Nurses in Battle
The Army Nurse Corps attracted many American women. The pay was far better than the pay at home. Their room, board, and laundry were taken care of for them. They were assured free medical care, graduate education, and retirement benefits. They didn't know, however, that they'd act as soldiers, dodging bombs and running from the enemy. Women in the ANC had to work like men.
"Little did I dream that we would be always hungry, always frightened. That we would grab shovels and help dig foxholes so we would have some shelter to crawl into when the dive-bombers came. That we would all suffer malaria and dysentery and diarrhea. It was a good thing for all of us that we had no idea what we were getting into."
-an Army nurse¹ |
Physical exhaustion became the overwhelming factor in their lives. "They faced the dangers and deprivations of Manila and Bataan and Corregidor and not one of them cracked."³ The usual ratio of nurses to patients was one to ten, but these women found themselves caring for 300 patients each just halfway through the war. One nurse, Eunice C. Hatchitt, said, "Days and nights were an endless nightmare until it seemed we couldn't stand it any longer. Patients came in by the hundreds, and doctors and nurses worked continuously under the tents amid the flies and heat and dust. We had from eight to nine hundred victims a day."⁴
Eating became the second major problem they faced. "Two "meals" a day were all these hard-working people could get, with breakfast no more than some fritters or a little oatmeal and supper usually consisting of a stew and rice, the stew having been made of carabao, horse, or mule meat."³ Whenever the soldiers went on half rations, so did the nurses. The women in the ANC did 10 times the work that the average woman did with a tenth of the food.
Disease was also a chief problem that these brave women faced for their country. "Mosquito netting was probably the most prized commodity next to food."³ The nocturnal raids of mosquitos did almost as much harm as the attacks of Japanese planes during the daytime. Supplies of essential medicines were little to none. One nurse said, "Nurses and doctors donated their own blood to save the soldiers."³
Even through the hardships these women faced they still had uplifting spirits. Nurses cheered up their patients with physical contact and interaction. D.D. Engles in American Magazine explained, "We tried to make ourselves as presentable as possible. We had been able to bring along some rouge, powder, lipstick, and our toothbrushes. Every day we took our baths and washed our coveralls in the nearby creek... The men whom we cared for used to tell us we were the most beautiful things in the world." Through all of the war they remained composed. "We were terribly frightened," said Engles," and we longed for peace and home, but none of us ever broke down and indulged in hysterics. It meant a great deal to the wounded and sick men to have American women to give them the expert care their mothers and wives would have wanted for them."
¹ Quote from National Geographic Oct. 1943; ²Pictures from American Women and World War II and National Women's History Museum; ³Excerpt from American Women and World War II; ⁴ Excerpt from Collier's Aug. 1942