Encoded for the Experiencing War web site for the Veterans History Project.
The recording of the interview with Florence M. Fattig was digitized.
This transcription was encoded with minimal changes to the original text in an effort to preserve original content and idiosyncrasies of the person interviewed. Period language and terminology are also retained. Encoding is literal with regard to the transcriptionist's capitalization, punctuation, and spelling. Spelling errors are indicated with [sic]; however, recurring errors in spelling within a single document have been marked the first time and not subsequently.
Today is Wednesday, April 30th, 2003; and this is the beginning of an interview with Florence Fattig, Florence M. Fattig, and her maiden name was Charkotsky (ph), and her home is at 1416 West Division Street in Grand Island, Nebraska 68801. Mrs. Fattig, Florence, is 83 years old, having been born on August 4th, 1919. My name is Judy Rosenkotter, and I will be the interviewer. And, Florence, my relationship to you kind of goes back quite a few years. I've known you because you're a Registered Nurse and I'm a Registered Nurse and we both work together at the VA hospital, so we have a knowledge of each other that goes back quite a few years. Florence, could you state for the recording what war and branch of the service you served in.
I was in World War II in the Army Nurse Corps.
And what was your rank?
Well, I started as a Second Lieutenant, came out as a First.
Okay. And where did you serve? Just name all the places where you served.
Well, I was first in Fort Lewis, Washington; and then Bushnell at Brigham, Utah; Camp White in Oregon, and from there we went to New Jersey. I'm trying to think of the -- Trees. Let me see. He wrote Trees. What's the name of that? To Camp Kilmer. And, of course, we knew we were going there because our Warrant Officer kept saying trees, trees, trees, and so we went across the United States to New Jersey.
How were you transported across the United States?
Well, we came -- well, on a train. Stopped in North Platte, had sandwiches. About midnight I believe it was. We were at Camp Kilmer for approximately ten days mostly to see movies and do all the calisthenics like the rope on the side of the ship and a few things like that. Then, of course, we boarded ship at night or in the evening. I wasn't going to go because I have a fear of water; but when they called my name, I walked up that plank just like the rest of them. We were in one of the slowest -- one of the slowest convoys, which meant you had to go as slow as the smallest, little ship. So we were on the water, I believe, ten days, and we landed in Liverpool at night; and the interesting thing, I thought, was all the chimneys that you saw in the silhouette, rather pretty. So then we spent the night at a maternity hospital. The next morning they served us tea and rolls, and so then they showed us the hospital; and maybe you don't want to -- maybe this isn't interesting, but they showed us where -- how they treated the maternity patients, and at that time they were teaching them to go to sleep between pains. They should be able to go to sleep within ten seconds. They had complete knowledge as to what was going to happen to them. We were far behind at that time. So that was interesting. Then we went -- from Liverpool we went to Southport, England, which was a resort center; and we were sent to different homes that we were going to spend our time there. That would have been, I presume, in March. I'm not sure. And we were there until July.
Of what year are we speaking?
Well, that would have been what? '44 I guess. I would presume so. Well, I should have been better prepared.
So you were in England how long?
Pardon?
You were in England how long?
Well, from March until July. And we went into -- Here let me get this thing. -- arrived at Liverpool.
You said the 10th of March?
Of 1944.
Okay.
Uh-huh.
Thank you.
And, of course, June 6 was the invasion. On the 25th of June we left for Southport and arrived in Beaumont where we spent our time until July the 6th; and on July the 12th -- well, we left there on July the 12th and arrived in France at Omaha Beachhead -- No. No. Why I would say that, I don't know, because we went to Utah.
So you went to Utah Beach?
Yeah. We went to Utah Beach. And we went across on an LCI, which is just a small -- a very small boat, played poker all night because there were only two beds in the whole thing. But we went over in skirts, mind you, our dress uniforms, because our chief nurse, being a little strange, thought that when the French saw us that they would know we were ladies. Can you -- can you imagine jumping off of this -- off of the boat into a little landing craft and then stepping into water? Well, Utah Beachhead, it's a little short distance and then there's quite a hill; and, of course, we didn't think too much of walking up that hill, but there were a couple -- there were trucks that came down and offered us to -- offered us a ride to our destination, which was at the top of the hill; and our chief nurse said, no, we would walk. Well, we rode. She walked. And we spent the day there and it was hot, no latrines, just split -- just little trenches. So that was the point of that, but then you'd find that even in France when you went to a pub. Then we went to Sauveur, S-A-U-V-E-U-R, where the 35th Evac Hospital had already been set up; and so they were going to go onto the -- advance to the front lines while we took over there to learn a little bit about how things were going to be. It was a very small area and it was very noisy, much more so than we ever heard later on, because the airport was there. The tanks was there. Everything was there; and, of course, we expected that the rest of the war, which wasn't true at all. And so on the 17th of July we arrived at Point Labbe, L-A-B-B-E, and we were there for 16 days.
France -- I mean, Florence. Excuse me. Florence, let's back up and I want to ask you a few questions about, where did you enlist and what motivated you to do that?
Well, I was working in Roseburg, Oregon, and just decided that it might be kind of fun to go in the service for one year. That was in 1941, before the war. I received orders to go to -- leave for Fort Lewis on August the 1st, well, by train. There was a train that left in the morning, but there was also a train that left five minutes before midnight, and so I took that and I was considered late. One reason I was late also was because a friend of mine that was stationed at Fort Lewis said, "There's no sense in going in on Sunday. There's nobody there." There is. And so I was AWOL my first day.
Did they do anything in reference to that, any punishment associated --
Well, the only thing that they told me was that, if something had happened to me in the meantime, if I were in an accident or something, the Army would not be responsible for me. Other than that that was all so --
Well, and why did you pick the Army?
Well, I guess -- well, I told you I was afraid of water and so I thought being in the Navy -- and, of course, the Navy nurses saw probably less water than the Army nurses did and, of course, you didn't even think about the Air Force or any of the others, so I guess that's --
Do you --
I probably saw more Army signs.
Do you remember anything about your -- your -- like what we call basic training?
