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- Description:
- In a wide-ranging oral history interview, Margaret Canfield talks about her twenty-four year career in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps and serving in both the Korean and Vietnam Wars. Canfield says that she graduated from nursing school in 1951 and enlisted in the Army that same year. She talks about her basic training in Texas, her first assignment in Colorado, being sent to Japan in 1953 and treating casualties coming in from Korean battlefields. After the Korean War, she says that she was stationed in Utah and Hawaii and again in Asia and was finally sent to Vietnam in February 1967. Canfield discusses her various duty stations in Vietnam, treating Vietnamese civilians and U.S. and Korean troops and says that after becoming Chief Nurse at the 18th Surgical Hospital in Pleiku, she extended her tour of duty for another year. In December 1967, she says that she was transferred to a hospital in the Mekong Delta in support the 9th Infantry Division and that the hospital was shelled and virtually destroyed during the 1968 Tet Offensive. Canfield says that she returned to the U.S. after twenty-one months in Vietnam and finally retired from the Army in August 1975. Canfield is interviewed by Ruth F. Stewart.
- Date Issued:
- 2004-01-15T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- Erma Flitsch talks about her service as a nurse in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War and the Cold War. Flitsch says that she grew up in Milwaukee, joined the Air Force after graduating from nursing school and first served at Bergstrom AFB at Austin, Texas and later at Clark AFB in the Philippines and in Tachikawa in Japan. In Korea, Flitsch says that she worked at MASH units to prepare wounded soldiers for air evacuation and talks about the food, her duties, patient care, flying with casualties, the weather in-country and what she did in her off-duty time. Flitsch also says that she later served in Pakistan, Germany and at other U.S. bases before retiring from the military in 1977. Flitsch is interviewed by Ruth Stewart.
- Date Issued:
- 2004-02-16T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- Johanna Butt talks about her service in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps during World War Two and the Korean War. Butt says that she graduated from nursing school in 1943 and joined the Army that same year. She talks about treating wounded from Patton's Third Army in Europe, living in miserable conditions, being cold and not having enough to eat, V-E Day and finally being "separated" from the Army in February in 1946. She says that she was called up from the Army Reserves in 1951 for the Korean War and talks about being stationed in Japan with the 382nd General Hospital, the flood of casualties that came in from the fighting in Korea, returning to the States in 1954, teaching nursing, working as an Army recruiter in the Pacific Northwest and being turned down for service in the Vietnam war. Butt says she retired from the Army in 1970 and moved to Tucson, AZ to care for her mother and husband. Butt is interviewed by Ruth F. Stewart.
- Date Issued:
- 2004-01-14T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- Retired Lieutenant Colonel Jean Schiffman talks about her career in the Army Nurse Corp beginning in 1949 and her service in a MASH unit during the Korean War. Schiffman says she grew up in Philadelphia, worked as an RN before enlisting in the Army and took basic training at Letterman General Hospital in San Francisco, and advanced training at Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston in Texas. In Korea, Schiffman says that she served with the 8063 Mobile Army Surgical Hospital and talks about "in-country" living conditions, her duties and the advance medical procedures hospital staff were able to perform under very primitive conditons. After her one year tour of duty in Korea, she says that she decided to stay in the Army and was stationed at bases and hospitals in the U.S., Germany and Japan and that she finally retired in 1970 while serving at Fort Benning in Georgia. Schiffman is interviewed by Ruth F. Stewart assisted by Carol A. Habgood.
- Date Issued:
- 2004-01-14T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- Lieutenant Colonel Bernice R. Couzynse (Ret.) talks about her long military career and serving on four continents as a United States Army nurse. Couzynse says she completed nursing school in the fall of 1942 and by March 1943 had enlisted in the Army Nurse Corps. She tells of deploying to North Africa with a hospital unit, being under attack by German aircraft, moving up to Naples after the invasion of Italy, setting up a hospital at an agricultural college, moving with the troops as they advanced, being near the front lines and treating extreme battlefield injuries. At the end of the war in Europe, Couzynse says that she did not have enough points to rotate home and was slated to be sent to Japan as part of the U.S. invasion forces. Ironically, she says that she did later serve in Japan during the Korean Conflict. Couzynse recalls her duty in Germany in the early 1960s, the Berlin Wall crisis when all leaves were cancelled, and finally finishing her career as head nurse at William Beaumont Hospital in El Paso, TX in April 1971. She credits the Army with giving her a chance to have an interesting career, to travel, and to make many friends. Couzynse is interviewed by Doris J. Triick.
- Date Issued:
- 1983-03-17T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project
- Description:
- Linden N. Anderson talks about her long career in the American Red Cross which included service in World War Two and the Korean and Vietnam wars. Anderson reminisces about her childhood, attending the University of Texas, teaching in Texas public schools and finally joining the Red Cross in 1943. Anderson talks about her training with the "doughnut dollies", being stationed at the 91st General Hospital, shipping out to England and being stationed in Wales until her unit could be moved to a hospital at Oxford. Anderson says that her job was to provide entertainment for the wounded and build morale and that she often took patients on bus tours throughout England. After V-E Day, Anderson says that she returned to the States, but was soon recalled by the ARC to serve in Japan and in Korea during that conflict. Anderson also says that she remained in the Red Cross for twenty-years after Korea, discusses her duty stations in Libya, Germany, Korea and the U.S., describes treating casualties in Japan during the Vietnam war and finishing her career in Corpus Christi in 1973. Anderson is interviewed by Ruth F. Stewart.
- Date Issued:
- 2004-02-18T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project