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bu1410 · 7 months ago

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Good afternoon TUMBLR - April 21th - 2024

''Mr. Plant has owed me a shoe since July 5, 1971."

Algeria Tiaret – 2003 – 2004

Part 1 In Italy was the hottest summer in centuries, and there were electricity cuts several times a day. Sometimes we just couldn't stand it anymore, and then we looked for refreshment in the Alps or at the Como lake. During one of these excursions we were at Piano del Tivano, when I received a call from the SAIPEM personnel office. An old acquaintance from my Nigerian days tells me:

Are you free?

Yes why'?

Bulato from Algeria mentioned your name for his project.

Umm…. are you sure? I'm asking this because I never got along with Bulato, so it seems strange to me that he mentioned my name.

I'm sure - come on, I'll wait for you here at the office tomorrow.

So it was that 15 days later I left for Algeria after the usual medical visits and eligibility. Milan-Rome-Algiers and then Hassi Messaoud, where I landed in the new airport that had just been inaugurated. The next day I was introduced to the presence of ''Come Xea Bulato''. I did not hide my surprise when I learned that he had specifically mentioned my name for this new assignment.

How is it?…. He tells me – have you got your head straight?

Gilbert….I've always had my head in order…. maybe you get confused with someone else.

Come on come on…. that ''so'' there is this new SP6 station that we haven't started yet so see if you go there tomorrow and start ahhh….

Okay , see you there Gilbert.

OZ2 PROJECT As part of the increase in the production and export of Algerian crude oil, SAIPEM in joint venture with the French Spie-CAPAG had acquired the EPC (Engineering-Procurement-Construction) of 6 pumping stations plus a reception station of the new OZ3 oil pipeline . A Russian company had been awarded the construction of two 46-inch pipelines, which would bring crude oil from wells located in southern Algeria to the port of Arzew, near Oran. The pumping stations were planned on the route of more than 1,000 km long - spaced about 150 km apart. The stations were in practice very similar, a sort of copy-paste, with minimal differences due to the morphology of the site where they were built, or, as in the case of SP6, due to the provision of large power generators, given the distance of the station from the Algerian electricity grid. However, the French of Spie-Capag had forced SAIPEM to accept their rotation schedule, so we Italians also had 54 days of straight work and 16 days of vacation. It is true that of these 16 days we ended up spending 12 at home, given that the security procedures required us to return to Hassi Messaoud to fly to Paris and reach Milan the following day (same procedure for the return as well). For us stationed relatively close to Oran – about 250km away – this was doubly stressful. From Oran international airport we could have reached Paris and Milan in a day, but safety procedures forced us to make a (dangerous) journey of over 1,000 km by car.

SP6 PUMPING STATION

JOURNEY FROM HASSI MESSAOUD TO TIARET SP6 Meanwhile, at the Hassi Messaoud base I had found some old colleagues, such as the faithful Gilbert Mercado, the Philipino Quantity Surveyor who had been with me on the Taweelah Water project in Abu Dhabi. However, I had noticed that when someone asked me ''which station you were assigned to'' to my answer ''to SP6'' everyone without distinction would sneer. The next morning, in view of the 600 km to travel in the Land Cruiser, I was ready very early. I would have learned that there was no point in getting up at dawn: in any case - according to safety procedure - you had to wait for the so-called ''armed escort'' that the Algerian army kindly provided to us (for a generous fee). The situation in Algeria had improved greatly since the 1992-95 civil war, but pockets of guerrilla warfare persisted which aimed above all at kidnapping foreigners to profit from possible ransoms and for the resonance this type of action had in the media. Finally, around 9.30 the escort arrived: two Land Cruisers with eight heavily armed soldiers. I would have traveled in an armored Toyota with two soldiers on board, one car preceded us by about 300-400 meters, and the second followed us closely. Continuous radio contact between us and also with the operational base of Hassi Messaoud, where a former French officer of the Foreign Legion was stationed. A further complication that would have slowed down the journey enormously was represented by the fact that the armed escort could not cross the border of the so-called ''wilaya'' ("district or province). At every province border, the armed escort that was supposed to take over the current one was perpetually late. Furthermore, the meeting between the two escorts inevitably produced hugs, greetings, tea and coffee sessions that could last for hours. With these premises, starting at 10.00 in the morning, in the evening we had traveled just 385 km, and we stopped to spend the night at the SP3 camp, near the city of Ghardaia.

