Tom Brokaw's book "The Greatest Generation" and Ken Burns WWII Documentary "The War" are great history. But have you ever wondered about your own family's WWII stories; combatants, "Rosie the Riveter", Army Nurses, the "Home Front". I have found there is a general reluctance to discuss WWII experiences with family members and sadly many of these stories have been lost forever. I would really like to capture your WWII remembrances or any you are willing to share from your family.
To start this out, I want to tell the remarkable story of Othelia Rosten's Army Nurse experiences. Othelia (aka "Oats") was my wife's aunt. She served as a 2nd Lieutenant with the 95th Evac Hospital during WWII - and after the war as a RN at Glenwood Hospital for many years. Unfortunately, like many WWII vets, she was loathe to talk about her experiences and sadly, we failed to inquire. But ... I discovered several first hand accounts of the experiences of the 95th Evacuation Hospital Unit in Oat's "foot locker". The 95th was activated in August, 1942 and served in Operation Torch (North Africa); Italy (Operation Husky: Sicily, Salerno and Anzio); the southern invasion of France (Operation Shingle); into Germany and the liberation of Dachau.
For the next few weeks I will be serializing edited versions of the 95th Evac histories I found amongst Oat's effects.
To start this out, I want to tell the remarkable story of Othelia Rosten's Army Nurse experiences. Othelia (aka "Oats") was my wife's aunt. She served as a 2nd Lieutenant with the 95th Evac Hospital during WWII - and after the war as a RN at Glenwood Hospital for many years. Unfortunately, like many WWII vets, she was loathe to talk about her experiences and sadly, we failed to inquire. But ... I discovered several first hand accounts of the experiences of the 95th Evacuation Hospital Unit in Oat's "foot locker". The 95th was activated in August, 1942 and served in Operation Torch (North Africa); Italy (Operation Husky: Sicily, Salerno and Anzio); the southern invasion of France (Operation Shingle); into Germany and the liberation of Dachau.
For the next few weeks I will be serializing edited versions of the 95th Evac histories I found amongst Oat's effects.
Othelia's Story 1942-1945
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| Si, Oats, Pete @ Camp Breckinridge, KY |
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| Lt. Rosten |
The story goes that the day after graduation from St. Luke's School of Nursing in Duluth, MN in 1942, Oats was headed for the recruitment office and was intercepted by fellow graduates, "Pete" (Lillie Peterson) & "Si" (Adeline Simonson). "Where are you going?" "To enlist." "Well, you're not going without us!" And thus, the 3 newly capped nurses enlisted together, were assigned to the 95th Evac together and served together from 1942 to Oct 1945 in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, France & Germany. They could have had no idea what they were in for.
Initially, the nurses were sent to Fort Snelling an old 1823 Military Fort at the confluence of the Minnesota & Mississippi Rivers near Minneapolis. The new enlistees were then reassigned to Camp Breckinridge near Morganfield, Kentucky for training, "a drab and dismal camp" in a pasture divided into streets lined with 2-story framed buildings "separated by puddles of water and a sea of mud". (The camp was later used as an inland prison camp for German soldiers.) Several military units had been assigned to this camp for training; doctors, nurses and support personnel. Most of the doctors were from the east, the nurses from the midwest and the enlisted men from Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky. The nurses were "happy, fun-loving, and prankish, their ebullient spirit pervading the barracks and raising the morale of all". 2nd Lieutenant nurses were not supposed to "fraternize" with enlisted men, but ... dances with Jimmy Dorsey & Guy Lombardo music were organized several nights a week.
An evac hospital was staffed with 40 nurses with 2 "chief nurses", who were 1st Lieutenants or Captains. The training was tedious, a daily repetitive grind - termed "The Battle of Breckinridge". Attending classes, physical training, pitching pup tents and rolling bedding 3 times a day to see how fast they could do it.
In early April, 1943 the trainees departed Camp Breckinridge on trains. Bidding farewell to Breckinridge was not "heart-rending". At each stop on the way to Camp Shanks in Orangeburg, NY, people surrounded the train and passed around cookies,candies & magazines - and wished luck. They arrived at the Camp Shanks staging area on April 4, 1943, next stop unknown. There was little to do at the staging camp except muster for vaccinations and adding packets of sulfadiazine to their kits. There were no restrictions except they must be in the camp at night and for the morning muster. There was bus service to nearby New York City and many took advantage to explore NYC, riding the subway, sampling restaurants and entertainments. The "sophistication and suavity of the city melted under the eager, pretty faces of those girls in uniform about to travel to war".
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| Leaving Breckinridge for Shanks |
On April 15th, 1943, reality set in when the 95th was bussed to dockside in New York Harbor and boarded the USS Mariposa for destination unknown.
From the The 95th Evac Unit History
The 95th Evacuation Hospital, Motorized, was officially activated 25 August 1942 at Camp Breckinridge, Morganfield, Kentucky
The Evacuation Hospital’s main functions included provisions for:
- facilities for major medical and surgical procedures in the care and treatment of all casualties, located as near to the front, as practicable
- facilities for the concentration of evacuees in such numbers and at such locations that mass evacuation by common carrier could be undertaken economically
- facilities for the beginning of definitive treatment as early as practicable
- triage and sorting of casualties under conditions most favorable for observation, and removal from the chain of evacuation of those fit for duty
- preparation of evacuees for extended evacuation to General Hospitals at some distance to the rear
The Evacuation Hospital was ideally set up 12 to 30 miles from the front
To Be Continued
Copyright © 2015 Dave Hoplin
David - I am so happy to find this. I am friends with Marcy Schlemma Korda, also a 95th nurse and the person you sent copies of these post to. That was so nice of you. She sent them to me to copy. I wrote a historical fiction book published in 2011 (A Burnished Rose) that uses the 95th nurses as a map for my fictional Rose character. Now I have written a pilot for a TV mini-series to share their real story. Have you seen Band of Brothers? It's basically Band of Brothers except with the 95th nurses. All these post will be very helpful. I'm currently pitching the pilot to TV world and have it in a few contests to try and garner some interest. No interest yet but I'm going to keep trying.
ReplyDeleteI've read all the books you mention except one. I will find and read that one too. I have been trying to get a hold of any family of Claudine Gildwell and it apprears that Othelia was a friend of hers. Do you happen to have any contact with Glaudine's family? My email is christinekeleny@yahoo.com if you want to contact me that way.
And thanks again for the posts. I'm sure they will be helpful.
Marcy Korda, a 95th nurse, told me they tried to teach the nurses close order drill. But the nurses would turn left for right and about face was a mystery so they finally gave up and decided nurses didn't need to know how to march. I think it ignorance by design - subtle insubordination.
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