

for young draftees. DeLong, who vidual Japanese-Americans. One such ing home. Clark joined the ANC.16 planned to serve her year and go back young man worked in the kitchen at The decision to join the army some­ to school, was sent to Fort Riley, Kansas, Fort Lewis and served the food on her times caused mixed reactions among then a cavalry post. Because the nurses ward. "None of the patients would eat family and friends. During the early who temporarily joined the ANC during the food from his cart. He would taste months of the war the nuns who ran S1. the national emergency were not quite everything himself and he would cry be­ Catherine's nursing school and hospital, in the army, they received no basic cause he was so upset. ... They were Omaha, kept giving Elizabeth Feehan training, even in military courtesy. telling us that somebody could contami­ Fagan "a sales pitch to join the service," DeLong called the sergeant she worked nate the water supply-that they [the and soon she began to feel guilty about with "colonel," which delighted him, Japanese] were probably landing on the shirking her duty. In September 1942 and she called a colonel "sergeant." The coast of California. It was a frightening she and her roommate, Blanche latter was not so happy. "The head of period." 14 Brodecky, talked to the ANC recruiter the hospital saluted me and I was sup­ at the Omaha Federal Building. "Both of posed to salute him first, but I didn't our parents were a little shaken up at know any better. And then 1saluted the idea of their daughters marching off with my left hand." While at Fort Riley to war, but they accepted it as good DeLong worked the night shift in the patriots." 17 surgical hospital and was in charge of Catherine Prussa did not think that five wards, one of which she called the her family was pleased, but her mother "cotton-tail ward" because most of the was proud. People repeated to her the patients in it had the cavalryman's occu­ rumors circulating at this time about im­ pational disease, hemorrhoids. I I morality in the Women's Army Corps Florence Fattig went into the ANC for (WAC), but she responded that the one year in August 1941, because she WACs in question were enlisted person­ thought it would be interesting. Looking nel and very young. The nurseson the back, she observed that she should other hand were officers and old have realized that war was imminent, enough to be responsible. 18 but she did not think about it when she Phyllis Vavra Johnson and Barbara went to Fort Lewis, Washington. 12 Gier met some resistance from their On Sunday, December 7,1941, families, even though by 1943 they were Catherine Flannery Prussa in Honolulu working and living on their own in Los knew almost immediately that the U.S. Angeles. Johnson's mother had been had entered World War II. At Queens upset at first, but after Johnson actually Hospital she "had just come from Mass joined, her whole family became very and reported on duty when we realized JeaneHe Meyer Davis. NSHS-P853 supportive. However, saying goodby that it was more than army maneuvers was traumatic for everyone when they going on. From the roof of the hospital Jeanette Davis, then in Omaha, also met in Omaha to see Phyllis before she we could see smoke from the planes remembered the day vividly. "I had traveled to her East Coast port of embar­ and then the radio confirmed some gone into our housemother's office in kation. "They were really crying." 19 were Japanese and we were being at­ the nurses' home and the radio was on Older nurses at S1. Vincent's in Los tacked." Her hospital received some ci­ .... We wondered what would happen Angeles told Barbara Gier that if they vilian casualties from the raid, but the to all of us. We didn't realize the horren­ were younger, they would enlist, and military hospitals handled all the ser­ dous ordeal we would all be going the adventure of it appealed to her. Her vicemen.ln November 1943 she joined through." 15 brothers in the service did not view it in the ANC.13 In England Ida Clark was in the the same light. One asked their mother Florence Fattig was in Seattle that nurses' recreation room of the hospital to discourage Barbara. "He said that it Sunday. She heard the radio message near Salisbury when she learned about would be too dangerous and ... he just that the American fleet had been at­ the sinking of the U.S. fleet. "It was just thought people wouldn't treat you with tacked at Pearl Harbor, and all military sickening. But somebody said, 'Well, respect." But Mrs. Gier supported personnel who were not at their posts this will get us in the war.'" The U.S. Barbara's decision.20 had to return to duty immediately. Back Army Medical Department quickly took Other women were not discouraged. at work the next day, she saw how the over the hospital and gave the staff the A number of nurses from Mary state of war with Japan affected indi­ option of joining the military or return­ Rupprecht's Seattle hospital joined