GHARDAIA The city is the main settlement of the Mzab valley, a place of refuge for members of the Islamic sect of Ibadi after the collapse of the kingdom of Tahert; It still retains much of its medieval architecture today, some of which has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The municipality of Ghardaïa has a population of approximately 93,000 inhabitants. It is a fortified city divided into three sectors surrounded by walls. In the center is the historic Mozabite area, with a mosque with a pyramidal minaret and a square with porticoes. Noteworthy are the white, pink and red houses, built with sand, clay and chalk, characterized by terraced roofs and porticoes. In her 1963 book, The Force of Things, the French existentialist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir described Ghardaïa as "a beautifully constructed cubist painting".

GHARDAIA – SP6 Tiaret The following morning, after having eaten breakfast, we finally left for Tiaret, or rather for the SP6 station, which was located on a plateau at 1,200 meters above sea level and about 40 km south of Tiaret. We passed through the city of Laghouat, then a large military center. The landscape was exasperatingly monotonous: the usual desert of stones and low shrubs which always gives that ''dirty'' impression. The spare changes followed one another incessantly, and the march was perhaps even slower than the day before. The sun was setting when we turned right from the N14 state road towards the East onto the sandy track that led to the SP6 station. About twenty kilometers of very rough track (it would have created quite a few problems during the transport of the heaviest equipment) and we finally arrived at the station camp in the dark (Against safety procedures).

SP6 The next morning I took a look around the field and the construction site and I immediately realized why my colleagues were grinning at the mere mention of ''SP6'': we were in the most classic ''in the middle of nowhere''. All around are low mountains devoid of vegetation, a truly uninspiring landscape. Next to the new station, about 200 meters away, the old SP6 built in the 1980s showed all the signs of its age. The SAIPEM camp - right next to the offices and construction site, another serious mistake - was made up of the same old ''caravans'' which certainly had a better past. The cramped rooms, with a built-in bathroom, a single bed, a small wardrobe, table and chair, satellite TV: all the ''amenities'' that ''SAIPEM mother'' (but in this case I would say more ''stepmother'' '') reserved for us. There was a very spartan canteen, where everyone ate together, expatriates and locals, which caused quite a few problems.

THE STAFF At the time of my arrival the staff was still in flux. The Site Manager, according to the agreements between SAIPEM and Spie CAPAG, was a Frenchman named Antoine Barrault. Already a person of a certain age, he continually remarked that he had a past as a builder of nuclear power plants with AREVA - so for him this assignment in Algeria where a simple oil pumping station was to be built, would have been ''a joke''. He will be replaced within two months, and we will have fallen from the ''frying pan into the fire'': Monsieur Borrut will arrive, who will distinguish himself above all by having personally written 783 letters to the Client SONATRAC. During his stay, Mr. Borrut came to the site just once, during a visit by Mr. Bulato. We were passing by in front of gas separator and Mr. Bulato asked him the function of this equipment - Borrut in desperation because he didn't know it, and with broad silent cinema gestures turned to me, asking me to answer instead of him: a truly ridiculous and pitiful moment.

MICHELI GIORGIO At the beginning of the station construction, Giorgio was a young new employee of SAIPEM. He was acting as handyman, but Bulato soon called Giorgio 'next to him' at Hassi Messaoud's base and made him his personal assistant. The young boy from Mandello was endowed with great potential, and in fact he was going to have a great career in SAIPEM, where he currently holds the position of Director of the Worldwide Onshore sector. Giorgio once had an argument with the Starstroy Company Russians (The pipeline's Contractors) . Micheli had made the mistake of going to face them alone, and only his rapid ''strategic retreat'' avoided worse trouble. He risked to be beaten by those rude people for silly reasons.

ADRIANO ANGELOTTI I had met Adriano on the construction site in Soku, Nigeria. At SP6 his function was Mechanical Superintendent, basically he supervised all the mechanical activities of the station. He was a native of Massa Carrara, and his biggest flaw was to be one of those die-hard fans of the wrong football team, namely Milan' AC. He had filled his room with posters, banners, scarves, fake Champions Cups and all the paraphernalia of hardcore fans. Each Milan defeat he used to fell into depression for days and becaming intractable. For the rest he followed the stereotype of ''Homo SAIPEMS'' in every way, fully faithful to the Company's.

