It's My Country Too by Women's Military Stories from the American Revolution to Afghanistan

Author:Women's Military Stories from the American Revolution to Afghanistan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HIS027110 History / Military / United States, BIO022000 Biography & Autobiography / Women, BIO008000 Biography & Autobiography / Military
ISBN: 978-1-61234-934-3
Publisher: Potomac Books
Published: 2017-05-05T04:00:00+00:00

15 November 1950

On 22 September 1950, we sailed from Yokohama on the General Mann and arrived Inchon Beach 26 September. This was our first experience in going down the side of a ship in what seemed to be mid-ocean, onto a small boat that carried us to the sand on the beach. Even though it was a first experience for most of the nurses, not a trip or slip was made and no delay in debarking was caused by the nurses.

After we were secure on land, the possibility of a place to live seemed for a while to be narrowed down to our pup-tents, but without too much delay we were told that an old school building would be used to accommodate the entire hospital unit. And so, through one of the most disagreeable sand storms, we put all our gear on backside again and hiked to where we had been told that transportation would take us to the school. Sure enough, the truck was there and did take us about three miles to the designated place. Perhaps the narrative should stop here lest I not give the school credit for any good points it might have had. It really was pretty awful. Our work began that day by opening wards in the school and within two days we had over 300 South Korean civilian casualties of the worst type. Much surgery was needed to save lives, so for six days we were very busy. We had no beds or cots because our equipment was still on the ship and our priority was low on the list for unloading. Matter of fact, we never did get our hospital equipment until we finally reached the Iwon Beach. Anyway we did what we could with what the Marine Corps gave us and when we left there 6 October we had all of the patients (civilian Koreans) in civilian hospitals or homes. Many infants and children we placed in Christian Orphans Homes.

I wish I could really tell you about some of those poor people and their wounds and burns. The nurses showed themselves to be real soldiers by working until late if not all night. There was no time to feel that you could “go off duty.” I had to make the girls go off duty after 16 to 20 hours of caring for these people. We had all the patients on the floor so you can imagine how our knees and backs felt after hours of bending, stooping, and jumping in and around the sick and dying.

From Inchon we convoyed to Pusan on 7, 8, 9 October. On the morning of the 9th at 0300 our convoy was attacked and the nurses spent the remainder of night in a ditch. Without a single word being spoken or a light on, when the First Sergeant opened the back of the ambulance we were in and whispered that we were attacked every nurse quickly put on her gear, grabbed a blanket, and moved quietly until we found a ditch not too far away.

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