109 Nebraska History - Summer/Fall 1995 when she did, and she "felt it was the . Elizabeth Fagan remembered that the Nurses with officers' rank were strongly right thing to do.... Later I had three ANC recruiter in Omaha told her to take discouraged from dating or even social­ brothers and a brother-in-law in the ser­ an evening gown, underwear, and not izing with enlisted men. Helen and Ri­ vice so [ was glad I had." 21 much else when she reported to Fort chard traveled separately by bus to In 1944 Jeanette Davis worked at Leavenworth because everything would nearby Salt Lake City or Ogden to see Doctors' Hospital in Omaha, until her be supplied. The evening gown was each other.31 orders to join the ANC came through. handy for the weekly "hops." The gov­ After she joined in 1944, Wilma When she did go into the service, her ernment regulation off-duty uniforms in Kellogg went to Camp McCoy, Wiscon­ father, an enlisted man during World 1942 were less than desirable. Made of sin, where she was assigned to the 239th War I, was extremely proud of his of­ blue wool with maroon trim, they General Hospital, scheduled to go over­ ficer daughter. "He picked me up and "picked up every bit of lint or debris as seas. Three of the women in her unit saluted me and said, 'Hi, Lieutenant!'"22 though they had magnetic quality. We were African American. The 239th was Civilian hospitals still needed nurses used to joke that our uniforms picked one of the first racially integrated hospi­ despite the claims of the military, and up everything but men." Nurses who tal units in the U.S. Army. Some black some nurses in positions considered es­ had been in service longer "said they nurses had been accepted into the ANC sential were not released to join the were designed by officers' wives." In earlier, but they had always been ANC by their. employers. Wilma Kellogg 1943 the ANC nurses changed to khaki placed in all-black units, often caring for had gone to Madison General Hospital or army green dress uniforms similar to African American soldiers or prisoners in Wisconsin after graduation in 1942. those of male officers.27 of war. Kellogg recalled that the three Working on the obstetrics ward, Kellogg Barbara Gier and Phyllis Johnson be­ black women in the 239th were from discovered that she was considered es­ gan their military careers at the Santa Chicago and well trained. But they and sential, but she was determined to join Ana Army Air Base in California, which the other women in the unit did not so­ the ANC. After several attempts to get a looked "like a country club." Phyllis re­ cialize when not working. If one of the release, she quit her job. "There was membered that most of the Santa Ana black nurses came into the dining room nothing they could do about quitting."23 patients were air corps cadets. "They and did not see one of the other African Once they enlisted, all the nurses were the nicest kids to take care of. Very American nurses, she sat alone.32 spent time in the United States at mili­ young and very nice."28 The Camp McCoy Hospital housed tary hospitals; no one went straight over­ Gier had classes there on army regu­ Japanese prisoners of war, and Kellogg seas. Some went to established posts lations and etiquette, plus a week of biv­ worked on one of their wards for a short and others to newly organized hospitals. ouacking with K-rations and lessons in time as part of her orientation. "I don't Their training varied, reflecting the lack sterilizing water. She had been inter­ think they ever moved," she com­ of standardization in preparing ANC ested in flight nursing, but "anyone in mented about the Japanese patients. members for overseas service. Lack of the air force was going to have to take "They were so quiet. Everyone noticed coordinated training did cause some parachute training. Many of us didn't that. They watched you with their eyes, problems once they arrived overseas.24 want to make those jumps."29 but no smiles."33 Mary Rupprecht's Fiftieth General Helen Louise Logan Knapp entered Like most soldiers, the nurses went Hospital from Seattle went to Camp the ANC in April 1944 as a second lieu­ overseas on ships that had been con­ Carson, Colorado, where unit members tenant and did not find her basic train­ verted into troop carriers and which uti- \ hiked, sometimes as much as twenty ing at Camp White, Oregon, too strenu­ lized every inch of space. It was often miles, went on overnight bivouacs, did ous. "We did a little close order drill, not a pleasant cruise. calisthenics, crawled through an infiltra­ learned how to salute, and prepared for Bernice DeLong joined her unit, the tion course with barbed wire on the a twenty-mile hike with full pack. How­ 142nd Station Hospital, on the East ground and gunfire overhead, and had ever, after we'd gone three blocks we Coast shortly before it went overseas on fire drills.25 Florence Fattig also had to were dismissed to return to quarters. "30 the Argentina. Because of the danger go through the infiltration course during Then Knapp was assigned to the from German submarines, no one her basic training. She crawled through newly established Bushnell General changed into bedclothes at night, and tunnels, climbed down rope ladders in Hospital in Brigham City, Utah. She everyone carried life preservers at all abandon ship drills, and learned to worked in the psychiatric section there, times. So many nurses were crowded swim. Her group went on maneuvers at and one of the wardmen was Pvt. Rich­ into each stateroom that they could Fort Bend, Oregon, where the unit prac­ ard Knapp. "[little realized at that mo­ hardly tum around. But the nurses were ticed setting up and taking down a mo­ ment what an important part of my life not nearly as cramped as the enlisted bile hospitaJ.26 he would be." But the course of true men on board, who covered the entire Others had less traumatic training. love did not run smoothly:.in the army. deck. With the portholes of the cabins

110 Nebraska Nurses closed at night to ensure blackout, the rooms became very warm, so the women in DeLong's room pushed pil- . lows and blankets out the porthole to the enlisted men on the colder deck. The next day the captain of the ship rep­ rimanded the hospital unit's chief nurse for what her subordinates had done. Giving soldiers pillows and blankets would tum them into sissies. "But she stood up for us. She said, 'They're nurses and they take care of people.'"34 However, the nurses did not give out any more blankets. Barbara Gier joined the 203rd Gen­ eral Hospital unit in Boston and boarded ship with all her equipment strapped to her back. Approximately ten or twelve nurses shared a cabin originally designed for two to four people. The women bathed by filling helmets with water that was only turned on twice a day. Catherine Prussa, who also sailed from Boston, recalled that no one spent any time in the room-it was too crowded. On the British ship, Rangitata, nurses of the 167th General "carried life jackets like teddy bears."35 There was a torpedo scare on the trip, and they had heard of another ship car­ rying nurses from Schick General Hospi­ tal being torpedoed off the coast of North Africa. Service overseas even for noncomba­ tants could be dangerous, as many nurses quickly realized. By 1944 sixty­ nine ANC nurses had died, six as the di­ rect result of enemy action. Twenty-four Clark bicycling in the English countryside. Courtesy of Ida Britton Clark were listed as wounded, and si){ty-six were held as prisoners of war by the en­ by the evidence of bombing. "There was She began crying onc~ because she emy. Most of the nurses in this last cat­ a full moon shining. It was very eerie to missed her family, but someone said egory were army and navy nurses who see the buildings that had been bombed. "C'mon, lets go do something," and that had been captured by the Japanese in You could see the shadows and see the helped ease the depression.38 the Philippines. For about two months moon through the buildings. "37 In Jeanette Davis's unit eight or nine thirteen flight nurses were missing in Al­ Phyllis Johnson's unit near Chester, roommates had poetry readings to re­ bania and Yugoslavia after a plane England, moved into quonset huts, each lieve tension. "We would have sessions. crash, but they and other crew members one containing cots, a place to hang .. in the evenings ... and read the sad­ managed to reach Allied lines.36 clothes, and a pot-bellied stove. "If you dest poems and cry. That was a great Once overseas the women often had really wanted to be warm, you practi­ outlet for us. We would get very dra­ to adjust to very different living condi­ cally had to sit on the thing. Your front matic about the poetry."39 tions, even in England. Nurses were dis­ was warm and your back was cold." Between their work schedules and turbed by the damage the war had al­ Homesickness sometimes hit, but the the army's knack for keeping everyone ready caused. Jeanette Davis was struck support of others in the_group helped. busy, many nurses did not have the op-