BREVI PIETRO A kind young man, Poetro was looking like a guy from another era ''parachuted'' in our time. When Mr. Borrut was finally kicked out (besides being of no use, he had a monster salary of 17,000 euros/month) this young boy from Caravaggio (Yes the same village of the famous Italian painter) took his place as Chef de Base. A function that he carried out admirably, despite his lack of experience, thanks to his innate qualities. At the end of the project, having returned to the San Donato headquarters and realizing that SAIPEM only offered him assignement abroad, he resigned from the company and set up his own business related to oil & gas.

LOCAL SUB CONTRACTOR Sometimes I feel like drawing the famous veil of compassion over these events, because the reader might think that I something against Algerians, Bengalis, Mexicans, Khazakhs and all the other ethnic groups that I have had the fortune of to come into contact during my working life. Well no, it's not like that, I swear. These people were really poor, of that type of poor that in the end you don't even have the courage to rage, because it would be, as they say in these cases, ''shooting on the Red Cross'' (or Red Crescent, if you prefer). The problem was (I think it still is) that in Algeria we have to make do with what we have - and what we have is generally of very poor quality. The only thing that saves the Algerians is the enormous goodwill of workers, technicians and construction workers in general. For the rest, the local companies lacked resources (and those that existed were constantly breaking down); the supplies of materials were constantly late. Even - at the dawn of 2003 we were only presented with a hand-written paper progress report, lacking the '' computers for accountants''. Having taken note of the situation, I, Angelotti and all SAIPEM people tried in every way to help the Sub Contractors. Without, for the avoidance of doubt, however, making our management aware of the enormous problems we faced every day. Mr. Borrut, made aware of the shortcomings of the Sub Contractors, always reacted in the same way:

Please prepare a draft letter, I will edit send it straight away to Client!'' In the end there will be hundreds of letters that Mr. Borrut himself wrote, while his secretary played on the computer.

PROJECT SECURITY . The security procedures provided for the presence at each station of a former Foreign Legion officer, who at his sole discretion issued service orders in which he regulated arrivals, departures, permissions to go to Tiaret etc. Monsieur Darcy, a young Legion retiree (he was 49 years old), worked at SP6. A very determined guy, who, taking full advantage of the laws of the French state, had moved to live in Madagascar. That's because the French law provided that pensioners who established their residence in the so-called ''Overseas Territories'' had an immediate tax benefit on the amount of the pension. In essence they collected the gross pension, without paying taxes. Darcy had established his place of residence at Ile Reunion – where his pension was credited – but he lived in Madagascar, where the cost of living was even lower. Once Mr. Darcy was on a collision course with the Algerians, who, taking advantage of the Friday prayer day, were willing to go to Tiaret using SAIPEM jeeps. Mr Darcy, citing sources of information, refused them the cars, sparking the reaction of the Algerians, who accused him of racism and to prevent them from participating in Friday prayers.

EID EL ADHA. The Aid el Adha arrived, and SAIPEM Management recommended to the Base Chief to organize a lunch for everyone, but for the Algerians in particular, with the traditional slaughtered mutton. Mr. Borrut, not knowing which way to turn, entrusted himself to the Romanian mechanic, who said he was an expert in this type of activity. Constantin Dimitrescu was a person of about 2.00 meters high, taciturn, with hands as big as shovels. Two caroufs (rams) were purchased from a shepherd who lived nearby. Constantin thought about slaughtering, and hung the rams outside his workshop waiting for Friday. In the meantime, the local catering company had prepared an area with tables, chairs and various decorations, where we would have to eat the grilled meat. On the day of the celebration the Algerians showed up in the canteen, we exchanged good wishes, with big hugs and pats on the back and the usual expressions ''Eid Mabrouk - Eid Mubarak''. But then, incomprehensibly, they disappeared and none of them showed up at the lunch. Towards the evening some of them appeared, and when asked ''why you weren't there for lunch, it had been organized especially for you'' they stated that they had preferred to go to Tiaret to take part in the great thanksgiving prayer in the large mosque. But the way in which they said it didn't convince us, so we made sure to take aside a couple of individuals from the Kabilia ethnic group, who were more open-minded. They told us the real reason for their failure to attend the lunch. Someone had seen Constantinescu marinate mutton in wine, and even cook some pieces by pouring cognac over them!!!

