I was born in pittsburgh, pennsylvania, in april 1927. Interviewer what date . April 9, 1927. Interviewer tell me about your family when you were born . Mary we were very poor. My father was from tennessee. Pittsburgh. S from and when i was born, we lived in pittsburgh then. I had two older brothers and a sister. Oldest brother was 10 years older than i was. So by the time i became aware as a little kid, they were already grown. If i was almost an only child. As if iit seemed to me was a no so it seemed to me as if i was only child. And i always missed someone else. But we were poor. We lived in a little house on a hill, and i was never without friends because we played on the on theand in the fields, hills. Pittsburgh is full of hills, so me when iwould warn would go out to play, not to go over the hill. Didnt, until, i i got to the end of the row went around the row, until she couldnt see me. But then i went over the hill, because that is where all the kids were. [laughter] interviewer what was your fathers job . For the father worked university of pittsburg in the repair Department University of pittsburgh and the repair department, and he was a maintenance man. And he was very well acquainted with construction, and he could do anything in the house. Interviewer so it was around the great depression, right . Mary i was born in 1927. 1920 90s when the depression 1929 is when the depression began. So when i was a child, it was the depression. Interviewer it must have been very difficult. Me, well, it wasnt for because i was so much younger. But it was very difficult for my older brothers and my sister, because they were in high school and there was no jobs and so forth. As i say, we were very poor. Interviewer tell me about the schools you went through. School,went to a small local school. As i said, we lived on a hill. To get to the school, you had to you alsohe hill, and had to go up the hill, of course, after school. Forget, if you want to hear a sad story, i was a little kid and i was coming up the hill from school, and there was snow on the road and it was slippery. And there was a milk cart, and they used horses in those days, to carry the bottles, and the horse was down, and he was beating the horse. And that picture has always stayed in my mind, all my life, it was just a horrible thing to see for a little kid. You know, only once, but things like that stand out. Interviewer what high school did you graduate, and when . I graduated from schenley high school. Enley. That was in 1945. Interviewer what did you do after that . Mary well, when i started high to tour, had a desire and was very fortunate to be in the high school i was in. They had very good teachers and they had a good counselor, and the counselor asked me what i wanted to do, and i said i wanted to be a teacher or a nurse. Taken fromrses were the hospitals to go into the army, or the military. Interviewer when did you join the nurse cadet corps . After i graduated from high school, in 1945. That would be september 1945. Thoughewer so even world war ii ended, there were still big demands for nurses . This was the last class for the cadet corps. I was very fortunate to be in it. It was in the Western Pennsylvania Hospital school of nursing. And i graduated in 1948. Interviewer what did you learn their . What what did you learn there . What was the tuition, and what did you learn . Mary we had no expenses at all. The government paid everything. Not only the school and the residences, living in the nurses quarters, all our food was provided. Provided. Niforms were for theop of that, First Six Months in the cadet corps, we were given a stipend of 10 a month. Capped, afterere month, we were then student nurses and we were given 20 a month. Six months before our graduation, we were given 30 a month. Now, this means 30 a month, in those days was a lot of money. Interviewer what were you able to do with the 30 . Mary i saved most of it. I am a saber anyhow, but i saved most of it because i planned on going to alaska to see my sister and mother and family up there. That. As saving for interviewer you volunteered. Your name was not on the list, but you volunteered to go to korea. Mary right. From the movies i had seen, the nurses were lovely and in white uniforms. Interviewer you might have lost your life in the work. I have the war to me was the real beginning of life. Because i had lived such a sheltered life, and had done so little, that it opened up the bers of how large life can if you allow it to be. Be in the army only becauset, not of the silly war movies, but because i was very serious. I would never have been able to go to college or get any education. Anythingoo poor for else. And when the government came along and offered all this to me, completely free, i felt i owed the army, i owed the country. Feelen i went in, i didnt i was doing them a favor, i thought they had on me a favor, and i was paying back. And i feel today that that was the right thing to have done. When dider tell me, you depart, from where, to korea . Fort worden,d at not fort worden, anyhow, we left that was usedhip for transporting people. A lot ofund out later, people who were on the street waiting to get on the ship, a lot of them were Civil Servants, Civil Servants for the army going to japan and, japan i suppose, because they all got off in yokohama. Only those who were going to korea went on to korea, so they were all Civil Servants. Things, was one of the when the three of us, pat, andy looking for the fourth person we needed for our cabin, we couldnt find anyone that seemed to fit in with us. We realized later that probably the people we were approaching were Civil Servants. Itdidnt