III Nebraska History - SummerJFall1995 portunity to mingle with the civilian population, but a few did meet English civilians. Catherine Prussa reported to the 103rd General Hospital near Salisbury, a converted boys' boarding school. She became acquainted with only one Englishwoman, who happened to be dating a U.S. ordnance officer, but U.S. officers who were billeted in an En­ glish home provided Catherine and an­ other nurse with an invitation to English tea that was "quiet, formal and not very filling."40 Jeanette Davis was billeted with an English couple, the Godsells, in Swindon for a short time before her unit's hospital was ready. 'They were most gracious and loving to me.... It was a bit of home over there. "41 Field and evacuation hospitals fol­ lowed the troops closely. Florence Fattig of the 104th Evacuation Hospital and Bernice DeLong, now with the 39th Evacuation Hospital, arrived in France before the rest of the Nebraska nurses. The nurses of the 104th landed on Utah Critically wounded patients In triage area used by 104th Evacuation Hospital. Beach about a month after D-day. Sur­ Courtesy of Florence Fettig prisingly, their chief nurse ordered them to wear their dress uniforms. Fattig re­ Bernice DeLong joined the Thirty­ 1944, about six weeks after the D-day in­ called that this woman stated that her ninth Evacuation Hospital in Manches­ vasion, the Fiftieth General Hospital ar­ unit members would arrive like ladies. ter, England, just before the unit moved rived in France. While the unit's hospital That was not easy, however, because to the huge staging area around Ports­ tents were being set up near Carentan in the nurses crossed the English Channel mouth, preparatory to the D-dayinva­ Normandy, Mary Rupprecht and other in a Landing Craft Infantry (LCI), . sion. Like the nurses in Florence Fattig's nurses went to the Forty-second Field jumped into a smaller boat, and then unit, these women also waded ashore Hospital on detached service. They re­ waded ashore. The women waited in a on Utah Beach. On the way to the stag­ turned when the general hospital offi­ staging area with slit trenches for bath­ ing area their truck turned over, but for­ cially opened in August 1944. The medi­ room facilities until the rest of the 104th tunately no one was injured. "By that cal officers believed that the front line landed. Early the next day the hospital time we were so tired, we just laughed, service had provided the unit personnel personnel arrived at their assigned helped straighten it up, got back in and with valuable experience: "Triage, place to replace the 91st Evacuation went on." When the nurses arrived at shock and transportability have become Hospital and abruptly learned how mo­ their new staging area, they started to live, important problems. "44 bile hospital units leapfrogged each set up their own tents, but they were or­ The 167th General Hospital reached other. The 91st staff took all the new, un­ dered back to Utah Beach. They did not Liverpool in September 1944, and re­ packed equipment and supplies the try to set anything up there. "It was rain­ ceived a warm welcome from the Brit­ 104th brought and hit the road. The ing and we just lay down on our rain­ ish, recalled Elizabeth Fagan. "We ... 104th had to work with what the other coats and let it come down. We were so decided that England was our destina­ hospital left behind. Fattig remembered tired."43 tion, and that we would soon be housed her unit was upset at first, but soon ac­ The other nurses served in general in a large school building or hotel, or cepted the situa~ion. Besides, the other hospitals in Europe, but that term in­ even a hospital. Everyone we had heard hospital's equipment was not old, and cluded some very different establish­ from had comfortable housing." Instead everything was already set up. The 104th ments: a modem Parisian hospital, a the unit went by train straight to a south­ made twelve more moves and treated tent unit in a cow pasture, or an old ern English port and crossed the English 28,545 patients before V-E Day.42 French cavalry barracks. On July 17, Channel on an LCI. The nurses, still

112 Nebraska Nurses

in October 1944, Barbara Gier's unit, the 190th General Hospital, proceeded across England to France. This group never did become a functioning hospi­ tal, and after bivouacking several days, the members were sent to other facili­ ties. Barbara and many of her col­ leagues went to the Raymond Poincare Hospital in the Paris suburb of Garches, which the 203rd General Hospital had taken over in September 1944. The Poincare Hospital was a modem, three­ pavilion facility built in the 1930s. It had been grafted onto an older building and chapel, rumored to have served as a hospital for American forces during World War 1.46 Phyllis Johnson's active service be­ gan when her name was called out dur­ ing a movie in England, and she was told that she was being assigned to a hospital train in France. After arriving in Paris she and several other nurses re­ ported to a railway station, probably the Gare St.-Lazare, and received orders to