''So…. quest-que tu veux…. …we decide to desert the party. It's too forbidden for us to become contaminated by alcohol!!

But, we replied, many of you always drink wine at dinner in the canteen on Fridays!

Ouiiii…but you see….the majority of us don't drink wine and so all of us, out of solidarity, decided not to participate.

We had to eat mutton for ten days.

ALGERIAN TRUFFLE

The Company had rented a 19-seater plane from a private company of Czech Republic. We had prepared a dirt runway to facilitate the landing of the Let L 410 Turbolet turboprop with which Mr. Bulato and the Management intended to more frequently monitor the progress of work in the various stations. For the inaugural flight to SP6 the local catering company thought it would be a welcome thing by preparing a special buffet which also included dishes with Algerian truffles. Mr. Bulato particularly appreciated the food, and consumed it abundantly. The truffles had a strange smell to me, so I barely tasted them. Unfortunately, and then you will understand why, it was expected that I would take advantage of the return flight to Hassi Messaoud, since the day of my return to Italy for holidays had come. The flight would have saved me the usual boring two or three days of travel by road from SP6 to SP1. I boarded the aircraft with a bit of reluctance, there were about ten passengers in total, including the Colombian engineer Maria (yes, the same one I had met in Nigeria). But the ''best'' was yet to come. From above, Algeria looks a lot like a Martian landscape, with very strange colors from purple to black, from ocher to brown.

After an hour from take off Mr. Bulato started to feel ill. Strong pains in his lower abdomen that made him writhe, the origin of which was immediately attributed to the famous ''Algerian truffles''. Unfortunately, as I had recently learned, the plane was not equipped with a toilet! And there was absolutely no question of an emergency landing! Bulato couldn't take it anymore and in a fit of madness he apologized to everyone and……he spread a piece of plastic in the corridor and…unloaded himself there in front of all of us!! An unbearable stench had pervaded the plane, even though once the ''operation'' was finished Bulato had wrapped the nylon and placed the ''product'' inside a plastic bag. The pilot was asked if there was the possibility of evacuating the air - the ventilation was turned to maximum, but for a good hour most of us fought the urge to vomit. Among those who were most ill was obviously Maria. Once we landed we rushed outside to breathe, and the highly hydrocarbon-polluted air of Hassi Messaoud had never seemed so 'healthy' to us.

ABB TURBO COMPRESSORS SP6 was the last station under construction – the delivery sequence agreed with SONATRACH was SP1 – SP3 – SP5 - after which SP2 – SP4 – SP6. Our station suffered a further delay when at the port of Oran, during the unloading operations of the turbo compressors of German origin, one of the three fell into sea! In any case we prepared to receive two of the three planned turbo compressors. With a weight of 57 tons each, the exceptional load risked becoming silted up - or worse - during the 20-plus kilometers of the track that separated from the Route National N23 to reach the SP6. We identified the critical point in the bridge over the Ouadi Faidja, made of simple baked bricks. With the help of the dilapidated equipment of our civil Sub Contractor we reconditioned the entire track and with the permission of the local authorities we filled the sides of the bridge over the almost always dry ouadi with material. During the winter, sporadic events caused flash floods – if they had occurred before the turbo compressors arrived, they would have caused a further delay in completing the station. Luckily that year there was snow – yes snow in the Algerian desert!! - immediately after the turbo compressors were transported to the station.

INTERCONNECTION WITH OLD SP6 STATION. Our scope of work included the connection between the new SP6 and the old SP6 station. In practice, the new pipeline had to be interconnected with the old one, because in case of problems the flow of crude oil could be sent to the lines already in operation. I then went to talk to the head of the old SP6, to ask where the pipes of the old oil pipeline that we had to intercept were buried. Omar was an elderly person, he had worked at the station for more than 30 years and he answered me in the most typical way in which Algerians respond when faced with responsibilities:

Where do you find the old ones? Ahh …moi….je ne sais pas……. (where are the old pipes? I don't know)

How come you don't know Omar?