My basic training didn't amount to what most of you went through because this was peacetime.
It was before the war was started?
Right, uh-huh. So we were just more or less introduced to the policies and so forth of nursing if gone to war; and, of course, I was not on -- not on -- stationed the day the war was declared, too; and, of course, we're supposed to sign out and say where we were going and, of course, most of us didn't do that and I didn't do that either.
So where were you when --
I was in Seattle.
And you hadn't signed out?
And I hadn't signed out but then we knew that -- we all knew the men that would be at the gate to let us in, although they said that probably we wouldn't; and, of course, we were in civilian clothes.
Well, how did you feel when you heard that the war had started?
Well, I don't think it was a real surprise because -- I wish I had -- now, this I'm not dreaming of, dreaming this thing up; but one Sunday just shortly before the war began one of the patients brought me this little comic book, and in it was that we were at war with Japan; and do you know we hunted for that comic book after the war was declared, but then it had been, you know, probably a week's time or so, probably better. I don't know what happened to it, but we couldn't find it; and, of course, we all said, well, probably but at the same time we chuckled. Two, the -- of course, they were -- said that they were -- the Japanese were trying to poison the water and all this and that and the other thing so -- And blackout, we were in blackout as well, and I remember coming home from work one day. There was a soldier leading us and so we got to the -- there were probably ten or twelve others that he was leading, and then so he shined the light and, of course, he was Japanese or he was oriental. I don't know what. But the food server on the ward also was an oriental and he brought his food, and none of the patients would eat, and he would -- he tasted all the foods himself, and he even cried because they wouldn't eat, but then that was the only meal they didn't eat; but, of course, they transferred them. I don't know where they went to, but we didn't -- we didn't see them later. Whether they were sent to the camps or not, I'm not sure.
The internment camps you're talking of?
Yeah, uh-huh. So I don't know. I'm not sure about that. And, of course, we heard the rumors about them landing in California, Oregon, and Washington, all which was false, of course, but I was kind of worried.
Were you frightened?
I guess I just don't have sense enough to think about it much.
What age would you have been at that time?
Well, I think I would have been 22, 23. Twenty-two probably. It was just kind of a good time, you know.
So what was your job assignment at the hospital?
I was a staff nurse.
There in Washington?
Uh-huh. Uh-huh. And, of course, we rotated shifts like, I guess, all staff nurses do.
Well, let's -- let's get back to -- you were telling us all the different places you had gone and the different dates.
Well, of course, we kept moving between July 17th and August the 4th. We moved one time. I know on August the 4th, my birthday, we were in Pirou, France, P-I-R-O-U.
Did you do anything special for your birthday?
No. We left. We were at Pirou from August the 1st to the 4th, and then we arrived at Saint James on the 4th, that being my birthday. I could not stand that -- I think it's -- which ration I'm not sure, but it's the little boxes at sea.
K-rats?
I'm not sure. "K."
K-rats?
You're right, "K." Some of the food wasn't too bad, but the crackers made me -- just upset me; but the chief nurse gave me a loaf of bread, because we baked our own bread, and all the bread was given away to the French as we left; but she got one loaf of bread and she gave it to me, and that was the best cake I ever had. But that night the Germans were trying to establish who we were so they kept dropping the flares, and they had dug foxholes around our tents to get into; but women are strange. They don't use the foxholes. We just waited it out, and we knew that until it was a red flare we didn't have anything to worry about.
Did you crawl under your cots or anything like that?
Well, we were in tents. Pardon?
Anything like crawling under your cots or --
No. No, because we were waiting for that red flare. We thought we had time, but we didn't sleep much that night, but that wasn't the same month. That was August the 8th, the Blitz month. So all that four days they were trying to determine who we were, I guess; and, of course, we used to hear the German planes fly over us, and their engines do sound different because it was an area where they were safe. It was a refuge for them. They wouldn't be fired on while they were above the hospital, so that wasn't too unusual. But a Blitz -- the Blitz was kind of unusual. It was somewhat scary. We did find a -- although they used to always comb the area for bombs or anything of that sort, they did find a large tank bomb in the triage area; but, of course, just walking over it you weren't heavy enough to trigger it off, although everybody felt better when it was gone. So then on the 16th we arrived at capital A-U-T-H-O-N. It was a big beautiful bivouac area. It was a pasture, but we didn't stay there because they moved -- Patton was moving so we just spent the night. They told us the next day that -- of course, they had soldiers all around our area I guess to protect us because it was close to the front lines.
Now, when you said it was a beautiful bivouac area, did you have tents that you carried with you that you had to set up?
No. We stayed mostly in the open.
You stayed in the open?
Because we knew we would be moving on.
I see. So how did you attend to your personal needs and your comforts?
Well, gee, I don't know. I can't remember that. We certainly didn't have any showers, or we didn't do too much in the way of bathing outside of washing our face; and I'm sure that they must have had latrines set up because that was usually one of the first things that came up, was the latrine, so I'm sure there was a latrine. Then on the 17th we arrived in capital C-O-U-R-V-I-L-L-E which was a wheat field. It was near Chartres, and we stayed there for about seven days. And then on the 24th of August we arrived in Eaton, and it was a five-day rest period.
During this period of time of moving were there any troops that had to be taken care of, or it was just a matter of getting you from one point to the next?
Well, with the evac hospital at that time -- you had three evac hospitals and they would jump one another. The first one had -- when you set up, you were supposed to be within seven miles of the front lines. So the hospital that was at the end getting ready to go to the front probably didn't have any patients. We'd clean out our patients. And sometimes we had a day when we were waiting for a new assignment. With Patton a day usually was probably all that you had because you'd moved so fast. So at that time we probably didn't have -- very few people so they would be evacuated. And then we moved again, and then we got to Flagge which is near Fontaine Bleau. Our colonel happened to be from Nebraska, from Omaha, Nebraska, Colonel Thomason, and he felt that he would probably never ever be back in Europe again. So when we did have free time, like waiting, and he knew that we wouldn't be going for maybe a day, he would give us trucks and we would go to see the things of interest within -- within one day's travel. Now, our hospital was the only one that did that; and, of course, we really got to see a lot of things which is -- you know, which was really great.