t .r_" • ~ . prepare a French train for use as a hos­ pital. "We were supposed to get this " =---:iI train ready for use very shortly-maybe .. in a day or two. So we got busy with that, \."::.~.,".,.,, with needles, syringes, dressings .... Emergency things and not much more." The train ran between Aachen-Tehnville and ParisY Many general hospitals improvised at some point, even units that took over es­ tablished facilities. Technicians in the 203rd's Poincare Hospital devised a cone for the X-ray machine out of a Ger­ man 88mm shell casing, which radically reduced secondary radiation. At the Fif­ tieth General's second location in Commercy, south of Verdun, hospital corpsmen made their X-ray machine a Dressing patient wound, summer 1941. Courtesy of Ida Britton Clark mobile unit by constructing a dolly from the wheels of a damaged P-47 fighter. dressed in their best unifonns because they were loaded into trucks and taken On a smaller scale members of the "our commanding officer wanted to im­ to a pasture outside Cherbourg that was 167th General Hospital turned the press the British citizens," had to to be turned into a tent hospital. The nurses' cold cream jars and empty scramble through the surf onto Utah 167th was stationed here until the end bottles scavenged from the dump into Beach. "The crew lowered one end of of the war in Europe, and then sent to containers for sterile solutions. Flare the boat into the water and invited us to southern France for redeployment to cases and empty enemy ammunition wade ashore dressed as if we were go­ the South Pacific.45 boxes held sterile bandages.48 ing to meet the queen." From the beach After arriving in Liverpool, England, On rare occasions luck helped the

113 Nebraska History - Summer/Fail 1995

give morphine, we could give sleeping tablets, we could give codeine. That's about it. We didn't have the boys on the train that long." The train from Paris would arrive at night, and the next morning ambulances would bring about three hundred wounded to the station near Aachen. The patients had been patched up enough in the field hospitals to make the trip back to the general hospitals in the city. Thirty-two enlisted men, four nurses, and one doc­ tor staffed the eight-car train that arrived back in Paris the next morning. The cars were not well heated, but the staff man­ aged to get adequate equipment, added furniture, and enlarged the kitchen.52 The cars were crowded inside, Johnson recalled, with litters stacked three or four deep along the walls. The Orthopedic surgery in tent hospital used by 104th Evacuation Hospital. wounded men were still in their uni­ Courtesy of Florence Fattig forms. "We had a blanket to throw over them-keep them warm and try to keep hospital staff to function normally. The leagues, like the rest of the hospital per­ them quiet." Some of the battle fatigue water system established in the pasture sonnel, discovered their footlockers casualties were "on the floor of the train near Cherbourg for the 167th worked with clothing and other necessities had fastened down with I don't know how sporadically. According to Elizabeth. been lost. For several months they lived many straps. They were just wild. You Fagan, "an officer from the engineering on whatever they had managed to pack had to jump over those and hoped that battalion that installed the water system in their musette bags: pajamas, flash­ they never got loose while you had was wounded in battle and brought lights, etc. Few had a second pair of them.... But after all they were the back to our hospital. ... The poor [in­ shoes to replace the footgear that got boys. They were shell-shocked, poor fel­ jured] man was bundled into a jeep" wet when they waded ashore. For light lows." Only once did Phyllis Vavra and taken to the water system pumps in their tent sleeping quarters they saved Johnson meet someone from her home­ where he explained to the hospital per­ C-ration cans, "filled them with every bit town while she was working on the hos­ sonnel how to operate it properly.49 of surplus fat we could scrounge from pital train. "One day someone said, 'Oh, In their overseas careers most of the the kitchen," and used a bit of cord for a Lt. Vavra.' {looked down below in the nurses endured rough, uncomfortable wick. Better lighting was saved for the litter and it wasa.boy from Schuyler," conditions. At one of the locations hospital wards. To keep warm during who had been injured in a jeep acci­ where the 104th Evacuation Hospital set the rainy autumn, "someone had the dent. After three months on the train she up, Fattig recalled that the rain turned bright idea that we should spread paper was transferred to the 217th General the soil into mud and to get to the mess or something on the cot to keep the bot­ Hospital in Paris.53 tent, everyone slid down the hill holding . tom part of us warm. We ... picked up Members of the 104th Evacuation onto ropes. The mud also impressed it­ every bit of packing paper available," Hospital learned to set up and take self in Sarita Wilson's memory. It and it worked. The weather was no down their hospital tents in about three seemed that just when staff members of friend. Continual wind and rain storms and one-half hours. In the operating the 123rd Evacuation Hospital achieved on the Cherbourg Peninsula blew down room tent, where Florence Fattig some kind of decent footing in their cur­ tents, including on occasion the "heavy worked, eight operating tables were run rent location, they were ordered to storage-type" used for surgeryY around the clock during busy periods move on.50 The nurses provided care in a wide and the nurses did twelve-hour shifts The nurses of the 167th General Hos­ variety of settings and to a medley of pa­ for as long as it took to treat all the pital quickly learned some survival tech­ tients. Aboard the hospital train Phyllis casualties.54 niques once they arrived in France. Af­ Johnson and the rest of the small staff In the Thirty-ninth Evacuation Hospi­ ter wading ashore, Fagan and her col­ had limited medications: "We could tal Bernice DeLong mainly worked with