realize, we thought was all part of the hospital. Because weed out ok, eventually gave up trying to find our fourth, and the three of us just stood there looking kind of lost, because we knew somebody else was going to be putting in with us. And this tall, goodlooking irish girl comes up to us and and there was no discussion at all, the three of us just looked at each other and we knew immediately that this was our fourth. And she was. And we became a real solid relationship of four. Interviewer when did you leave . Left, when was it . I dont remember right now . Interviewer was it summer. Mary no, it was october. I know that we got to korea on november 7. Interviewer where did you arrive . Mary pusan. We went to japan first, to and to korea. We all got off there. Interviewer what was your unit . When it was organized it was called the 10th station and that was the most ridiculous situation you could ever think of, because a station hospital in the army is a stationary, permanent hospital. Thestation hospital, General Hospital are the ones that are in the states, those are the big hospitals. The ones overseas were the station hospitals. Then the next one down is the hospital, and then in mash, the nash unit the unit was developed. But there is another unit in the field called a field hospital, and that is a mobile unit. Hospital is set mobile in the station hospital is a permanent hospital. They said a permanent hospital with 50 nurses they sent a permanent hospital with 50 nurses and 30 male doctors to korea which, really, the whole peninsula was a combat area. And it turned up to be that way. Arrived november 7, the war was over. Interviewer when . November 7, 1950. It was the end of the war as we theght of it, because providednding had to send our troops up to the board. We had no idea there was anything going on. In to set up a permanent we would have been the biggest hospital in korea. Assignedthat, we were to a place in north korea, where we were to set up our big hospital. Withwe came in, however, this huge unit, they had no place to put us. , the 21st in pusan , andhospital was in pusan we were sent there to stage, but they had no place for us. What they did was, they cleaned out the attic, painted the isls, set cots up, and that where they put us. 50 people. Couple of her a assistants were there, but the rest of us, 48 of us were there, withoutcouldnt move however many eyes wanted to watch you. Interviewer this was in pusan. Mary yes. We were iny that, the attic, and all we had was our footlockers, that was the only piece of furniture we had besides a cot. And we were told that the latrine we could use was on the wasnd floor, and there steps that went down. That was on the third floor, we went down to the second floor for the latrine, and we were restricted to only going to that latrine. We werent allowed to go into the hospital. Downrent allowed to walk on the second floor. We were confined to the attic and to the latrine. At thehen we got a look latrine, we were a little upset because we looked in the door and all we saw was a and on thel sinks, commodes withw very limited shelter about them. They were mostly not complete. So that was that. And when we looked in, of course, we were children from in depression, and we looked , took one look at that row of h, saturdayaid, uho night bath. Interviewer what about the facility . Mary terrible. Interviewer equipment . Mary terrible. Medicine . R mary well, we didnt have anything to do with equipment or medicine, because we were there to work. We were there to stage, because they were waiting to send us up to build our hospital, so we had nothing to do. And there was no place to go because we were confined. To send a unit this large into that area was just not good thinking in the beginning. Useduilding was what was for quarters, and the male officers were on the first floor. Email male officers were on the second floor. Officersid female were on the second floor. What we didnt know was where the enlisted men were, because when you walked around the compound, you never saw anything that had to do with enlisted. Finally, someone said, where are they . Duty, and night someone said, where are the enlisted . And some little voice from one of the other tables said, someone said something about over the hill. And we said, over the hill, over what to . Over what hill . And with that, we said, lets go, went out, started walking on the far side and sure enough, there was a hill. It dropped right down, and down on that second level were the greatest tents you ever wanted to see, all reinforced with wood , and they all had their own stove, potbellied stove, and they looked so clean. And we were jealous. And i will tell you, that winter, those breezes were blowing through our old school thought many times about going down and saying, i want a tent. [laughter] of course, we didnt. We wouldnt. Interviewer what did you eat . Mary food became a real problem with the four of us, in particular. I was better off than they were, because i could eat breakfast. I liked oatmeal. I was used eating porridge. They would have these scrambled had toast andthey enough so i could get for breakfast. The other three would not even go to breakfast. Interviewer why not . Mary because they just wouldnt eat it. Were living up we on tunafish that our families sent us. Each family would send us a box boxes. Ek, so we had more we had a box a week of the food tunafish, crackers, cookies, relish. Interviewer you didnt get k rations . Eatingfter a long time, the same thing over and over, you get to the point where you cant eat it anymore. Interviewer soldiers on the front lines eight c rations. Te c rations mary they