Now, when they did that, did they -- if you went on trucks to go, i.e., to see things, did they send armed personnel with you?
Oh, no. No. Uh-uh, no.
You were not --
No.
-- in a --
Uh-uh. Of course, we always traveled in trucks. Once in a great while it happens but mostly in the back of the truck.
And you definitely were in your skirts then?
We would go which would be farther back in lines, and it was -- it was nice that he would do all those type of things.
What type of uniform were you wearing then?
Well, of course, we had fatigues and with General Patton it didn't matter where you were as long as -- if you were in Paris, of course, you could wear your dress uniform; but if you were in the Third Army area, you had to wear a -- had to have a helmet, boots, and leggings. Leggings are a real bitch, you know, lacing them up. So eventually I think probably a good number of the nurses had the leather top; and, of course, the only way you could get those -- and this is terrible -- if you were to have a patient who was to have an amputee, amputation, where you confiscated the shoe for the leather top. So that's kind of sick but --
There's that saying where "necessity is the mother of invention."
Yeah, right. Of course, we kept moving. We moved on the 26th of August, September the 4th, the 8th of September; and then on the 9th of September we arrived in Eaton, France. It was on the side hill. They didn't set up -- choose a very good area because they figured we'd be moving very shortly. That was when Eisenhower decided to shut the gas supply off for Patton because Montgomery was supposedly not where he was supposed to be, so Patton had to stop. And so we were on this side hill. It rained and rained. They put up ropes so that we could use those to get to the mess hall. Our latrine, the nurses' latrine, was across 14 rows of plowed ground; and so I guess we all remembered that. But we used to go to Eaton, France, and I think this is quite interesting. There were quite a few of us -- it was within walking distance, this little town, and we were there and this -- we were walking along without our helmets and so we -- this command car stops, and it's Patton and he's yelling at us for not having our helmets on, and with him were Eisenhower and Bradley. We tried to keep him from blowing his top, I suppose, for not having gas; and so they said, Oh, never mind, I bet they're kind of enjoying this. So he didn't say any more. Yeah, this was the exciting day, on the 29th. That's when we saw General Ike. October the 7th. So we were there for a long time, almost a month. And then we went into Nancy, France; and Nancy, France, is on the southern part of France. At that time we were in an insane asylum and it was rather pathetic. I presume that the patients didn't get much to eat or they liked our food, one or the other, because they would -- if it wasn't watched very closely, they would go to where we discarded our leftovers and get this food, so I don't know which it was; but Nancy was kind of an interesting place, but Nancy, France -- As I told you before, the slip trench, I think the first time we ran into that was in Cherbourg shortly after --
For the recording would you tell the -- what a slip trench is.
Well, this -- well, this is where you do your daily duties or however. You need to go. They're a little different both in Chartres -- Cherbourg. Cherbourg, that's the first time we ran into this; but actually there it's a cement floor and you have footprints and then there's a hole, but this was also true in Eaton. Of course, there were other bathrooms as well, but I think that in Cherbourg that's was the only one that was available where we were in one. Nancy was a rather beautiful place, and at that time we thought that we would go further into southern France. That's where there would be a big push, but we felt that there had to be some plans someplace because most of the casualties that we were getting were 16 years old maybe or over 40, either young or old, so the prime soldiers had to be converging someplace else. We didn't have --
Were these German patients?
Yes. Of course, we took care of the Germans, of course, as well as the Americans; and you took in surgery -- I worked in surgery, and you operated on the most serious patient. Some days maybe we worked primarily on Germans unless you were getting to get a little worried about the condition of the Americans were waiting too long. Well, then you would take those, but that's something that you had to do. But we didn't have too -- had very few American casualties, not a lot of surgical patients, but we had an awful lot of American casualties because they didn't have socks and they only had one pair of socks. When they came in, some of the -- I didn't see this, but the nurses that worked in those wards said you could peel the socks off and their feet were so sore; and the soldiers would say, if you had two pair of socks so that you could wash one every night, you'd kill if somebody tried to take that pair of socks; and some actually needed psychiatric care because of this terrible situation with their feet. They were supposed to get socks but they got a truckload of butter they told us so -- now, this was in Nancy. And on December the 24th we went into Luxembourg. We started early in the morning and got there in the evening; and, of course, we worked from eight to eight so we did work shortly after we got there and we were so busy. We were in an orphanage there, and the one bad thing was triage was on the first floor and surgery was on the second and quite a steep stairwell. We had some awfully strong litter bearers. In fact, we had this one little -- I think he came from Tennessee, very, very strong, but he slept -- he didn't sleep in his tent, never put it up. He slept in the cab of the truck that had the engine for electricity. You can imagine how noisy that had to be. And he didn't bathe. So one day the boys decided that they would -- We did have showers occasionally. If we were near a creek or where there was a water supply, why, they would set up showers, which was really great. So one of the first or second times that we did set up, the boys took him in there and said, okay, now you get a shower. So he walked underneath it and, he said, "Boy, what a good way to wash your clothes." But he had a strong back and he was a real worker. We had -- well, by the time we got off duty, then I went to mass. And, of course, we had counted sponges just on the abdominals, nothing else, or chest, and so counting sponges was done during the night. As I went to make the sign of the cross, it was one, two, three, four; and then I laughed the rest of the mass. What was I going to say about -- Of course, there, being in the buildings, we didn't have to worry about dust; but when we were in tents, it was lined with white sheets. We had these that would slide and they had tarpaulin on the floor, but so many times you had rain and so there was a lot of mud brought in, but then you had no way of sweeping. I mean you couldn't sweep when they had patients on the tables.
You're talking about the surgical area?
Pardon?
You're talking about the surgery area?