114 Nebraska Nurses battle fatigue patients. The doctor pre­ scribed narcotherapy, or sedating the patients so heavily that they slept for two whole days. On the third day the men were lightly medicated. The nurses had to watch these patients closely so that they did not choke while they were sedated. After this treatment the physi­ cian in charge would interview the men and decide who was ready to go back to the front and who would go to other hospitals for further treatment. DeLong never knew what the final decision was for any of the patients, and neither did they. When they were dismissed they were put into trucks and sent to their destinations without being told, she remembered.55 Despite the sedation the combat fa­ tigue patients could be alarmingly ac­ tive. DeLong recalled one patient who shoved his head through a glass win­ dow. "We had to put on gloves and break the glass so that his neck wasn't cut. We couldn't figure out how he did it. Then I went into another ward and they were hitting each other over the head with the ends of their cots. They didn't know what they were doing, they were so drugged. You thought you put them to bed, but somebody probably said one little word:56 The nurses in the 167th General Hospital treated mainly American patients who arrived already clean and in pajamas. This hos­ pital acted as a holding point where pa­ tients were kept for a few days or weeks until boats could transport them to En­ gland or to the United States. Sometimes there were slow periods but that could change in an instant. Elizabeth Fagan remembered, We [once] stripped all the sheets off the beds after the patients left and had them bundled up to go to the laundry. Sud­ denly we got word that another train load of patients had arrived.... We had no Lt. Jean Painter Knudsen, ANC nurse, doing laundry outside hospital train car in 1944. clean linen so we had to unbundle the Courtesy of Jean Painter Knudsen laundry items, dry out the sheets and pil­ low cases, and put them back on the cots. Barbara Gier spent most of her over­ handled nearly 30,000 patients there. In Everyone felt guilty doing this, so we seas service attached to the 203rd Gen­ addition to the American sick and took extra care in making sure the sheets eral Hospital in Paris housed in the wounded, the hospital also housed a were taut on the cots and didn't appear recycled.57 large Raymond Poincare Hospital. Be­ large number of German prisoner of war fore the 203rd left Europe it had (POW) patients, about 7,000 in the first

115 Nebraska History - SummerJFall1995 six months of 1945. Because of this the hospital administrators decided, regret­ fully, not to use healthy German POWs as laborers as many other hospitals did.58 Gier worked part of the time on the POW wards. "My grandparents were from Germany on both sides and so 1 asked to work with the Germans. You know there was a kind of intrigue. 1 mean what were they like? 1wanted to know." She did not speak German, but one of the guards, who was on de­ tached service from the 190th like Gier, spoke the language fluently. "His name was David Sitnor and he could commu­ nicate with them and tell them what to do and tell me what they said. It was no German prisoners carry a lifter patient at the Fiftieth General Hospital near Carentan, problem." Some of the patients also France. Nearby is another patient who has lost a leg. Courtesy of Mary Rupprecht spoke or understood English. "1 do sometimes think at first they could un­ derstand but wouldn't give it away. But also there were a lot of Germans who understood more than they spoke."59 Besides the American corpsmen who helped Gier on the POW wards, there were three German patients with only minor ailments who acted as orderlies. The latter cleaned the area the first thing in the morning, changed the linen, and helped the other patients to bathe. The nurses handled the dressings and medications. The armed guards would also help with the food trays, although this was probably not part of their as­ signed duty. Gier recalled that the prisoners rarely caused trouble, but on one occasion the American guards showed some hos­ tility towards the POW patients. "1 re­ member once in a difficult part of the war, that these MPs made the patients think that they were not going to give them (the bed patients) food from the carts.... I cried and said, 'Oh, you can't deprive them.' This David Sitnor, he liked me and felt that we were from the same outfit. He couldn't stand any tears and so he said,' Oh, we're just kidding.' But I know they weren't. They were an­ gry with the Germans .... They just thought they were Germans and we [the nurses] felt they were patients."

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The chief nurse of the German section laid down the Jaw, stating, "We aren't going to fight the war here ... This is pa­ tient care and no one's fighting the war any more here."60 The only serious problem Gier re­ membered occurred when the 203rd General Hospital admitted some SS troops. The Wehrmacht patients "took us aside and said these are SS men.... They have a tattoo under their left arm." Hitler's elite "were just spit and polish and very proud. Kind of arrogant. They wanted newspapers and radios," as well as other conveniences. But "when they saw how good we were in the care of the German patients, they just came down from their high horses and about the third day they were helping to pass the bedpans and going around trying to help. I tell you we had no more trouble with them. "61 Wilma Kellogg's 239th General Hospi­ tal, like the 50th General, was mobile. The unit arrived in France in December 1944 and moved into northern France­ Rouen and Reims. There were enough tents to house everything under canvas, but usually the staff set up [organized] in buildings. Kellogg worked on the medical and psychiatric wards. In No­ vember 1944 the Fiftieth General Hospi­ tal moved to Commercy, south of Verdun, into an old French cavalry bar­ racks. Soon Mary Rupprecht's unit be­ gan receiving Russians and Italian pa­ tients with tuberculosis and deficiency diseases from a captureo German TB hospital. By the end of November the hospital had acquired an international medley of patients. The majority, of course, were U.S. servicemen, but there were German POWs, French military personnel and civilians, Polish and U.S. civilians (the latter mainly from the Mer­ chant Marine), British soldiers,liberated Russians, and Italian POWs of the Ger­ mans. Language sometimes presented a problem.62 Christmas of 1944 in the European Theater was fraught with emergencies, the most notable being the Germans' Blood bank equipment at the 104th Evacuation Hospital. Courtesy of Florence Fattig Ardennes offensive, better known as the

