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- Description:
- Alta May Andrews Sharp talks about her service in the American Red Cross and the U.S. Army Nurse Corps during World War One. Sharp says that she served in the Red Cross for two years at "Military Hospital No. 1" as chief nurse in ward 83, before finally volunteering for the Army. She talks about her basic training, learning to salute, the voyage to England in a convoy escorted by sub-chasers and battle ships, sleeping in her life jacket, and having lifeboat drills daily. She says that she was stationed in France and discusses her duties, her pay, her quarters, her gray chambray uniform with the "butchers apron," and being shelled by the huge German artillery gun known as "Big Bertha." Sharp says that the nurses were treated well but were prohibited from dating enlisted men and that the officers were only interested in French girls. When they learned of the Armistice she says that she and her friends traveled to Paris to celebrate "all day and night." Ends abruptly. Sharp is interviewed by Margaret E. Duncan.
- Date Issued:
- 1985-04-16T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- Lucile Pauline Matignon Crane talks about her service as a surgical nurse in the U.S. Navy during World War One, between April 1917 and February 1919. Crane says that she graduated from nursing school in 1914 and first worked at Stanford Hospital in San Francisco and that she enlisted in the Navy for good pay, and a chance for more education and equal opportunity. She talks about shipping out to Scotland, working in a surgical unit in a hospital which was a former resort hotel, the types of injuries she treated and socializing with enlisted men because the doctors were off limits. She also says that she was one of the first nurses to be sent home as the war wound down, spent her leave in Paris and was shipped home from Brest with ten women and thousands of men. Crane talks about her career after leaving the Navy, marrying and settling in Modesto, CA and notes that she received no special recognition for her service until the state of California paid a veterans bonus. The interviewer is unidentified.
- Date Issued:
- 1984-12-27T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- Matilda Papenhausen talks about her service in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps during World War One. Papenhausen explains why she volunteered for the Army and says that her unit was deployed to an American staffed British hospital in France in July 1917. She talks about the diseases, injuries and wounds she treated, her uniform, quarters, rations, and social activities. Papenhausen says she returned to the States shortly after the Armistice and worked in a Kansas hospital as an assistant superintendent of nurses, and later as a government hospital inspector in Iowa and South Dakota. Ends abruptly. Papenhausen is interviewed by Dorothy W. Early.
- Date Issued:
- 1984-08-23T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Date Issued:
- 1984-12-27T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- 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:
- Estelle M. Davis explains why she enlisted as a Red Cross nurse during World War One and describes her experiences. She reminisces about being a public health nurse in Jersey City, her family's reaction to her enlistment, and being shipped across the Atlantic to Calais with 350 fellow nurses. Davis recounts the awful food and the terrible conditions under which staff had to perform surgery, while serving only 50 miles from the front at Verdun. She says that she met her future husband when treating him for a shrapnel wound at her aid station. Davis is interviewed by Lois Collet.
- Date Issued:
- 1982-10-23T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- Agnes Elaine Osborn Myers talks about joining the U.S. Army Nurse Corps in September 1917 and serving in World War One. Myers says that she completed nurse's training at Philadelphia General Hospital, joined the Army immediately after the U.S. entered the war and was sent directly to a hospital without ever having basic training. Myers talks about her uniform, slogging through the mud in France, being cold all of the time, working in both hospitals and tents, being assigned to areas where major offensives were taking place, her duties treating injured and ill troops, and being busy every minute of every day. Myers says that she met her future husband, a captain in the 78th Division, in France and married him when they returned to the States. Myers is interviewed by Ruth Banonis.
- Date Issued:
- 1983-11-02T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- Ninety-three year-old Mary Agnes Rust Gruetzman talks about her service as an American Red Cross nurse in France during World War I. Gruetzman says that she, like many other young men and women, felt truly inspired to serve the cause and their country. Gruetzman discusses her nurse's training in Illinois, being sent overseas against the protests of her mother, the hospitals in which she worked, and her duties. She says that she was prohibited from keeping a diary while in France so she had the soldiers she treated write for her. Gruetzman's remarks are interspersed with interviewer Mae-Marie Irons's narration of Gruetzman's memories. Nelva Gillette also reads from Gruetzman's diary entries about being shipped to Brest, France, traveling to Paris, and her trip back to the States. The recording ends with songs from World War One including "Oh, how I hate to get up in the morning" sung by Arthur Fields and a medley sung by Jeffery O'Hara.
- Date Issued:
- 1984-06-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- Victoria O'Hearn talks about her experiences as nurse in France during World War One. She recalls being asked to translate evacuation notices sent to French citizens just prior to the bombing of their village, being stationed in a Paris hospital and having to chastise Marshall Petain for not closing a hospital door, being lost in the dark during a blackout while trying to help a little French girl shop for a gift, and treating an Italian laborer who trusted her with his life savings to send back to his wife. O'Hearns says that the morale and fighting spirit of French civilians in war time was amazing and that she herself found her work rewarding even in the face of long hours and difficult conditions. Ends abruptly.
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- Helen B. Schwarz says that she was motivated by patriotism to join the U.S. Army Nurse Corps an discusses her service during World War I in this oral history interview. Schwarz says that she was first sent to Fort Gordon in Georgia for training and later shipped to France to work in a hospital that was called "Base 114". Schwarz recalls her pay, her nursing duties, living in tents and barracks, her uniform, working twelve hour shifts and going AWOL with another girl to visit Paris. Schwarz says that obeying curfew was her biggest challenge in the military and that she enjoyed "every minute of her time in the Army. Schwarz is interviewed by Betty Thompson.
- Date Issued:
- 1983-05-19T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project