Yeah, the surgery floor, uh-huh. So it was -- I don't know. I don't think we stirred up too much dust. And then, of course, we had penicillin. I want to back up on this. When I was at Bushnell, Utah, they brought in this new medication and it was to be -- Bushnell was a center for the amputees for the Pacific Theater. It was all rehab for them; and, of course, at that time we were putting either the sulfa powder or the sulfa tablets, and it would take a long time before they would heal because they were doing a flap as well as a guillotine. The amputations, we did guillotines.
For the recording would you explain what a guillotine --
Pardon?
For the recording would you explain what a guillotine in an amputation --
A guillotine is just a straight amputation and then put traction on the skin to draw it to try to cover the -- to stop it. Of course, it's not covered right away. Well, a flap, they take skin and cover it; and, of course, this was just a good place to harbor any bacteria. So they'd be a long time going to surgery. Then we got this medication and it was given, I'm sure, IV or powder form, this stuff, and they were going to surgery in days. We could not believe it. It was called penicillin. And when I was working in Roseburg, Oregon, and hadn't had an OB forever and the doctor hadn't had an OB forever either, and so we were talking and he said, "You know, one of the interesting things that I did in the service is" -- I forget where he was but on the east coast and, he said, "We were getting amputees from Africa and we were using this medicine." Isn't that something, the two of us?
That's remarkable.
Yeah, uh-huh. Where was I?
You were talking about -- you had explained the flap --
Oh, yeah.
-- versus the guillotine of amputation.
In Luxembourg we were really very, very busy; and at one time they told us we were to evacuate. Well, it was impossible because we didn't have the wherewithal to do the evacuation of patients and personnel so everybody just stayed there. At that time I think they were within three miles of us, but then they were turned back; but we did evacuate one time, and I can't remember just where that was. But we were one of the back hospitals and so we didn't have too many patients, and so they decided that there would be only two wards of patients and they decided on having one nurse on either ward and one nursing assistant. Everybody else was going to evacuate the area. Of course, you take just a minimal amount of whatever. Naturally makeup you took. So we're in this truck and we're driving along, and finally we're stopped by a command car and they wanted to know where we were going; and the colonel says, "Well, we were told that there were two tanks that broke through and we were running away from them." And he said, "Wow, it's a good thing that we stopped them because, if we hadn't, you'd be meeting them just about now." We were going in the wrong direction. So our -- so we weren't gone but just a couple of hours and came back. Then on March the 14th we left Luxembourg and we went to Trier, Germany. This was interesting because it was a hospital and it was run by German monks. They were terrible to us. They were shutting off the water. They were shutting off the electricity; and, of course, we were using some of their equipment, like their lamps and this type of thing, in surgery; and that was the place, of course, that they seemed to be. So they would take their lamps, and we couldn't understand why -- And I was rather ashamed of being a Catholic when they were really being so nasty; but I went to church on Sunday -- and supposedly this was the reason that they were so terribly upset -- a beautiful chapel with the most beautiful windows and they were all -- well, not completely demolished but harmed in some way, so I could see where they were, but later they decided that we could -- we could use their equipment. We didn't really -- well, we stayed there from April the -- or March the 14th until April the 9th. It was quite a while. It was a nice hospital. And then on the 22nd, why, we -- or the 9th of April we arrived in Hombach. That was near Hurstville, which is a larger city; and we were there until the 22nd and then we went to Erlangen, which is a very small town. Oh, I should tell you, too. When I got promotion, my promotion, my First Lieutenant, one of the nurses that worked on the ward went with the officer that was in charge of the laundry room, the laundry facilities; and he was late again and so she thought -- they were supposed to have dinner at a private residence where he billeted, I guess, there. He stayed with these people or became friendly with them. I'm not sure. But, anyhow, they were going to have a dinner, and it was getting kind of late and she said, "I'm just starved." She said, "I'm going to go eat." And, she said, "When he comes, you just tell him that I'm eating." And she said, "If you want to go along with him, you go." And I said, "Sure. That sounds like fun." So I went there. Delicious. I had duck and wine and quatro and whatever, and I was obviously feeling pretty good by the time I got back, and it was about an hour-and-a-half lunch, which was too long. And I used to assist the neurosurgeon and so to get even -- well, of course, this wasn't fair to her. Not only did she miss a good meal, she was also assisting him and she had never done it before, and so she was happy to see me; but, anyhow, she said, "Well, the chief nurse is looking for you." That's why she was looking for me, to give me my promotion. Now, see, really and truly I didn't misbehave that often. It's just that things happened those days.
You're misbehaving at crucial moments?
Yeah. Erlangen was -- then on the 8th, of course, was VE Day, which naturally was a big celebration; but I started to tell you before or I ventured to tell you before we started recording that the day that we heard Roosevelt died we -- it was the worse day of our time overseas, I think, because we'd say, well, who is this man, Truman? And we just felt that with him in charge probably we'd be there forever, and we were there for 19 months, which is quite a while. So I think that was the whole point of my being overseas.
So much for your going to the Army for a year.
Pardon?
So much for going into the Army for a year.
Yeah. For a year, yes. That's right. Then from Erlangen we went to Bad Wiessee. Bad Wiessee -- of course, "bad" is lake -- a beautiful town, or a village; and this is where the Luftwaffe -- we took over this hotel and this is where the Luftwaffe and the SS troopers went for their R & R, so you know we were living great. We were living in style. And at first we had -- they had sailboats. We could use those. They had bicycles. Of course, I learned how to ride a bicycle on a cinder path in England; and when I got out, the caretaker of the ground said, "Well, I think you're ready to go out on the street." There were two of us that were learning on a cinder path. Well, naturally we were pumping as fast and hard as we were and I ran into a tree, a small tree, and this lady just really was upset with me; and I thought, oh, gosh, how silly, you know, just a little tree and she was so upset; but if it happened to me now, I would feel the same way to have somebody run into my tree. But Bad Wiessee was a lovely place. Of course, we had people that served our food. We had entertainment of one kind or another almost every day. The locals would come with their instruments or -- mostly, of course, that type of thing, music. We did have -- what am I trying to think besides -- well, they took the sailboats and the bicycles away from us, but we did have tennis courts and table tennis. And then Patton lived across the lake in Himmler's home and we were invited to Himmler's home. Gay, who was Patton's assistant, invited us because Patton happened to be in the United States at that time and so he invited us over to see the house. It wasn't anything spectacular. It was lovely but the colors were black and red and white. This was some of the colors that they seemed to like very well. It was a nice home, and then he took us on the boat; and, of course, we had a curfew and we were still on the boat when the curfew -- at curfew time one of the nurses reminded him of that. I thought of something but I can't remember.