117 Nebraska History - SummerjFall1995

Battle of the Bulge. There were other Florence Fattig and other nurses in year-old who had spent Christmas Eve smaller, but no less deadly, episodes. the 104th Evacuation Hospital, part of in New York and by New Year's Eve he The night supervisor for B Block at the Third Army, were told that they was wounded in Belgium with a badly the 167th in Cherbourg, Elizabeth might have to leave quickly if the Ger­ crushed arm. "It was just hanging on by Fagan, had just gone to Midnight Mass mans advanced any closer. "Well, we skin and tendons. He begged us not to on Christmas Eve when she was called had over 400 patients, and more coming remove it," and even threatened to be­ back to her ward. A German submarine in all the time. What are you going to come a gangster if they did, but there had sunk a troop ship in Cherbourg har­ do? So nobody got too excited about was nothing the doctors could do to bor, and some of the survivors were be­ that." She remembered one patient in save it. "I've often wondered if he ing brought to the 167th. They received particular during this time, an eighteen- . changed his mind. I hope so. "66 "a large number of thoroughly chilled soldiers whose first need was to get warm as they had been thrown into very cold water.... Officers from the divi­ sion or somewhere were out with their clipboards early the next morning tak­ ing down names, ranks, and serial num­ bers ... of every survivor. Christmas Day was a heavy duty day." She did not learn the name of the ship, the Leopoldville, until years later. The hospital's annual report simply referred to these men as an "interesting group of acute pulmonary infections. "63 During the German breakthrough the Fiftieth General Hospital in Commercy was close to the battle zone. The hospi­ tal, like others, experienced a coal shortage, and the town was flooded with Alsatian civilian refugees from the fighting. Nightly German air raids on a nearby marshalling yard kept the pa­ tients and staff on the alert. "The pres­ ence of nurses on duty was reassuring. [to the patients] and large doses of sedatives were used at night."64 Mary Rupprecht was on detached duty with the Fifty-eighth Field Hospital in Nancy during the early phases of the Battle of the Bulge. Only about thirty­ five people remained in the whole hos­ pital. the others having been evacuated. She and two corpsmen admitted and cared for "(the best we could) fifty GIs on my ward alone. They were all battle fatigue and frozen feet. ... The battle fa­ tigue GIs we tied down on cots, but they were so wild they just ran around with the cots on their backs. And those poor men with frozen feet kept asking, 'Can they save my feet?' Those twelve hours that night were the busiest and saddest Florence Fettig (standing at right in line) was decorated with the Bronze Star by Gen. of my life."65 George S. PaHon on Februa~ 22, 1945. Courtesy of Florence Fattig

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Florence Fattig won a Bronze Star in Luxembourg. She was among the first thirteen nurses to receive the decora- . tion in the European Theater on Febru­ ary 22, 1945. General Patton personally pinned it on in a ceremony complete with a band, the press corps, and re­ freshments. She recalled that the nicest thing about it was the half day off from work she and the other recipients got. She earned the medal when the l04th's building was hit, probably in an attempt to bomb nearby Third Army headquar­ ters. Fattig was on duty that night in sur­ gery when she heard that there were bad casualties in the triage area. She took surgical supplies down to expedite care. The nurse in the triage area also received a Bronze Star.67 As the Allied armies moved into Ger­ many the U.S. Army hospitals some­ times received nonmilitary German pa­ tients. Florence Fattig remembered three young German boys she thought were members of the Hitler Youth who were cutting communication lines and who stepped on a mine. One with an Nurses of the 179th General Hospital at lunch along the road to Paris, September 1945. apparently critical abdominal wound The unit was being transferred from Rouen to Paris. Courtesy of Elizabeth Feehan Fagan had a hand grenade that he threatened to throw if either he or the other two boys were touched by the Americans. United States to send her a white wed­ prisoner patients were housed in the old Someone finally got the grenade away ding dress, but it did not arrive until six part of the building. They were either from him and treatment continued. weeks after the ceremony, so the young teenagers or older men, some in Some German monks caused less dra­ Knapps were both married in uniform. their sixties, age groups that did not ap­ matic (but still tiresome) problems for She always wondered if her decision to pear in the U.S. Army. Neither did many the 104th in Trier, where the unit had marry an enlisted man did not cost her of the diseases the Germans had: tuber­ taken over their hospital. "They were ab­ a promotion to first lieutenant. They culosis, typhoid, lockjaw, diphtheria, solutely awful to us, shutting off the wa­ stayed with their hospitals because mar­ and kidney failure due to malnutrition. ter and the electricity. We were really ried couples were not allowed by army uln spite of our best efforts to help these quite upset with them .... We had to regulations to serve in the same units. In people there were numerous deaths.... put a guard out to watch that they didn't August 1945 this rule changed and We had always believed that the Ger­ do that or take any supplies.n68 Helen Louise transferred to her mans had a state-of-the-art medical sys­ As the European war seemed to be husband's Fifty-fifth General Hospital. tem.... It was a surprise to find that the drawing to a close, Helen Louise Knapp Knapp's old unit, the 202nd, was slated Germans did not have preventive health and her fiance, an enlisted man who to go to the South Pacific after the end care measures such as vaccinations.... was with another hospital unit, started of the war in Europe, but married nurses So many of these deaths.... could have filling out papers to allow them to get would not gO.59 been prevented had the people been married. Each had to get permission Because the 167th General Hospital vaccinated."70 from his commanding officer, and by was also redeploying to the Pacific The­ Wilma Kellogg's unit was one of the time everything was processed, the ater, Elizabeth Fagan and the other mar­ those being shipped to the Pacific-per­ war had ended in Europe. Helen Louise ried nurses were transferred to the 179th haps. The nurses were never told for and Richard were married in June in General Hospital in Rouen and worked certain, but they were sent to a huge Paris. She had asked her family in the for a time on the POW ward there. The staging area around Marseilles to await

