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- Description:
- Ninety-eight year old Elizabeth Phillips talks about her service in the Army Nurse Corps in Europe during World War I. She recalls being assigned to a hospital five miles behind the front near Avignon, France, German planes flying over on their way to bomb Paris, surgeries performed as wounded were brought in from the front, her general duties, the large number of casualties, the catastrophic flu epidemic in 1918 and the many funerals, the regimentation and twelve hour shifts, and that when her unit was first deployed to France in May of 1917, the nurses did not receive rations and were expected to find their own food. Phillips explains that nurses had no rank in World War I and were not treated as equals and says that she lobbied vigorously in World War II to correct that inequality. She also says she tried to volunteer for service during World War II, but was refused and spent the war preparing Red Cross packages for shipment to American POWs in German camps.
- Date Issued:
- 1982-04-28T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- Transcript of interview of Marian Sievert Mosher conducted by Vivian Peterson. In the interview, Mosher describes her time as a nurse during World War II at the 165th Station Hospital in Hawaii and the Philippines. In addition to the general details about living conditions and daily life as a nurse, she particularly details the training she conducted for servicemen who would be out on the front and the American prisoners of war she worked with in the Philippines. Mosher also discusses her time after the war when she traveled to Vietnam, India, Egypt, and Jordan to advise on teaching and teach nursing to locals in those areas.
- Date Issued:
- 1990-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- In an oral history interview, Retired Lieutenant Colonel Madeline M. Ullom talks about her 28 year career in the United States Army Nurse Corps, including her service in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War II and being held as a POW by the Japanese. Ullom says she was based in Manila when the Japanese attacked in 1942 and was one of the last to be evacuated to the U.S. fortress on Corregidor. She talks about treating wounded in the fortress's tunnels as the Japanese attacked, the eventual U.S. surrender and becoming a POW. Ullom talks about life in an internment camp, being imprisoned with civilian women and children from almost every Allied nation, the poor rations, and roll calls even in the middle of the night. Ullom says that more and more prisoners became sick and fatalities from malnutrition increased dramatically before her camp was finally liberated by the U. S. First Cavalry in 1944. She also talks about her post war assignments, becoming an advisor to the Veterans Administration, her activities in retirement and finally traveling back to the Philippines. Ullom is interviewed by Margaret E. Duncan.
- Date Issued:
- 1985-05-15T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- In an oral history interview, retired Army Colonel Lois A. Johns talks about her education, her career in the Army Nurse Corp and her service in the Vietnam War. Johns talks about growing up in Cleveland, earning her nursing degree in 1948, a second bachelor's degree in 1950 and later two master's degrees and finally, in 1967, a doctorate. In 1950, she says that she also joined the Army Reserve and that her active duty began in 1960 when she was promoted to Captain. She describes a number of her duty stations, going back into the reserves while working and going to school and then going back on active duty as a Major for duty in Vietnam. She says that she arrived in Saigon late at night, was assigned to the "renal ward" at the 629th Medical Detachment of the 3rd Field Hospital and describes her quarters, her duties, her patients, the local cuisine and culture and says that she was awarded a Bronze Star when she left Vietnam and was assigned to the Institute for Surgical Research at Fort Sam Houston. She goes on to discuss her various duty stations after Vietnam, both stateside and abroad and says that she finally retired from the Army in 1980. Johns praises her many coworkers throughout the years, but says that women often had problems dealing with their male counterparts and that sexual harassment did exist in the service. Johns is interviewed by Ruth Stewart and Patricia Martin.
- Date Issued:
- 2007-02-06T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- Anna Spillman Atteberry talks about her childhood in depression-era Louisiana and her service in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps in Southern France and Italy during World War Two. Atteberry says that after nursing school she heard news of the bombing of Pearl Harbor and immediately enlisted. She says that she was first assigned to the Fort Bliss hospital, volunteered for overseas duty, joined the 56th Evacuation Hospital and was sent to Casablanca in North Africa. She was next moved to Bizerte to treat casualties from the invasion of Sicily, she says and was later sent to Anzio and then north to Naples. She talks about spending the winter in a front line tent hospital, dealing with the dirt floors and trying to keep things sterile, treating battlefield wounds and pneumonia and other cold related cases and working during German shelling and says that she is proud of the care that she and other hospital staff provided. After next being stationed in Rome, Atteberry says that she was transferred to the 10th Field Hospital in France, followed the Army as it moved across France and Germany and says that the lines changed so quickly that they were sometimes forced to leave behind patients who were too critical to be moved. She says that she returned to the States as a patient and received treatment at Fitzsimons Army Medical Center in Denver and when she recovered, was sent to Fort Sam Houston where she nursed severely injured casualties. Atteberry is interviewed by Ruth Stewart and Patricia Martin.
- Date Issued:
- 2007-04-02T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- Marguerite Noutary, the daughter of immigrant parents, talks about her childhood and her career in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps, including her service in World War II. Noutary talks about joining the Army in 1940 and being sent to the China-Burma-India Theater of Operations after the start of the war. She describes her duty stations in Calcutta and Myitkyina, Burma, the dust of the Burma Road, the food, the climate, rampant malaria, flying over "The Hump" into China in a transport plane with Japanese prisoners, the start of the Chinese civil war after the Japanese surrender and treating American POWs who were survivors of the Doolittle Raid. Noutary says that she decided to join the Army Reserve after leaving the regular Army and was called-up for active duty in October 1961 during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Vivian Peterson introduces and concludes the recording.
- Date Issued:
- 1990-03-03T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project