Evening star., 1945-02-25
Angels Of Bataan'
Smile Through Tears
On Landing in U. 5.
By NORMAN BELL
Associated Press Stan Writer

Representing the Combined American Press
HAMILTON FIELD, Calf. Feb.
24.-Sixty- EIGHT Angels of Bataan."
Americas ranking war heroines.
stepped gladly from airplanes onto
United States soil today, home at
last after three years of horror and
misery in the Philippines.
Its so good! It's so good! You
just can't know!" murmured one
after another, with voices choked
and faces smiling through tears of
Joy.
There were 81 Army nurses and
specialists and one Red Cross work
er in the transport planes which
landed here at LAS pm. today.
The women who nursed wounded
and dying American soldiers in the
bitter days of defeat on Bataan
and Corregidor in the early days of
the war, and then passed three
WTetched but busy years as Jap
anese prisoners, seemed constantly
lncredulous of the happiness that
was theirs at last. 1t was as if
they almost feared to touch it lest it
vanish.
The nurses and specialists were
the first group of the many thous-
and liberated Americans in the
Philippines to be brought home.
They were rescued from Santo
Tomas internment camp in Manila
February 2.
They were taken from here to
Letterman General Hospital, San
Francisco, for physical check up
and treatment until they are re-
leased to visit relatives and friends
In various parts of the United
States
AS the three transport planes and
one hospital plane swung over SAM
Francisco in formation, the nurses
sat in complete silence. Tears
started coming to some eyes.
When the planes landed at Ham
ilton Field and the nurses stepped
out, some openly weeping for JOY,
they were almost mobbed by old
Army friends a.A. Jther we'll wish
ers.
Maj. Maude Davidson, 59-year-old
senior chief nurse, was alert and
eager despite long, progressive mall
nutrition.
I can still be pretty tough" she
said.
Maj. Davidson, little more than
S feet tall, weighed 156 pounds when
she was captured on Corregidor May
6, 1912. She weighed 80 pounds
when liberated
about 30) were anxious to pick up
the threads of life.
Where is Mrs. Roosevelt now?"
asked 1t. Eunice F. Young of Ark
port, n Y.
She explained that the news of
Mrs. Roosevelt's Australia visit in
September, 1943. had reached Santo
Tomas internees by way of the
grapevine
They spoke with almost reverent
pride of 1t. Gen. Jonathan VAIN
wright, the gallant American COM
mander who was captured with
them on Corregidor.
Maj. Davidson, a native of Tan
nington. Canada, told some details
of the fall of Corregidor.
The nearly exhausted nurses on
the Rock were too busy to be
frightened when they were capturedI
by the japanese, she said They had
900 wounded soldiers to care for
in cots, crowded together and three
tiers each-in. Corregidors tunnels
There was some arrogance" on
the part of the Japanese but no
nurse was slapped or in any other
way mistreated, Maj. Davidson said.
This was also the case later during
the long internment at Santo Tomas
Maj Davidson said the Japanese
kept her nurses and their soldier
patients in Corregidor's tunnels
with the air blowers turned off for
seven days after the surrender.
on July 2, nearly month after
their capture, the nurses were part
ed from the wounded soldiers and
sent to the civilian camp. The SOL
diers were taken to Bilibid Prison.
Two great days at Santo Tomas
THE NURSES IeCducu WcIc ocptcHlDeI
81, 1914, when American carrier
planes raided the Manila area for
the first time, and February 8, 1945,
the day of delivery.
More than anything else Maj.
Davidson said, that raid Cby the
carrier planes saved the morale of
the internees"
When the nurses were rescued
from aSanto Tomas, they were each
given a one-rank spot promotion by {
Gen. Macarthur.
Former Alexandrian in Group.
One of the 81 nurses in the group
was 1t. Earleen Allen Francis, who
with her husband, Capt Garnet P.
Francis, jr. dental surgeon in the
Corps, formerly lived in Al
sxandria, Va. Capt. Francis par
snts, Mr.. and Mrs. Garnet P. Fran
lis, sr., lived at 1872 Raymond ave-
nue., Alexandria, before they moved
10 St. Petersburg, Fla.
Until Capt. Francis was trans
'erred to Santo Tomas, where his
wife was interned, the couple had
been separated for nearly three
years. They were married during the