119 Nebraska History - Summer/Fall 1995 developments. "We were just waiting Liberty in New York harbor, they cried. Notes because we didn't know if we were go­ "We went to the topmost deck to see ev­ I Doris Weatherford, American Women and ing to the CBI or what: She remem­ erything inpouring rain. We were World War 1I (New York: Facts on File, 1990),23; bered the place as crowded, dirty, and soaked and crying." Later while being Elizabeth Norman, Women at War: The Story of very boring. Even now when she and a demobilized at Fort Dix, "We couldn't Fifty Military Nurses Who Served in .Vietnam (phila­ friend who had been there talk, it is eat. ... We were just too happy."76 delphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990), 3. about Marseille and how awful it was.7I Readjusting to civilian conditions 2 Unless stated otherwise, all interviews, letters, The end of the war in Europe, V-E was not easy. During the war many and the handwritten memoir of Elizabeth Fagan are in possession of the author. Day, found Catherine Prussa in London. nurses in service had taken on more re­ By chance she happened to be on leave sponsibility than they had been allowed 3 "Nurses Speed Day of Victory," Omaha World­ Herald Sunday Magazine, May 9, 1943, Historical then and "spent a lot of time outside the in their previous civilian work. Phyllis Society of Douglas County, World-Herald Clipping [Buckingham] palace gate, hoping for a Johnson, for example, found it difficult File (herearter HSDC Clipping File); "IS Girls from glimpse of the royal family. We didn't to settle back into peacetime nursing for Nebraska Stick It Out Despite Torrid Heat of South see them though they did appear to this reason and because the priorities in Pacific," HSDC Clipping File, Oct. 23, 1944; wave at the crowd several times."72 "Omaha Nurse Back From France, Wants to Re­ a civilian hospital were so different. turn to Flying Work," HSDC Clipping File, Sept. 8, Jeanette Davis was also in London on "You didn't do the important things 1944. V-E Day: "I don't believe any picture first." Treating some patients with spe­ 4 "Nebraska Army Nurses in North Africa Work could ever capture the feeling." She cial care because they were important Bravely Under Trying Conditions: HSDC Clipping would always remember seeing "these rather than critically ill also bothered File, June 20, 1943; "Iowans, Omahan Among First ladies coming out of the stores and Bernice DeLong. "Boys gave up their Nurses on Italy Beachhead; Group is Seasick," dancing all by themselves .... There lives to let us be equal, and then to be HSDC Clipping File, Jan. 30, 1944; "Omaha Nurse Gets Purple Heart: Omaha World-Herald, May 8, was nothing but jubilation, and of told to be nice to [someone]. It just infu­ 1944, 1. course always the tears of happiness riated me." Florence Fattig recalled that 5 Robert V. Piemonts, ed., Highlights in the His­ and sadness."73 the adjustment could be hard because tory ofthe Army Nurse Corps (Washington, D.C.: After hostilities ceased Helen Louise the army had taken care of so many ba­ 1987),6,12, 14-15,20. Knapp's new unit moved into Germany sic details like clothing, food, and shel­ 6 Ida Britton Clark interview with author: Dec. and established a hospital in Kassel. She ter. "I found it just a little difficult maybe 23,1994. recalled the "sheer destruction. The to make decisions when I got back."77 7 American Red Cross Harvard Field Hospital Unit bombs had destroyed everything. Just These women had some amazing ex­ (Cambridge, Mass.: 1943),9,11, 12, 16, 18. piles and piles and piles of rubble and periences, some of which they would • Clark interview. people crawling out of this rubble not have wished to repeat. But many "Ibid. where they were making a home as best were also enriched. One nurse recalled they could."74 the level of proficiency they had to ac­ 10 Ibid. Soon after the war ended in Europe quire to "get our jobs done.... Our II Bernice DeLong interview with author, Aug. 4, and in the Pacific, all of the Nebraska minds were so keen and alert. Oh yes, I 1994. nurses returned to the United States, think each of us grew in all areas." For 12 Florence Fattig interview with author, Nov. IS, some to continue in nursing and others another, the military service "taught you 1994. to pursue new careers. Many must have that there was nothing that you couldn't 13 Catherine Prussa letter to author, May 20, felt like Catherine Prussa, who, looking handle."78 1989. back over her service, thought that she Despite their reluctance to court 14 Fattig interview. and the other nurses she had worked publicity, the nurses from Nebraska and IS Jeanette Meyer Davis interview with Lori Cox, with had their gripes (especially about elsewhere contributed significantly to "What Did You Do in the War?" Series, Nebraska the uniforms), "but mostly we were the health care provided by the U.S. State Historical Society (hereafter Davis interview, NSHS),3. proud to wear them."75 Army during World War II. In the words Most of the hospital units had be­ of Jeanette Davis, "the fact that this little 16 Clark interview. come supportive, family-like groups farm gal was able to be there and do 17 Elizabeth Feehan Fagan memoir, 4-5. with many shared experiences, and something was important."79 18 Catherine Prussa letter to author, Aug. 7, 1989. their disbandment at the end of the war For more on the rumormongering about the WACs, left many, like Jeanette Davis, a little see Mattie E. Treadwell, Women's Army Corps. Spe­ cial Studies. United States Army in World War 1I sad. But arriving back in the U.S. made (Washington, D.C.: 1954), 195-98. The FBI, under up for that. Davis remembered that the impression that all the rumors about WAC mis­ when she and the 9ther nurses on board conduct had been started by Axis agents to disrupt their returning ship saw the Statue of the U.S. war effort, discovered that the tales origi­ nated from American civilians and servicemen.

