Interview of Betty Van Kirk on her eleven months of service in the American Red Cross in the Pacific Theater during World War II

View Item Record

Description:

In an oral history interview, Betty Van Kirk discusses her eleven months of service in the American Red Cross in the Pacific Theater during World War II. She talks about her training at American University, shipping overseas to New Guinea, how women were treated, dating, the climate, dispensing cigarettes, toothpaste and other personal items to soldiers in the hospital wards where she worked, sleeping under mosquito netting, being "sacred to death" of malaria, and meeting former American POWs and seeing their deplorable condition. Van Kirk says that she now finds it hard to remember the faces of the people she served with so long ago. Ends abruptly.

Date Issued:

1982-04-01T00:00:00Z

Data Provider:

Michigan State University. Libraries

Collection:

Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project

Place:

New Guinea, New Guinea, and New Guinea

Subject Topic:

World War, 1939-1945, World War, 1939-1945, Participation, Female, Military nursing, World War, 1939-1945, Medical care, Prisoners of war, and Health

Subject Name:

Van Kirk, Betty and American National Red Cross

Subject Genre:

Interviews, Interviews, and Personal narratives, American

Language:

English

Rights:

In Copyright

URL:

https://n2t.net/ark:/85335/m5bx3g