This boat that you were on, that had belonged to Himmler?
Yeah, that was Himmler's. Yeah. I visited my brother -- I forget -- well, this was I think when I was in Nancy, France. No. No. This was after the war so it had to be -- or we were in Bad Wiessee. The colonel gave me a Jeep and a driver and we went to visit him. He was in Salzburg, Austria; and, of course, this is where Berchtesgaden was. It was almost completely destroyed. I have a picture of -- the only thing probably that was without any harm at all was the bathtub, but the rest of the buildings were almost demolished. And, of course, we went to Eagle's Nest which is where they made their -- made their decisions. Eagle's Nest did not have any bedrooms. It only had a kitchen and a dining room and then the room where they had their meetings and then a patio, and they had this huge round table, one piece of wood. It was from a red oak from California. Isn't that interesting? I think I had something else in mind I wanted to say, but I can't remember now.
I'm sure you were quite surprised to find something from California at Eagle's Nest.
Well, of course, I wouldn't have known it was from California, but this is what we were told. Of course, you came up in the elevator too and you couldn't walk, but we went up in the elevator and it had this mirror that supposedly all -- the longest shaft they said. I don't know. Because when these people came to their meetings, they were supposed to be dressed just so. And then when we were in Bad Wiessee, we befriended a German family, a couple of us did; and so we, of course, naturally talked to them about different things, and they said that when Hitler first became -- before he was -- when they were just talking to him, they told him, this is our answer of what we need; and then by the time when they realized what type of person he was, it was too late because he had the armed forces behind him at that time. Bad Wiessee is not too far from -- well, anyhow -- Dachau, probably about ten or twelve miles. I saw Dachau after it had been cleaned and even then it was horrible, horrible; and, of course, naturally we -- everybody wanted to go see it, but they denied -- there the people denied that there was such a place. They had to know. Then another thing is they had an orphanage and, of course, most of the children there were from babies to maybe two years of age, and occasionally we'd see a mother bringing in this child and leave crying; and, of course, so naturally we were curious as to what was going on. We were told by the people who ran the place -- most of the other people said they didn't know anything of that sort was going on -- that they were what were called Hitler's babies; and, of course, see, there were a lot of women with the right complexion, the right colored hair there because the Luftwaffe and the SS troopers, when they came, they would choose somebody to spend their time with while they were on R & R; and, of course, after the war was over, there were no monies for them so many of them brought their babies there.
That's a remarkable story.
Yeah. Let's see. I think I'm -- I'm trying to cut that off a little bit so I can -- yeah. I got -- I was really rather put out with him because I came in and I asked for Ralph Fattig; and he was sitting right there but he was reading a newspaper, and he let the sergeant say, Oh, you and Mr. Fattig are -- whatever he was, an officer, and he said, "He's right here." Isn't that something? I could have slapped him.
This is Florence's husband that she's talking about.
Yes. So, anyhow, he had an apartment I think -- well, a very short distance from -- so the following day there's a knock on the door, and I said, "Oh, come on in." And, of course, Ralph was in the shower; and it was the chaplain, and he didn't know I was visiting so -- (END OF SIDE ONE, TAPE ONE) (BEGIN SIDE TWO, TAPE ONE)
Florence, you've already told me many, many experiences that you had; but are there any particular experiences that really stand out in your mind that are probably the most memorable experiences that you've had -- that you had during service?
Well, of course. Well, we were bombed several times in Luxembourg. The corner of our surgical unit was knocked off. We had a few casualties. The worst casualties were in the laundry tent. The boys were playing poker, and it was a very bad chest injury. Then, too, I think -- when we were in Luxembourg -- this was Christmas Eve -- there were -- No. That's when we got there, was Christmas Eve. But I remember on New Year's Day we got quite a few casualties that had been in New York Christmas Eve so they were certainly inexperienced and their battle was very heavy in Luxembourg. We got this one young patient. I think he was 19, and he had a left -- his left arm was just hanging by tendons and it was very close to his shoulder. So, of course, he was told that we would have to amputate that; and he became very, very frantic and, he said, "If" -- "If you amputate this arm," he said, "I will become a gangster." And I've often wondered what he did. But then we had another young man who had a very bad lesion of his leg. He didn't have a fracture or anything but deep muscle injury; and, of course, everybody was hoping that he could save that leg, and so we tried to see whether we could feel a pulse in his ankle. So I think, when you want to badly enough, you feel it. So they decided just to debride it and leave it be, and this young man died from an infection. I'm trying to think of which -- what the name of the infection was. I mean penicillin didn't touch it. So those are two young men that were in New York Christmas Eve.
That --
And then, of course, the day that Roosevelt died.
That is --
But we had lots of fun, too.
Well, good.
You had to make your fun. We got a bottle of gin and a fifth of scotch once a month, and that's where I started to smoke, too. Because I worked with a neurosurgeon, I used to drink a lot of coffee after -- after we completed a case. He said, "Don't do that." He said, "Have a cup of coffee and have a cigarette." But, of course, my brother came to visit me in Luxembourg and he enjoyed that scotch so that I had to finally just send the rest of it home with -- or back with him because he came the following morning. He said, "Oh, that was good scotch."
Was there anything that you did or you carried with you that you called your good luck?
That what?
Your good luck. Did you carry something special from home that you treasured?
