Evening star., 1951-10-28

Army Nurse Corps in World War
III campaigns in Africa, Italy,
| France and Germany, returns to
this country with the Legion OF
Merit Award and the Presidential
Citation of the Republic of Korea
among the other service ribbons
she wears.
Hours meant nothing to our
nurses. OF their own volition they
stayed on duty the clock around,
when it was necessary and during
that first month they were in
Korea, it was necessary more often
than not" she told me.
Their hospitals were tents
(mobile army surgical units)
within sound Of gunfire. If they
were in the rear. they worked In
Quilted Schoolhouses. abandoned
mills, or even mud huts without
heat and with the windows shot
out. When their ambulance con-
voys were under sniper fire, they
had to lie in bitches. They moved
| backward and forward with the
rising and falling fortunes of U. N.
troops, setting up and beginning
their work Of caring for the
wounded and the dying in a mat
ter of hours.
Men from combat areas who
need whole blood, dextrose. peni-
cillin, surgical or medical care
cannot wait" she pointed out
Time Is the essence of life itself.
One unit moved Is times; an
other, Is"
Ingenuity Overcame Obstacles.
Invariably there was a shortage
Of water and what was available
was usually polluted. Nurses used
gasoline stoves to boil it and port
able generators to supply the light
for emergency surgery. Flies and
disease Laden dust in clouds added
to the sanitation problems with
which they had to contend. Yet
with patience and American in
genuity they improvised expedients
that met what seemed insur-
montable difficulties.
The first wounded were evacu-
ated in old-fashioned. flea
infested day coaches. Until a
Korean flea has tormented you,
you have no idea what flea can
really do in the way Of bringing
acute discomfort. Col. Desmond
recalled with a wry grimace.
often the nurses braced the
worst stretcher cases with their
bodies to keep them from being
overturned with the jar Of the
irregular. poorly-laid road beds.
Wounded soldiers appreciate
everything you do for them and
somehow manage to say Thank
you.' even when you know and
they know that the chips are
down." this vigorous, tender
hearted chief nurse recounted.
The miracle Of it all to her. not
withstanding her superior knowl-
edge OF modern medical TECH
niques, is that less than per cent
of the wounded died Of infected
wounds.
Injured Korean civilians were
invariably given the same care as
our own wounded. Sometimes an
entire family accompanied the pa
tient into the hospital. usually
needing DDT treatment first, and
each giving of his own particular
odor in a land that has become
famous for its brand OF un-
pleasant smells.
Winter Experience.
On her own early field trips,
Col. Desmond recalls seeing a
group of nurses tents pitched in a
cotton field, where they had been
obliged to help pick the cotton be-
fore they could put their cots to-
gether. In the Korean winter
they slept in sleeping bags with
their clothes on in an effort to
keep warm and lined up in chow
lines" where the food froze to
their mess kits before they could
reach their tents to eat it. Many
times Col. Desmond said she
shared a meal sitting in a rice
paddy or on the fender of an am
bulance.
AS for her most amusing expert |
ence, she told of meeting an un-
usually heavy detachment OF
wounded coming in from the
front, while she was on an in
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