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- Description:
- Sarah Penrose "Penny" Schemmel Edlin discusses her service with the 82nd General Hospital during World War Two. Edlin talks about her childhood, her education as a physical therapist, joining the Army as a commissioned officer in August 1943, her very rigorous basic training, and being shipped to England in February 1944. She also talks about the harsh living conditions in the hospital camps where she served including, the bad food, unsanitary conditions and rodent infestations, and shares a story about a planned German POW prison break near one of the camps and treating the German prisoners who claimed they couldn't speak English. After VE-Day, Edlin says that her unit moved to France to close down hospitals and later to a hospital in England to treat emaciated American POWs who were returning from the German prison camps. She says that romances between U.S. Army officers and nurses was quite common during the war and that she, in fact, married a man from her unit after she returned to the States. Edlin is interviewed by Dorothy M. Harrison.
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- Hildegarde Abbott talks about her service as a "Hello Girl" telephone operator in the U.S. Signal Corps during World War One. Abbott reminisces about her training, other women in the Corps, her duties, life in France, socializing with soldiers, making candy, writing letters for the wounded in the military hospital, dating officers, having the flu during the epidemic and doing things the nurses didn't have time to do, all in addition to her telephone duties. She says that she got her sixty-dollar-a-month job because the Army needed French speaking women to use the duel French/American telephone systems and to serve as interpreters. She recalls knowing in advance when the Armistice would be signed but not being able to talk about it and then celebrating when the war was finally over. After the war, Abbott says that she served with the Peace Commission overseas and finally returned to the U.S. in 1920. At home she married, finished college, started a family and she says visited France later in life when her son was teaching there. Abbott is interviewed by Jane Piatt and Mary C. Burnham.
- Date Issued:
- 1983-05-13T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- Irene Petrie talks about her World War Two service (July 1942 to September 1945) as a mess sergeant in the U.S. Women's Army Corps. Petrie says that she was motivated by patriotism to enlist and talks about being trained to set up field kitchens, her various duty stations, military regulations, running a mess hall, experiencing discrimination based upon her gender, what it was like to date G.I.s, her U.S. and overseas housing, and the poor military diet. Petrie also talks about preparing food in Southampton, England for troops heading for Normandy on D-Day, talking to the young, nervous troops headed to France during the invasion, her mess team landing on Omaha Beach in early August 1944, later being quartered in the Grand Hotel in Paris, and setting up a field kitchen during the Battle of the Bulge. Petrie is interviewed by Neola Ann Spackman.
- Date Issued:
- 1985-01-28T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- Irene Cully discusses her twenty-two year career in the United States Army Nurse Corps. Cully says that she was working as a nurse in a hospital in Omaha, Nebraska when she joined the Army in August 1939 and that one of her primary reasons for enlisting was the great benefits the service offered. Cully says that she worked as a nurse anesthetist at many different Army medical facilities before being sent overseas when the World War II started. She recalls being scared to death shortly after D-Day while "passing gas" in a surgical tent in France while being strafed by German fighter planes. She says that she adjusted easily to military life and decided to make the Army a career after the war. Cully is interviewed by Marjorie Brown.
- Date Issued:
- 1986-03-04T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- Gertrude Neff Gay talks about completing nurse's training at Jewish Hospital in Louisville, KY, joining the American Red Cross, and after completing certification requirements, joining the Army Nurse Corps in May 1944. Gay says she was eager to get overseas and signed up to be shipped out immediately after basic training. Gay talks about being sent to Omaha Beach in Normandy with the 196th General Hospital, describes setting up a field hospital near Carentan, France, enduring harsh living conditions there, her food rations, her daily routine, and the camaraderie in her unit. Gay says that the hospital cared for German POWS and French citizens right along with U.S. soldiers, and comments on how much help they received from the Army chaplains. She also talks about the rush of casualties after the Battle of the Bulge, fraternization with offices, taking leave in Paris, feeling that she wanted to get on with her life after the war ended and using the G.I. Bill back home to return to school. Ends abruptly. Gay is interviewed by Virginia Emrick.
