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- Description:
- Josephine Boecker discusses her service in the American Red Cross in the Pacific Theater from September 1943 to September 1946. Boecker describes being contacted by the Red Cross and later being called for war service, going through the required background checks, taking a leave of absence from her job, and enduring a grueling three month training regimen. Boecker says that she believed she was headed to North Africa and was surprised when she found herself aboard a train bound for the west coast and duty in the Pacific. She describes the four week trip to New Guinea, being stationed at the 47th General Hospital near Milne Bay, the camp conditions, sanitation, the food, the steps taken to prevent malaria, the perpetual rain, camp social events, and her job of setting up entertainment and recreation facilities for the troops. She says that she spent her leave in Australia and later moved forward with the troops to the Philippines. She recalls her reaction to the news of the dropping of the atomic bomb, being sent to Japan to staff a hospital in Tokyo, the destruction she saw, and the effects U.S. occupation had on Japanese society. Sound quality deteriorates near the conclusion of the recording.
- Date Issued:
- 1985-02-15T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- Retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Anne Noreen Bauer talks about her twenty-eight year career as an United States Army nurse. Bauer talks about enlisting in August 1942 at the age of twenty-seven, her training, early assignments at Fort Benjamin Harrison where she became head nurse and finally shipping out to Bombay, India on her way to Karachi with the 159th Station Hospital. Bauer remembers the voyage to India, having dinner with Britain's Lord Louis Mountbatten, working with British nurses, staff and civilians, taking over a convent to use as a hospital, and the many the diseases and injuries she treated. She also discusses her many post-war assignments which took her around the world and especially her efforts to establish hospitals in Vietnam and provide the local population with medical assistance. Bauer is interviewed by Jane Fore.
- Date Issued:
- 1985-06-20T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- In a wide-ranging oral history interview, Josephine Boecker discusses her service in the American Red Cross in the South Pacific from September 1943 to September 1946. Boecker says she was contacted by the Red Cross and later called for war service and recalls anticipating being sent to North Africa and being surprised when she found herself on a train bound for the west coast. Boecker talks about activities on board ship during the four week trip to New Guinea, the reception the nurses received from the soldiers when they came ashore and being assigned to the 47th General Hospital near Milne Bay where Red Cross workers staffed recreation programs. She describes camp conditions, sanitation, food, the malaria epidemics, finding activities to keep the troops occupied, and spending her leave in Australia and later following the Army to the Philippines. Boecker says that she was overjoyed when she heard the news of the dropping of the atomic bomb and that the war was over. She says she was later and shipped to Japan to staff a hospital in Tokyo and discusses the destruction she saw and the effects that the U.S. occupation had on Japanese society. Boecker is recorded for the Radcliffe College Library.
- Date Issued:
- 1989-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project