- Moi… à l'époque… quand ils ont enterré 'les tuyaux…. je n'étais pas la'… j'étais en conge' maladie… donc je ne peux pas te say que je suis la'…. ou la…. (I… at the time… when they buried 'the pipes… I wasn't there'… I was sick… …so I can't tell you that pipes are here '…. or there…)

- Et alors qu'est-qu'on fait Si Omar? (so what do we do?)

Maybe ....maybeeeeee ....when my camarade will be here......but he is in vacation ' I think you..... you need to wait for him to return....''

So it may seem incredible to you, but none of the station workers knew the underground location of two 48-inch pipes where hundreds of thousands of oil barrels passed every day. No as-built drawings had been compiled, and waiting was the most practiced activity in Algeria. Eventually Omar's colleague, once he returned to work, was able to indicate to us approximately where the pipes were located.

FRIDAY WITH THE NOMADS. It was Friday, a day of rest, and an Algerian from our SONATRACH client proposed that I go for a tour in the surrounding area. He had noticed the presence of a series of nomadic tents, and he wanted to visit them. About 30 minutes away by off-road vehicle, we found the camp: in all about ten of those brown and black tents that characterize Algerian nomads. A couple of men came out of the tents with rifles slung over their shoulders, but my companion spoke to them, saying that we came in peace. We were introduced into the tent of the Chief, a very elderly man with a hieratic presence. We were offered tea and simple but good-tasting sweets. Naturally, the women could not be seen, while a crowd of children played in the open space in front of the tents. The dialogues took place in the local dialect (darija) and were translated for me by my companion. The Chief did not appear to be unaware of Algeria's current situation, and he asked about Huari Boumedienne, the country's first president after independence from France.

Boumedienne died in 1978 Hassidi…….

Really? Well I'm so sorry, he was a man I respected very much…. We parted with warm handshakes and pats on the back, and the Chief told us to come back and visit him soon.

STARSTROY The Russians didn't give a damn about all the security procedures and the possible presence of terrorists in the area. They lived in Sougueur, a town about 40 km from SP7. They arrived every morning driving the battered Lada NIVAs at full speed in scattered order as if they were racing the Paris-Dakar. They were allowed to do things that we didn't even dream of doing, such as casting the anchor block of the pipes in 5 days, while the specifications said that it had to be a continuous concrete pour without interruptions. We were forced by the Works Management to make an important change to the interconnection with the old SP6 because the Russians completely got the pipeline axis coordinates and its elevation completely wrong.

BILLIARDS There wasn't much to do in my free time, so I got a bit passionate about playing billiards. As a result of playing, I had become good at it, and so I realized that I won the tournament that we had organized between all the members of the Staff, including the Algerians. In the final I beat Mr. Cherif our planner, who was undoubtedly the best of the locals in every sense.

CHERIF Within a couple of years, despite loving his country, he managed to emigrate to Canada where he found work at a large oil & gas company. Having acquired a Canadian passport, he moved to Abu Dhabi in the Emirates, where I met him again in 2013. He had married an Algerian and had a little girl. He worked for ADNOC, the state oil company, and lived in a luxury apartment made available by his employer, right next to the Royal Meridian Hotel. Congratulations Cherif!

WINE AT THE TABLE There was this ''concession'' from Company, namely wine at the table in the evening for dinner. All Italians drank it, and some locals too, especially those originally from Kabylia, a region in the North of Algeria, who consider themselves authentic Algerians and not Arabs. One Friday evening an Algerian from SONATRACH who had sometimes tasted the wine with us, suddenly got up from the table and shouted, saying ''it was time to put an end to this consumption of alcohol, which was a provocation, which was against the principles of Islam, and that we Westerners did it to corrupt the young generations of Algerians faithful to the dictates of religion''. Fortunately we had Monsieur Darcy on our side who didn't waste time, and told him clearly that if he didn't want to drink the wine, he couldn't impose his will on everyone else. The matter was about to degenerate, and the prompt response of the Algerian Head of Mission - a gentleman already advanced in years and endowed with a certain charisma among his fellow countrymen - put an end to the diatribe. The brute was ''kindly'' escorted out and told that if he wanted he could have dinner in his room from the next day. This was an episode that greatly shocked the locals who worked with us. On the one hand they wanted to show that they were modern and open-minded, but then, fearful that radical elements could take over, they were always ready to lower the bar.