- Date Issued:
- 1985-02-12T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- In an oral history interview, 93 year-old Lena Hitchcock talks about her pioneering service as an occupational therapist in the U.S. Army during World War I. She says that she was one of the first of her profession to join the Army and was in the first group of women sent to France to establish physical therapy practices in American hospitals. Hitchcock recalls being shipped to France aboard a troop transport which was part of a twenty-nine ship British convoy and being assigned to a New York nursing unit which was part of the Army Medical Corps. She says that she was always too busy to keep a diary of her experiences in Europe and that beginning each day at 6:00am she was faced with treating a constant flow of casualties coming in from front line aid stations. Hitchcock also describes the science behind physical therapy, gives a history of the profession and explains why she chose it as a career. The interview is conducted during the 62nd Annual WOSL Convention. Hitchcock is interviewed by Jane Ingersoll Piatt and Geneva K. Wiskemann from the WOSL Lansing Unit.
- Date Issued:
- 1982-07-14T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- Rose Stornant talks about her service as a legal secretary in the Women's Army Corps during World War II. Stornant recalls her training and her different U.S. assignments before being shipped to England in March 1944. She remembers being in Salisbury England watching the gliders and Airborne troop transports heading for Normandy on D-Day and says that she wasn't sent to France until November 1944. Stornant says that she was in Paris during the Battle of the Bulge at the end of 1944 and also talks about Christmas in Paris, the celebrations on V-E Day, Bastille Day, and V-J Day and finally earning enough points to be sent back to the States. She says that she worked in Chicago for a short time after the war, but finally returned to Lansing, MI to reclaim her old job. Stornant is interviewed by Elsie Hornbacher.
- Date Issued:
- 1984-07-11T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- Theodora C. Smolinski talks about her service in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps and later the Women's Army Corp during World War II. She says that she was working as a stenographer and switchboard operator for a company in Pittsburgh when, motivated by patriotism, she enlisted in October 1942 and later found herself being shipped overseas aboard the Queen Mary. She discusses the bases she served at in both England and France, describes her Army duties as a switchboard operator, her pay, her rank, her uniforms, and being segregated from the men. Smolinski says she returned to her employer in Pittsburgh after her discharge in 1945, used the GI Bill to earn a certificate in occupational therapy and later an undergraduate degree and that her time in the military gave her a sense of confidence which was important to her throughout her life. Smolinski is interviewed by Amelia Bunder.
- Date Issued:
- 1984-02-22T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- Neola Ann Spackman reminisces about her family, her decision to go into nursing, and what motivated her to join the Army Nurse Corps during World War Two, after serving in the Red Cross Disaster Nursing Service. She talks about working in Minnesota, moving to California, and in April 1941, receiving a request to join the Nurse Corps, which she says was almost like being drafted. She describes life at Fort Ord, California, her duties, housing, racial discrimination, and how she spent social time. Spackman recalls almost being transferred to the Philippines just before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, shipping out to England aboard a cramped troop ship in 1943 and eight months later transferring to a field hospital which followed the troops into France after D-Day. Spackman says that she joined a field hospital near the front in August 1944 and describes her twelve-hour surgery shifts, being evacuated from Luxembourg as the Battle of the Bulge raged, moving into Germany at Cologne and later witnessing the Russian-U.S. hook-up at the Elbe River. After the war, she says that she was assigned to the Fort Custer hospital in Michigan, was married, worked as a civilian nurse for 35 years and retired in 1982.
- Date Issued:
- 1985-06-02T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- Retired Lieutenant Colonel Margaret E. Oaks talks about her twenty-one year career in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps which began in July 1944 during World War II. Oaks says she was attached to an "air-evac" hospital during the war and discusses her wartime quarters and her various uniforms, and remembers being in Le Harve, France after D-Day and being amazed at the level of destruction. Oaks says she did not consider making the Army a career but when the war ended just decided that she was "cut out to be in the military." She talks about serving in post-war Germany and lists her other postings throughout the U.S. and around the world and says that she worked in almost every nursing specialty during her long career, including supervision and command. Oaks is interviewed by Marjorie Brown.
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project