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- 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
- Description:
- In an oral history interview, Retired Lieutenant Colonel Madeline M. Ullom talks about her 28 year career in the United States Army Nurse Corps, including her service in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War II and being held as a POW by the Japanese. Ullom says she was based in Manila when the Japanese attacked in 1942 and was one of the last to be evacuated to the U.S. fortress on Corregidor. She talks about treating wounded in the fortress's tunnels as the Japanese attacked, the eventual U.S. surrender and becoming a POW. Ullom talks about life in an internment camp, being imprisoned with civilian women and children from almost every Allied nation, the poor rations, and roll calls even in the middle of the night. Ullom says that more and more prisoners became sick and fatalities from malnutrition increased dramatically before her camp was finally liberated by the U. S. First Cavalry in 1944. She also talks about her post war assignments, becoming an advisor to the Veterans Administration, her activities in retirement and finally traveling back to the Philippines. Ullom is interviewed by Margaret E. Duncan.
- Date Issued:
- 1985-05-15T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Women's Overseas Service League Oral History Project