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greatworldwar2 · 4 years ago

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• U.S Army Nurse Corps

The United States Army Nurse Corps (AN or ANC) was formally established by the U.S. Congress in 1901. 96% of the 670,000 wounded soldiers and sailors who made it to a field hospital staffed by nurses and doctors survived their injuries. By the end of the war, the Army and Army Air Forces (AAF) had 54,000 nurses and the Navy 11,000—all women.

Nurses served in Washington's Army during the Revolutionary War. Although the women who tended the sick and wounded during the Revolutionary War were not nurses as known in the modern sense, they blazed the trail for later generations when, in 1873, civilian hospitals in America began operating recognized schools of nursing. Professionalization was a dominant theme during the Progressive Era, because it valued expertise and hierarchy over ad-hoc volunteering in the name of civic duty. The Army Nurse Corps became a permanent corps of the Medical Department under the Army Reorganization Act (31 Stat. 753) on February 2nd, 1901. Nurses were appointed in the Regular Army for a three-year period, although nurses were not actually commissioned as officers in the Regular Army until forty-six years later-on in April 1947. The number of nurses on active duty hovered around 100 in the years after the creation of the corps, with the two largest groups serving at the general hospital at the Presidio in San Francisco and at the First Reserve hospital in Manila. In World War I (American participation from 1917–18) the military recruited 20,000 registered nurses (all women) for military and navy duty in 58 military hospitals; they helped staff 47 ambulance companies that operated on the Western Front. More than 10,000 served overseas, while 5,400 nurses enrolled in the Army's new School of Nursing.

Demobilization reduced the two corps to skeleton units designed to be expanded should a new war take place. Eligibility at this time included being female, white, unmarried, volunteer, and a graduate from a civilian nursing school. In 1920, Army Nurse Corps personnel received officer-equivalent ranks and wore Army rank insignia on their uniforms. However, they did not receive equivalent pay and were not considered part of the US Army. At the start of the war in December 1941, there were fewer than 1,000 nurses in the Army Nurse Corps and 700 in the Navy Nurse Corps. All were women. Due to the Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, the United States entered the Pacific part of World War II. Along with this military effort was the work of the Flying Tigers in Kunming, China, under Claire Chennault. Nurses were thus needed in China to serve the U.S. Army. These nurses were recruited among the Chinese nurses residing in China, particularly the English-speaking nurses that fled Hong Kong (a British colony) to free China due to the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong on December 8th, 1941.

Only a few African American nurses were admitted to the Army Nurse Corps. Mabel Keaton Staupers, who worked for the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses with help from Eleanor Roosevelt, pressured the Army to admit African American nurses in 1941. The first black nurse admitted to the program was Della H. Raney who was commissioned as a second lieutenant in April of 1941. The limit on black nurses was 48 in 1941 and they were mostly segregated from white nurses and soldiers. In 1943, the Army set a limit on black nurses to 160. That same year, the first African American medical unit, the 25th Station Hospital Unit, was deployed overseas to Liberia. Later, nurses were deployed to Burma, where they treated black soldiers. African American nurses also served in China, Australia, New Guinea, the Philippines, England and in the US where they treated prisoners of war. Some 217 black nurses served in all-black Army medical units.

Throughout 1941 the United States had responded to the increasing tensions in the Far East by deploying more troops in the Philippines. The number of Army nurses stationed on the islands grew proportionately to more than one hundred. Most nurses worked at Sternberg General Hospital in Manila and at Fort McKinley, 7 miles outside the city. However, a few nurses were at Fort Stotsenberg, 75 miles north of Manila, and two worked at Camp John Hay, located 200 miles to the north in the mountains. Several nurses worked on the island of Corregidor. Six months after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, there were 12,000 nurses on duty in the Army Nurse Corps. Few of them had previous military experience, and the majority reported for duty ignorant of Army methods and protocol. Only in July 1943 did Lt. Gen. Brehon B. Somervell, Commanding General, Army Service Forces, authorize a formal four-week training course for all newly commissioned Army nurses. This program stressed Army organization; military customs and courtesies; field sanitation; defense against air, chemical, and mechanized attack; personnel administration; military requisitions and correspondence, and property responsibility. From July 1943 through September 1945 approximately 27,330 newly inducted nurses graduated from fifteen Army training centers. More than 2,000 nurses trained in a six-month course designed to teach them how to administer inhalation anesthesia, blood and blood derivatives, and oxygen therapy as well as how to recognize, prevent, and treat shock. In December 1943 the U.S. War Department decided that there were enough nurses in the Army Nurse Corps to meet both existing and anticipated future demands on the Army. Consequently, the Army instructed the American Red Cross, which throughout the war had been responsible for the recruitment of nurses for the Army Nurse Corps, to stop recruiting. The Red Cross sent telegrams to local volunteer committees in every state advising them to discontinue their sustained drive to enlist nurses.