No. I -- of course, I've already believed in the rosary. It wasn't that I said the rosary but I had one, and it was always kind of a -- I guess it gave me a feeling of peace and all. Women are strange, though, at least our group seemed to be. We didn't -- like when we were -- when we were bombed in Luxembourg, as I say, we were in buildings at that time. The men would run for the shelter. The women just moved away from the windows and so -- so -- so we really were more comfortable. However, the men began to think that maybe we were more sensible because the one night that they're running and they do get into the shelter and just about the time they get -- right after they reach it this bomb fell. It was just a bomb that was big enough to dig a crater about six feet deep and six, eight feet wide. See, if it hit you, you'd know it. So then they decided that we were smarter as a group because it would just probably knock off a corner of the building or something or maybe a wall if it hit right, but apparently they were trying to get Third Army Headquarters because that wasn't too far. Oh, our chief nurse was a personal friend of Patton's, not -- not -- she wasn't -- they met in Africa. She was a good piano player and he loved piano music so they became friends, and then she became very close friends with the Third Army surgeon. So every so often they would invite -- she would invite several nurses, probably four or five, and I was able to go about four or five times. A plane would come in from the United States with T-bone steak, baked potatoes and butter, cherries jubilee, you know, fresh vegetables. So naturally we enjoyed the food and, of course, lots of drink. We didn't eat with Patton, but we did eat with the peons, the one- and two-star generals, and among them was Allen. Do you remember the Allen -- Pearson and Allen column many, many years ago? Well, I remember it. And Allen -- Pearson was the gentle one and Allen was the rough one. If they didn't get the story, then he'd go. He was the most repulsive person I ever met in my life, a glutton as far as food is concerned. When we would get finished with our T-bone steaks, he'd -- don't clear the table. He'd walk around it and eat any meat that might have been left on there; and, of course, he could drink cognac forever. He did lose his arm in France. He sent out a couple of command cars and a couple Jeeps to take this little town. They came back and they said, no, there's too many Germans there; we can't do that. He said, "Oh, yes, you can. I'll go with you." Well, he went with them and they were captured, and he lost his arm and they gave him -- to the amputees, they gave him as much drink as he could drink. That was the only anesthetic. So that was kind of interesting. And then the Duchess of Luxembourg was coming. The Justice of Peace's daughter was supposedly our interpreter. Well, we didn't need her, but then who's going to refuse. When you're in Luxembourg and the Justice of the Peace's daughter wants a job, she gets it so -- so she always had to be escorted to dinner or to meals. And the one girl in triage and myself would usually go to eat together, and she went with the Warrant Officer; and, of course, the Warrant Officer was the one that was always escorting this gal, and so we'd kind of wink at him, this, that, and the other thing; and, of course, she knew what we were doing. So they were having a dinner. She was having a dinner and she invited the chief nurse and then -- Dora Berg (ph), that was the other -- myself and another nurse to this dinner; and so we did meet the Duchess, just met her. That was all. But we're sitting at this table, and there they serve the women first. Well, instead of serving the chief nurse first who you would think would be the ranking person, they first served Dora Berg and then me; and, of course, the first course middle of the plate and then you start moving around. Well, of course, we had five courses, just one thing each time; and so we had the fifth course pretty close to the edge, but came desert and they brought an ice cream -- it's a parfait, I suppose. Anyhow, they're really not awfully hard to cut, but by that time we've had a lot of wine; and Dora Berg just looked at that, and she just took the spoon and the knife and took off the top of the chocolate. So then I came next and so I was sitting next to this Englishman, and he asked me whether I could use some help. Of course, I could. So he sliced it for me. But the most interesting thing about this is these people started talking. There was one from England, from Belgium, from different countries, women and men, and they were all excited and going to San Francisco; and so we said, well, gosh, we'd love to go to San Francisco. And they said, Oh, yeah, we're going to go there. We're going to start a thing called the UN. How about that? I wish I had their -- of course, I'm sure that these were probably not the -- the elite, no doubt, were eating with the -- with the Duchess; but, nevertheless, their signatures might have been interesting that they were going so -- Okay.
Fran -- Florence, you've just had so many fantastic experiences, and I'm so glad we're getting them down.
Well, it isn't -- well, I visit -- I visit -- when I go to Houston, I visit one of the nurses who was in our unit -- she lives in Beaumont -- every year, and we have the best time just talking. Well, she did things that I didn't, so we all had --
Well, I know that you received awards and commendations. Could you tell me what awards you were given, what medals.
Oh, I was given the Bronze Star. And this was -- I was in charge of surgery. You know, I was 23. We had eight tables that ran 24 hours a day. Everybody knew their job, though, so you didn't really have to be, you know, extra special or anything; but, anyhow, this is when we were bombed; and one of the things when we had this chest injury is I thought, oh -- well, each time we were bombed you expected probably something, but I took some instruments down to triage, a packet of the sterile instruments, just in case; and we had this chest and, of course, they needed the hemostats, I guess, to stop the bleeding. Anyhow, there were, I think, four or five of us from that unit that got commendations. The one I felt that really deserved it was the one that worked in the psych tent because anytime there was any bombing nearby, you know, those patients would really -- when we were -- this was in France. Well, anyhow, that was why I got the Bronze Star.
Tell me who pinned -- who actually decorated you.
Well, we had tea prior to it. We had tea and crumpets, which are little cookies, and this type of thing; and then we had the band and we marched out and the photographers from all over because we were the first in the European Theater. Naturally Patton had to be the first. Whether we deserved to be the first, we weren't because he had to be first. So Patton and Gay and then, of course, the surviving chief nurse, but Patton did the pinning. So that was pretty exciting, I guess. As I told you before, best of all we got a half a day off.
Let me see. Do you recall the day that your service ended?
You mean --
Like when you were completed, when you knew you were going to be going home.
