Summer 1945 and the war was 1 million men old. Hang on, jim. Keep your eyes shut tight and drink. They are moving you back now. Dont give up. Just hang on. The road back is bumpy and maybe the pain blurs your eyes. But listen, the sound of battle grows dim. Now one question cuts clearly through the haze. Which man will you be, the one who gets hurt and dies, or the one who gets hurt and lives. When the dizziness stopped and the fog cleared, an army nurse was at your side. A woman who meant safety and comfort and home to thousands of men before you, a woman who meant all those things to you. A nurse brought another americans blood to your side to pour new strength into your veins. A nurse handed clamps to the surgeon and counted sponges. A nurse prepared and administered the anesthetic and watched you constantly for any telltale change in your breathing or blood pressure. All working with the same purpose, to ease the pain of war, to help save lives. The preparation for the moment that would bring the army nurse to your side began months before back home in the United States. After three years of professional schooling, the nurses were given four weeks of basic training. In those earl days the nurse probably wondered why they had to sit through seemingly endless classes anderson rigid discipline. Often while muscles ached and groaned she wonder why she had to take those hikes or go through a gassed area, yet they were demands that would require stamina, the riggers to stand up under combat nursing. Four weeks when finished, the army nurse was ready to serve wherever the army needed her most. She might have found herself stationed in a General Hospital right here at home or perhaps assigned to a mobile Hospital Unit overseas. After she arrived she may have helped to build the very hospital in which she worked, for the Field Hospital or Evacuation Hospital like a circus had to be able to pack up and move on at a moments notice. Its primary function was to offer immediate surgical treatment to the wounded. That meant following ever changing battle lines. Everyone pitched in when a mobile hospital went up. In listed men, doctors and nurses. Just one small instance where basic training paid off. Those muscles toughened and hardened during the four weeks of basic back home were equal to the job. In the field the army nurse lived roughly and worked gently. There was no glamouglamor and e was far from spectacular. She slept under hastily pitched canvas on gi cot under gi blankets. She trained her mind to be an alarm clock because time was important. A wasted moment might have meant a wasted life. She lived a life completely stripped of luxuries, and yet she asked for no more luxury than a patiented smile when his pain was eased. She ate regular gi rations the same as the rest of the army and off at irregular times. The hours were long and demands never ending. As a result the nurse learned to make use of every moment of her off duty time. She might not have chosen a gi helmet to wear to her kid sisters wedding but made up for its lack of style by its versatility. It was a beauty parlor, laundry, cooking pot, wash basin all rolled up into one. A Little Community in size 7. Cement some of her time writing letters. Not the having a wonderful time, wish you were here time, but letters filled with all the drama of her days. With stories of the courage and spirit over men whom she watched. A few moments could always be found for prayer. Others for lounging about talking of home. She may have longed to wear the evening dress sent from home, but probably only had the chance to talk about it. Usually she wore olive drab or ballo battle gray. Her uniform at all times was her badge of service. But however she spent her off duty time, she was always eager to return to the hospital where the wounded were fighting for their lives, where first and foremost and at all times she was a nurse offering professional and skilled care to the sick and wounded. A nurse first, a woman second, and an officer third might well serve as the slogan for every member of the nurses core. The washt in war or peace depends not only on the use of drugs but on the skill by which they are administered and the care that follows. The nurse must be capable of recognizing at once any symptoms in her fashts whipatients which immediate treatment. If serious consequences are to be avoided, medical treatment must be on hand the moment any symptoms appear. Professionally skilled and capable, in her there is the tenderness of all women, of mother and sister and friend. Her voice and touch lend encouragement, instill hope. Its the surgeon who saves a mans life. Its the nurse whose tender care helps him to live. The crisis past, patients begin to sleep again. The pain is just a bad memory. The Field Hospital, a stopover to give them immediate surgical treatment as soon as possible after they were wounded had done its job. The Evacuation Hospital was another stop over on a trip back through the medical chain. Here facilities for treatment were more complete than those of the Field Hospital. Here, too, the nurse played an increasingly important part in the vital treatment of convalescence. After three or four days, the patients were usually well never for the trip back to the General Hospital. Trains waited for them. Hospital wards on wheels. Each train carried in addition to medical officers and in listed technicians four surgical nurses and two medical nurses, all of whom were on duty from 7 00 a. M. To 9 00 p. M. And as far into the night as they were needed. When speed meant life, evacuation took place by plane. Because of these flying hospitals, men are alive today who otherwise would have died in the jungles of burma or the beaches of normandy. Each patient was thoroughly checked before the takeoff and then watched over constantly and checked again when the plane landed. While in the air, the flight nurse was in complete charge, ready to handle every emergency and doing everything a doctor would have to do except operate. Air evacuation was difficult and