In November 1942 the United States invaded North Africa to link with British forces in the North Africa campaign. The Army nurses who participated in the North African invasion at first had little conception of the realities of battle and were unfamiliar with military procedures. One nurse at the Arzew hospital became so incensed at snipers firing into the windows of the hospital and endangering the patients that she had to be forcibly restrained from going outside to "give them a piece of her mind." Nurses serving at the front in North Africa became expert at meeting the challenges of combat while caring for incoming patients. In February 1943 when news reached the 77th Evacuation Hospital bivouacked near Tebessa that the German Army had broken through the Kasserine Pass, staff members packed up and moved their 150 patients sixty miles to a safer bivouac. Within twelve hours a new hospital was fully operational and received another 500 casualties. During the Allied counterattack from mid-April through May 1943, which captured northern Tunisia, the 77th treated 4,577 soldiers within a 45-day period. The nurses' performance during the North African invasion taught the Army several lessons that it applied to the invasions of Sicily and southern Italy. Commanding officers noticed that nurses acclimated quickly to difficult and dangerous conditions with a minimum of complaints.

Their efficiency and professional accomplishments made them essential members of the field armies. The presence of nurses at the front improved the morale of all fighting men because soldiers realized that they would receive skilled care in the event they were wounded. Hospitalized men recovered sooner when nurses cared for them. Troops in the field figured that "if the nurses can take it, then we can." U.S. and British troops invaded Sicily on July 9th, 1943, and nurses of the 10th Field Hospital and the 11th Evacuation Hospital arrived on the island three days later. There they were greeted by German Stuka dive bombers which forced them into slit trenches and foxholes during the first few days. Other nurses scheduled to support the invading U.S. Seventh Army had to wait nine days for transport, which was in short supply during the first week of the invasion. Continuous periods of bad weather caused one of the most famous incidents in Nurse Corps history. On November 8th, 1943, a C-54 ferrying thirteen flight nurses and thirteen medical technicians (corpsmen) of the 807th Medical Air Evacuation Transport Squadron from Sicily to Bari on the east coast of Italy ran into severe weather. The plane lost radio contact, the compass failed, and the pilot became disoriented in the storm. Icing finally forced the plane down in the Albanian mountains far behind German lines. Partisan guerrillas found the Americans and took them to a nearby farmhouse. That night the flight crew set fire to the plane to conceal traces of their presence in the area. In bitterly cold weather and blinding snowstorms, the small band made a hazardous, two-month journey covering 800 miles. The escapees suffered from frostbite, dysentery, jaundice, and pneumonia, but all the nurses except three who were separated from the main body of the group arrived safely. Throughout February and March, medical installations on the beachhead continued to receive direct hits. On March 29th, 1944 the 56th Evacuation Hospital was shelled, leaving 3 officers, 1 nurse, 14 enlisted men, and 19 patients wounded and 4 patients killed. Whenever the air raid sirens at Anzio sounded, those patients who could put on their steel helmets and crawled under their cots to avoid flying shrapnel. Nurses and corpsmen lifted others to the ground. Patients whose condition rendered them immovable became very nervous, and nurses ignored the danger to stay with them. A later observer explained that the medical detachment at Anzio was "part of a front that had no back. medical installations earned it the nickname "Hell's Half Acre." Many soldiers believed that they were safer in their frontline foxholes than they would be in the hospitals.