Oh, well, yes. I don't remember just what day it was I got my orders in Bad Wiessee to go to Marseille. There were two of us, two nurses, and two officers; and, of course, we had the highest number because of the number of years that we've been in. And I guess each time you got a commendation of some sort -- And, of course, we were in many battles. What were we? The battles and campaigns we were in was Normandy, Northern France, Ardennes, Rhineland, and Central Europe. So we had a star, we had a Silver Star, for that and, of course, the Defense Medal and the Victory Medal and all that, so we had a lot of points and that's how we were chosen to leave. I kind of hated to leave Bad Wiessee because we were living. Didn't -- we weren't working very much, and it was really nice. So we went to Marseille; and when we got there, I remember the nurses said, Oh, don't get excited, it's going to be a long time before you're able to leave. So one of the things that we wanted to see was Lourdes and, of course, that's quite close to Marseille; but the only money that we had was German, so we went -- the officer that had to be in charge there at one time was our assistant -- was assistant to our chief so we knew him, and so we went to him and said, How long would it take to get money changed into francs? And he said, "Well, usually it takes several days," but, he said, "I'll take it and I should be able to get it back to you in two days." So we gave him all the money we had so that we could go to Lourdes. Well, the next day we get orders to leave so we don't have any money; but there were two officers from our unit, the same ship, and so they gave us what was equivalent to $20 so that when we got to the States we weren't broke. It was a real disappointment because we hoped to see Lourdes.
Well, now, when you got back home, was your husband home or was he still deployed?
No. He was still -- in fact, he was to go to Japan or to the Pacific. And, of course, I happened to be in London the day -- VJ Day. There's a lot of R & R. And we went to a private home to -- we were going to be there two or three days; and so these women said, Oh, don't you dare go to Picadilly Square because it is going to be crazy. Well, of course, that's all they had to tell us. So naturally we went and it was -- it was wild. That was VJ Day. So I can imagine VE Day was probably even worse. So then, of course, we came home on a Liberty ship, which was much nicer than what we went on, because what we went on, the ship was nice enough but it was an English ship and they served English food and only two meals a day, and the suite that we were in was supposed to be for three people. There were twelve of us in it so it was very crowded; but the poor boys, they had no place to sleep. They just slept in the hallways or whatever because it was that crowded. And one night on our way it was very noisy, and so the next day they told us that there had been depth bombs dropped and that was what we were hearing but apparently no casualties; but on the way back I think it only took us about four days because it took us about ten, I believe, to get there; but we hit the tail end of a hurricane and they -- we were having a dance. At the first lurch that I felt, it felt like you were jumping. So they sent us to our quarters right away. It was pretty rough because the light fixtures were just going from one side of the room to the other, and they told us not to go to the bathroom unless we absolutely had to because it would be that hard to get around; and, of course, I didn't know this but they put the ship three-quarter way into the hurricane, you know, its basic direction. So then we got -- so we were late getting in because of that. We got in in the evening and, of course, had all those forms to fill out and one thing or another; and so then they said, okay, now you get to eat your supper, your T-bone steak. So we were late. You know, we were living in luxury in Bad Wiessee, and so we get on -- they send to us the area that we're supposed to go by train to where we're -- to the cafeteria, and we were in a converted cattle car so -- So then I went to -- and, of course, you know, I can't believe we never -- where that was. It was South Carolina, I think; and, of course, the hurricane came in inland. It wasn't bad, so they told us, but the trees would just lay flat on the floor. Have you ever seen a hurricane?
No.
That's the only thing -- Yeah. The trees would just -- but then after it's all over with, they'd bounce back up so I guess they're used to that. Then I went to Chicago and got on a train and came home by myself to Grand Island and picked up with my family, and then I got -- gee, I think that was in -- I'm trying to think. I think that was in October; and, of course, we got -- maybe it had to be earlier, that August, and then we got several months' pay for being over there; and while I was -- I think that this was probably only in effect maybe about a week's time. They doubled our time so that made my separation date way in February.
Of what year?
'40 -- '46, I suppose. '44, '45, uh-huh, because we were there 19 months.
So what -- how long were you home before your husband got home?
Well, he came in October.
Okay.
Of course, we had decided that whoever got home first would go to their home and then go wherever, so he was in Dayton, Ohio. That was where his aunt lived and his sister. And so I went there by train and I'll never -- his sister, a very striking person, she's standing at the end -- had a stairwell to come down. I can remember that because they were standing at the bottom, and she had on this red coat with fur from bottom and all the way around and a purple hat with a feather, with a long, long feather, but she looked great. So we were there and then I'm not sure just how long. Oh, it was quite a while before we went back to Nebraska because I was three months pregnant; and then we went to Nebraska, and then we went to Texas to see his father; and we lived in Dayton a short time and then in Connersville, Indiana, and then came here.
And when did you return to your civilian nursing career?
Well, I did some nursing in Connersville because I had two babies within 13 months so I was kind of busy for a while, but I worked part-time and then I went full-time; and then, of course, when I came here, my children, of course, were what? Well, they were in grade school. Probably fourth, sixth grade, something of that sort. And then, of course, I worked -- I worked at St. Francis a short time and then started at the VA, spent 31 years there -- or not -- 31 years with my training, 27 years at the VA.
That was quite a career.
Pardon?
That was quite a career.
Oh, yeah. I remember first starting at the VA. I didn't think that I could manage staying there because at that time the patients stayed until they were able to go back to work. Well, we would send them home on weekends, and then they'd have to come, and here they were well; and it was hard on them and it was hard on us, and I thought, oh, what a waste of money and waste of time, but then it changed. I often -- I really didn't want to be a nurse. I wanted to be -- I wanted to design clothes.
Well, then how did you wind up being a nurse?
Well, the only school of design that I -- You know, information of that sort wasn't that easy to come by that many years ago, I guess. At least I didn't know where to go for it. -- was in Chicago and it was terribly expensive so that was why I decided to go into nursing, but I suppose I enjoyed it or I wouldn't have stayed in nursing that many years. I'd have found something else, but I'll tell you, after I retired, I would never go back. I would sell donuts. I would do anything but I would not nurse.
Did your military experience influence your way of thinking once you got out of the military?
Pardon?
Did your military experience influence the way you thought or functioned once you were out of the military?
Well, actually for a long time I didn't know how to function because I'd been in the service for so long where all of your plans are made for you and you never had to worry about food or housing or anything else. You knew that your paycheck was going to be there, and so all of a sudden here you had to be responsible for all of that yourself. It takes a while. Did you find that?
Yes. I think you're expressing something that most veterans go through.
Yeah.