required Specialized Skill and training. The flight nurse had to be prepared for the unexpected, for the next moment it might have and often did happen. At the General Hospital in the theater of operation, other skilled teams of surgeons and nurses stood ready to take over where the frontline hospitals left off. Whether a hospital is under canvas out in the field or solid structure in the city, its routine, like the nurses routine doesnt vary. Its principle aim remains fixed, to offer the best possible medical care to the sick and wounded. Nurses sterilized the operating equipment. The surgical gowns and gloves. Prepared drugs, laid out the instruments which the doctor needed for his next operation, and kept accurate records of each patients history and progress. While in the civilian hospital, the ratio is usually one nurse to every three beds. In an army hospital, it is always three times that number. To help lift the burden ftd nurses shoulder in listed technicians from special schools are assigned to work under her direct supervision. One of her biggest jobs is to teach these technicians both in the classroom and in the hospital wards. This means added responsibility for the nurse. Although she has less personal contact with her patients, she has to direct activities of the personnel assigned to her so the treatment and wellbeing of her patients is assured. Relaxation and entertainment are an important part to the treatment. To this General Hospital overseas came an allstar show and the army nurse shared the fun with her patients, to whom the sound of laughter from home often meant more than medicine. Later on she might have spent a few minutes with the star. There were times when she was the star of the show. Like this nurse, the first nurse to arrive here. Batter up. Army versus army as the nurses play the wacs. This infield will never play in the polo grounds but one of their patients might. Off duty for a while, some nurses drove through streets and buildings of ancient cities. Others preferred a round of golf. Or a swim somewhere if the weather was right. Then it was always back to duty, back to the sick and wounded. Back to the hospital around which the life of an army nurse revolves. Those patients scheduled for a trip back home for the final period of convalescence travel on a hospital ship as fully equipped as a stationary hospital. Now, as before, the army nurse stands by ready to minister to every need. Next stop a debarkation hospic l hospital. Then a General Hospital in the United States and complete recovery. This is the he said of the long evacuation, the General Hospital back home. Here the army nurse works patiently with her hands, her head, and her heart. Here she gently guides men back to the way of life they fought to protect. Although she might have volunteered to serve overseas, although she might chafe at what she considered the inactivity of working in a hospital in the United States or alaska or panama, the army nurse soon learned was wherever a soldier was stationed. Words measure up to these women whose very lives are given to nursing sick and wounded men, a million sick and wounded men, back to life and health. Yet, praise is offered. Long hours recognized. The army nurse decorated for bravery and valor above and beyond the call of duty. These nurses imprisoned for three long years by the japanese asked only that they be returned to duty for they could never forget the faces of american mentor toured and killed by the enemy. Wherever trans ports took our soldiers, they also took the army nurse to work by day, by night, on distant battlefields, so help make shattered bodies whole, to bring smiles to faces twisted with pain, to serve at the side of the american soldier during peace and war. This is army nurse usa ready to serve anywhere under any circumstances in time of need purchase during the past four years 0,000 nurses have served in the army. For us the war is not over. Many nurses are sent to oversee theaters to care for american soldiers. These are replacements for nurses who served oversee during the war, and the war is not yet over for many of our patients. More than 300,000 patients are in Army Hospitals throughout this country, many of whom will be forced to remain there for a long time to come. These men are not asking for much. They have never asked for much. They are the most wonderful patients in the world. But the war has caused them much more than any of us have been asked to give. Army nurses seldom ask for much either. But today they are asking you to buy a bond. Weeknights this month were featuring American History tv programs as a preview of whats available every weekend on cspa cspan3. Tonight public historians talk about history of africanamerican Voting Rights explaining various ways their sites present and share this history. This discussion was part of the association of the study of africanamerican life and historys annual conference earlier this fall. It starts at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. Enjoy American History tv this week and every weekend on cspan3. American history tv on cspan3, exploring the people and events that tell the american story every weekend. Coming up this weekend saturday at 2 00 p. M. Eastern, best selling authors and Depaul University history professors Kathleen Rooney and miles harvey talk about how they approach Historical Research for fiction and nonfix work. At 6 00 p. M. Eastern on civil war, scott hartwig, author and Military Park historian discusses his research on the battle of antietam. 8 00 p. M. Patrick alitt discusses president richard nixon, his National Security adviser Henry Kissinger and key policy initiatives. On sunday at 2 00 p. M. Eastern, former u. S. Senator sam nunn reflects on the cold war 75 years later exploring the american story. Watch American History tv this weekend on cspan3. Coming up on American History tv, we hear from members of the only all female africanamerican unit serving overseas during world war ii. They share memories of their time processing backlog