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- Description:
- Margaret Kaminski Bliss talks about her service in the U.S. Army Nurse Corp from August 1941 through July 1946. Bliss says she trained as a civilian at St. Lukes School of Nursing in Idaho, that her first military assignment was at Fort Lewis in Washington and that she was later sent overseas to war-time New Guinea and Manila. She talks about the insects, snakes and other poisonous creatures in New Guinea, her quarters, her uniforms, the torrential rain storms, tropical diseases, the forbidding jungle, seeing Japanese submarines, being escorted to the latrine by an armed guard, seeing USO shows, the rations and having the chocolates sent from home melt immediately in the equatorial heat. Bliss also confides that she was secretly married in 1943 but that her husband was soon killed overseas and that she was married again after the war. Bliss is interviewed by Neola Ann Spackman.
- Date Issued:
- 1985-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- Retired Army Colonel Mary Ruth Pullig talks about growing up in Arkansas and Louisiana, her education and her long career as a U.S. Army nurse. After nursing school and working at various hospitals in the south, Pullig says that she joined the Army Nurse Corps in 1943, did her basic training at Fort Sam Houston in Texas and was first assigned to Fitzsimons Army Medical Center in Denver. She also talks about other Stateside assignments and says that she was finally sent overseas to New Guinea and and then to the Philippines and describes the living conditions at both posts, the poor diet, working under enemy fire, some of the patients she treated and nursing civilians suffering from collateral damage wounds. After the war, Pullig says that she was stationed in occupied Germany for a time and finally came back to the States and earned bachelors and masters degrees. She says she is thankful for being given the opportunity to travel and see the world and that the young men who fought were good men overall and that she enjoyed her experience with them and helping people as a nurse. Ruth Stewart interviews Pullig.
- Date Issued:
- 2003-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- In an oral history interview, Winifred Gansel discusses her service in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps during World War Two. Gansel talks about growing up in California, graduating from nursing school in 1931, her enlistment in the U.S. Army after Pearl Harbor and being sent to New Guinea with the 80th General Hospital. Gansel describes life at the camp, working with the native people, surviving insects and lizards, dealing with hygiene issues, and what the nurses did to relax. She says that the 80th later moved with the troops to the Philippines and she talks about treating severely dehydrated and malnourished soldiers in tent hospitals there, and her duty in a polio ward. Gansel says that she came back to the States in November 1945, was discharged as a captain in March 1946, and returned to her position as a supervisor at the Santa Clara County Hospital in California. Gansel is interviewed by Norma I. Williams.
- Date Issued:
- 1984-05-30T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project