Did you attend any reunions of your unit --
Oh, yes.
-- over the years?
We've had I think -- I think altogether five. I've attended three. The first one was in California, Salinas; and she really had it very well planned. We saw so many things and, of course, we rode many -- we spent quite a bit of time on buses and what we did there was -- all these places that we stopped was to be different, and this was interesting because we got to find out all about them. And, of course, my very best friend, Goober, she was -- she was so naive it was unbelievable. I didn't know -- I really could never believe that she was, you know, dumb as trees. Nobody could be that naive and be in nursing and that age; but I mentioned that to her and, she said, "Of course, I was. Why do you think I have six kids?" But she was my very, very closest friend.
So did you keep in contact with her throughout the years after --
Well, actually I lost contact with her not too long after I got home. I think that we all just kind of did, and then the nurse in Salinas decided that she would -- Of course, quite a few were from California. They were seeing one another, and they decided it would just be nice to see some of the others so she started this reunion; and it was a four-day -- actually three but it was just long enough but it was great. About three of us could still get into our uniform, but it was just friends seeing what the others had done and got to know some of them even better than we knew them when we were overseas because we worked twelve-hour shifts and, unless you happened to be on that shift, you didn't see much of these people. So it really got more personal I think. And then we had one in Portland, Oregon, and then one in Michigan.
Did you -- after you got back, did you join a veteran's organization? Have you been involved in --
Not when I first got out and it was -- I can't remember whether this was in Dayton or in Indiana, and I wanted to join as a member and they told me I could join the auxiliary.
What did you think about that?
I was upset. I didn't join. So I didn't try again --
Was that a common --
-- until I came to Grand Island.
And so that -- about what year would that be that you got involved in --
Well, not too awful many years ago. I suppose -- I've been in Grand Island quite a while before I joined. Maybe 15 years ago.
Was that common with all the women coming back, that they were denied --
I really don't know. I don't think I ever talked to anybody about that. That was true wherever it was that I had hoped to join.
Well, Florence, is there anything you would like to add that we haven't covered in the interview?
Well, I don't know. It was -- it was an interesting experience. As I said, I went in for a year just on a fluke and because I thought it was going to be different and it gives me a little bit of time to think what I wanted to do, whether I wanted to stay in the service or go someplace else; and, of course, I had no choice and so --
May I ask? Were you married at the time that you enlisted, that you went into --
No. No. Uh-uh, no.
Okay.
In fact -- in fact, you were separated. As soon as they found out that you were married, they separated you, either that -- and before -- before the war was started, they'd just discharge you; but then after war was declared, why, you were separated. That's how I got sent from Fort Lewis to -- to Bushnell. I was kind of glad to be in Utah because the people there are really quite different, the Mormons. I certainly admire them, but they're the most curious people in the world. But my room -- I had a -- well, we didn't have -- we each had private rooms there because it was just new set up. It was a new hospital built for the amputees. We did have other -- We had maternity because of the wives and all, and we also had a surgical unit and a few medical. Primarily it was for the amputees. But I was one of the first to go into -- this one wing was filled and so I was one of the first to go to this other wing, and so I was in the end room and, of course, we had private rooms. We shared the bath. Well, so this nurse came in and so I thought, well, to be friendly I asked her if she'd like to listen to the radio with me, some silly program. And, No. No. And so then I thought, well, when I see her later on, I understand why, because she would read these very, very deep books always in line at the mess hall and all these places and she wore very heavy makeup, eye makeup, and lipstick, nothing else. But then I used to hear groaning noises in her room, kind of painful almost; and then when she went to the bathroom -- of course, this started soon after we started living together -- she would put toilet paper on the toilet seat and leave it there; and then I'd hear her run water really early in the morning, lots of water; and my bed used to be where I could see her come -- come in if my door were open. Lots of times I left it open. So then I moved my bed to be sure I closed the door. Well, I told you the people are very curious, because we had women that cleaned our rooms, and then -- but she asked that no one clean her room; but then this lady was too curious to let that happen so she opened the room and she found a six-foot python. I had moved in the meantime, however. Because of the noises and all, I asked if I could move. This chief nurse said, "Well, really she needs somebody to befriend her." And I said, "I don't think that I'm the person." And so but, yes. So she killed this snake herself. She used ether. She made slices in the back and put cottonballs with ether and she killed this. It was an interesting --
It sounds like --
It was satisfying -- it was a great deal of satisfaction, but I have never felt that anybody owed me anything for having been in the service. It was just one of the things that needed to be done, and I did it and came home and that was the end.
I have one more question. It's sort of a personal question on my part. When you got back from the war and you went back into nursing, was there any adverse reaction when you told people that you had been -- did everybody know that you had been an Army nurse?
No, I don't think so. I -- I don't believe -- Of course, it was several years after before I first started working, and I don't -- they knew that I had been in the service. I didn't feel that there was anything adverse. However, when I went -- was going into the service, I had two nieces that were in training here at St. Francis and they told the nun that I was going in the service and she was shocked. No decent girl would be going into the service. Well, actually, you know, I would be more decently probably in the service because there weren't many women. If you went out on a date, if you weren't treated properly, you didn't have to go again and you didn't have to stay home either because somebody else would be asking you. While these girls that were at home, they had to really work to have a chance to go out so --
That's really interesting.
Well, at least that was my feeling.
Uh-huh.
But then I also remembered, when I went into nursing, I was working at a grocery store and there were these two little old ladies, elderly ladies, in Loup City that -- I was training there and, of course, at that time we used to go with them and pick up the stuff and all. So I was all excited about being accepted and I told them that I was going into nurses' training, and they said, "Cancel our order. We'll not be coming back." So --
Boy, how did that make you feel?
Well, I was kind of glad to get rid of them because nobody ever wanted to wait on them. They had ten cents worth of this, ten cents worth of that, and it took a long time to wait on them; and this storekeeper didn't mind losing their business so --
Oh, Florence, we just thank you so much for sharing your recollections about your time in the military and the time in your life after that. We really appreciate you taking the time out of your day to do this.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
You're a very gracious lady.