By June 1945 the number of Army nurses in the European theater of the war reached a peak of 17,345. The first nurses to arrive in Normandy were members of the 42d and 45th Field Hospitals and the 91st and 128th Evacuation Hospitals. They landed on the beachhead four days after the initial invasion in June 1944. The nurses' experiences in the European theater varied widely, depending upon their assignments. The experiences of those assigned to the 12th Evacuation Hospital reflected that diversity. Unit members sailed for England in January 1943. After several moves they arrived on the east coast of England in May 1944. There they participated in the buildup for the Allied invasion of the Continent by establishing a tent hospital and preparing for the expected influx of casualties. In early June they watched hundreds of Allied planes fly overhead to prepare the way for the invasion. The 12th Evacuation Hospital deployed to France in July, arriving in Normandy in August. By that time most of the heavy casualties incurred during the first weeks of the invasion had already been evacuated to England. Throughout August Allied forces pushed the German Briny eastward through France toward the Siegfried Line. The front moved rapidly; high numbers of casualties occurred only in pockets of resistance and were handled by other evacuation hospitals. In mid-September the Allies met the German defenses at the Siegfried Line, and casualties mounted. The 12th established operations at Bonneval, where it admitted 1,260 patients in less than one month. The nurses of the 12th moved eleven times in two years. After each relocation they had to prepare a sanitary, comfortable hospital capable of handling large numbers of critically wounded or sick patients. Their experience alternated between periods of exhausting activity and intense boredom. They had to be flexible, innovative, quick-thinking, patient, adaptable, and highly skilled. Nurses frequently demonstrated their ability to remain calm in unpredictable and dangerous situations. For example, flight nurse Reba Z. Whittle's C-47 was caught by flak and crashed behind enemy lines in September 1944. Every member of the crew, including Whittle, was wounded. The Germans provided their prisoners with medical care and upon their recovery incarcerated them in Stalag IXC. Whittle's captors allowed her to nurse other POWs throughout her captivity. Whittle was held as a prisoner of war for five months until her release in January 1945.

After American and British forces repulsed this last German offensive, medical units accompanied the Allied forces into Germany. In newly conquered, hostile territory the nurses experienced new pressures. Third Army nurses noticed that the deeper the Americans went into Germany, the more openly hostile German civilians became. Near Darmstadt, the hospital had to be guarded at all times. According to one nurse, German civilians looked at the nurses "with actual hatred in their eyes—and children throw stones at ambulances and spit at jeeps." The final push into central Germany cost the western Allies heavy casualties and required medical units to work under great pressure. The 44th Evacuation Hospital admitted 1,348 patients from the 3d Armored Division during one 56-hour period in mid-April. Casualties also came in from the 9th Infantry, engaged in clearing out the area north of the Harz Mountains. This expect and many like it were how nurses in the European theater experienced the final days of WW2 in Europe. With over 8 million soldiers and airmen, the needs were more than double those of World War I. Hundreds of new military hospitals were constructed for the expected flow of casualties. Fearing a massive wave of combat casualties once Japan was invaded in late 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt called on Congress early in 1945 for permission to draft nurses. However, with the rapid collapse of Germany early in 1945, and the limitation of the war in the Pacific to a few islands, the draft was not needed and was never enacted.

There is no single comprehensive history of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps, nor is there a volume in the official United States Army in World War II series that deals with this corps. The best approach to learning more about Army nurses during World War II is to read the relatively few individual memoirs which have been published over the years. The following are among the best. In From Nightingale to Eagle: An Army Nurses History (1973), GI Nightingale: The Story of an American Army Nurse (1945). In Jungle Angel: Bataan Remembered (1988) and many other stories which detail the experience of these brave women near the frontline fighting to keep men alive. Members of the Army Nurse Corps served in Theaters all over the world. They often had to live and work under trying conditions, treating others and suffering themselves from tropical illnesses and diseases, adapting to different climatic conditions. Moreover, Nurses had to cope with inadequate supplies and lack of adapted Theater clothing. Some came under fire, others were taken prisoner, and many had narrow escapes. Deaths were unavoidable, due to hazardous duty. In total, over 59,000 Nurses served in the Army Nurse Corps during World War 2.

#world war 2 #second world war #world war ii #wwii #military history #history #us army #nursing #nurses #womens history #women's history month #american history

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