120 Nebraska Nurses

19 Phyllis Johnson interview with author, May 21, 3. "Sixty-Nine Nurses Dead Since December 7: 54 Fattig interview. 1990. Anny Nurse 1 (August 1944): 8. 55 Delong interview. 20 Barbara Gier interview with author, June 17, . 37 Davis interview, NSHS, 4. s'lbid. 1990. 38 Johnson interview. 57 Fagan memoir, 93. 21 Mal}' Rupprecht letter to author, Sept. 4, 1989. 39 Davis interview, NSHS, 8. 58 Annual Report, 203rd General Hospital, 1944, 22 Davis interview, NSHS, 3. 4<1 Prussa letter, May 20, 1989. RG 112,6. In Oct. 1944, the hospital was desig­ 23 Wilma Kellogg interview with author, Nov. 29, nated the Seine Section Hospital for prisoners of 41 Davis interview, NSHS, 5-6. 1994. war. "Segregation of Prisoners of War being man­ 42 Fattig interview. datoI}', two buildings of the old hospital area pre­ 24 Annual Report, 167th General Hospital, 1944, viously used as enlisted men's quarters were Record Group 112, Surgeon General's Office, Na­ 43 Delong interview. cleared and converted into wards for these pa­ tional Archives and Records Administration, 44 Rupprecht letter; Annual Report, Fiftieth Gen­ tients: Periodic Report, 203rd General Hospital, Washington, D.C. (hereafter RG 112), 2. Nurses' eral Hospital, 1944, RG 112, 25. June 25, 1945, RG 112,2. training in the U.S. was found to be deficient. Col. James H. Turner, commander, 203rd General Hos­ 45 Fagan memoir, 33, 35. 59 Gier interview. pital, to Surgeon General, U.S. Army, Feb. 12, 1944, 4' Annual Report, 190th General Hospital, 1944, GO Ibid. RG 112. "Efforts were made to standardize this RG 112, 2; Annual Report, 203rd General Hospital, 6\ Ibid. training by securing check sheets from the organi­ 1944,4-5, RG 112. The building was also called the zations to which they were assigned; however.... Hospital de la Reconnaissance and was on the 62 Annual Report, Fiftieth General Hospital, 1944, it was found that their field training has not been Boulevard Michele Brezin. RG 112, 37; Rupprecht letter. uniform and in some instances was incomplete .... It is suggested that nurses be assigned to their or­ 47 Johnson interview. 63 Fagan memoir, 82-83; Charles B. McDonald, Time for Trumpets; The Untold Story ofthe Battle of ganizations for a period of field training prior to 48 Periodic Report, 203rd General Hospital, June the Bulge (New York: William Morrow & Co., departure for overseas service." 28, 1945, RG 112, 7; Periodic Report, Fiftieth Gen­ 1984),590-94; Annual Report, 167th General Hos­ eral Hospital, Jan.-June, 1945, RG 112, 46; Annual 2S Rupprecht letter; Annual Report, Fiftieth Gen­ pital, 1944, RG 112, 18. eral Hospital, 1944, RG 112,3. "All personnel, in­ Report, 167th General Hospital, 1944, RG 112, 15. 64 Periodic Report, Fiftieth General Hospital, Jan.­ cluding nurses, crawled the regulation course un­ 49 Fagan memoir, 4344; Annual Report, 167th June, 1945, RG 112,27. der machine gun fire." General Hospital, 1944, RG 112,9. "During the first 2. Fattig interview. six weeks of operation, water failures were fre­ 65 Rupprecht letter. quent, and water had to be hauled using five­ .. Fattig interview. 27 Fagan memoir, 9, 12. On duty in the hospital, gallon cans and the limited truck facilities of the the nurses wore the standard white uniforms and unit: "Ibid. shoes. 50 Fattig interview; "Sarita Wilson - An Army '"Ibid. 2B Gier and Johnson interviews. Nurse's Experiences in World War 11: unpublished .. Knapp interview. 29 Gier interview. typescript by Sarita Wilson, Hastings, Nebr. I am vel}' grateful to Miss Wilson and to Mrs. Ida Clark 70 Fagan memoir, 115-16. '" Helen Louise Logan Knapp Account, Lois for allowing me to look at this. Logan Hom and Family World War 11 Collection, 71 Kellogg interview. University Archives/Special Collections, University 51 Annual Report, 167th General Hospital, 1944, 72 Catherine Prussa letter to author, June 6, 1989. of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries. RG 112, 6, 8. The loss of luggage "was a serious er­ ror in planning by those responsible and caused 73 Davis interview, NSHS, 14. 31 Ibid.; Helen Louise Logan Knapp interview considerable difficulties"; Fagan memoir, 37, 39, 74 Knapp interview. with author, Aug. 13, 1994. 51,84; A twenty-man team "had to be continually 75 Prussa letter, June 6, 1989. 32 Kellogg interview. on the job during storms in order to keep the tent­ age from blowing down: 76 Davis interview, NSHS, 13. 33 Ibid. 52 Graham Cosmas and Albert Cowdrey, Medical 77 Johnson, DeLong, and Faltig interviews. 34 Delong interview. Service in the European Theater ofOperations 7. Davis interview, NSHS, 15; Kellogg interview. 35 Gier interview; Prussa letter, Aug. 7, 1989; (Washington, D.C.: 1992),472. Fagan memoir, 31-32. 79 Davis interview, NSHS, 12. 53 Johnson interview.

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