thought the hospital food was wonderful because it was hot and it was wet and all that sort of stuff, but we, who didnt have c rations, all we had was the same, you had to eat the same thing day after day after day, week after week. You get to the point where you cant eat it. Interviewer how much were you paid . Mary i dont even remember, because i had my money sent to the bank. I had 10 a month coming to korea for me, and i didnt use much of that. [laughter] interviewer where can you use it, right . Mary no place. And usually when you go someplace where there are women ,ho do handwork and so forth they always bring it around to sell to you, and the korean women never did anything like that. They never had anything to sell. Interviewer when did you leave korea . Mary december 1951. We left, i think it was three days. Christmase day before. Tokyoe we were in christmas eve. Interviewer so what was the most difficult thing you remember during your service in korea . Was those days when we didnt know whether we were going to be overrun by the chinese when they go through. Those were scary days. There was nowhere to go. Certainly didnt want to become prisoners of war. Interviewer and you didnt regret at the time that you were in korea . Mary now. How could no. How could you do that . It was my duty. Interviewer you were human beings. Mary of course we were human beings. Interviewer and you dont regret . Mary no, i felt like we should be there. Interviewer let me ask about the soft side. Was there any romance between nurses and soldiers and so on . There was no way you could do it. There was no possible way that you could. I will tell you something. A secondolder nurse, world war veteran, we were very andndly, and one evening, it was in the summer and it was a big moon evening, by theke this coming up, water, it was a gorgeous night, so the two of us are just standing there enjoying this gorgeous view and she said, all of a sudden, the worst thing therebeing in korea is, is no place you can go for an immoral weekend. And that says it all. There was no place. There was always eyes around you. Any particular patient or wounded soldier you remember, and the reason why . Mary yes. We had one come down from the north, and how he ever got to us, we never understood that. And we cleaned him up. They never groaned. They never grunted. They never said a word. Especially,t day nothing was said. But by the second day, a few of them would try to communicate, and it was just body language and so forth. But it ended up we would have some of them laughing, and we would be laughing, and just getting them ready. Because what were you going to do . They were dirty, they had to have surgery, they had to be cleaned on the job was very simple. Interviewer how did you clean them . Mary no, because of the water situation, the amount of water that we needed in the amount of water that we had. What we were interested in was finding the wounds, because we that they fought hand to hand, and they couldnt talk to us, so you had to look at them to see if there was any signs of wounds. So you had to look at their bodies and you had to clean the areas, but they were dirty. If there was nothing wrong with their feet or legs, we werent going to do anything with them. But the water situation was a bad thing. Was nonpotable water. The water we would be using would be nonpotable, potable being clean, nonpotable, dirty. But it wasnt dirty dirty. When we cleaned them, we felt they were cleaner than if they had been left alone. Interviewer and that is all you did . Mary that is all we did. Interviewer during your whole service in korea . Only for five or six days, i think. The six days we were at inchon. Meantime, the level of confusion and so forth was very high, because the information coming back, we didnt know whether we were going to stay or be evacuated or what was going on. We just knew something was terribly wrong. And after a week, we were put back on the train. And then, this kind of made me feel bad because these civilians, the place was loaded with civilians, all coming from seoul andng from inchon and all these places, trying to get out. And they wanted us back in pusan. They just opened the way and we walked on the train, and i kept thinking, those people have been waiting for so long to try to get a train out, then we come along and take the space. But that is what happened. Interviewer where did you go . Mary back to pusan. Interviewer what did you do . Mary well, we found when we got were put onn, we buses and taken to this compound , and then we found out that this was the rest of our unit, the rest of the tent station hospital. Officers and the enlisted were there. And they were at this compound that had been cleaned up, and very much so, because they had stayed there thatll time when we were going up, traveling. While we were there, they were building,san, cleaning up and building what would be the hospital. Out it didnt stay a station hospital, but it became an evac hospital. The lines would come down from wherever the fighting was going on, and the ones that got into the 21stld come into evac, there was a Swedish Hospital down on the and there were hospital ships in the water. So this is what we did with our werents, the ones who serious would go stay on a hospital ships. Evac hospitals would keep the patients that were able to be treated and sent back on the line. That is what we did. The 22nd evac, you dealt with Many American soldiers, not just turks . You were only there for six days, but tell me about those patients and how serious the wounds were. Mary well, the ones we cap are the ones who were going to get cap the ones we pt were the ones who were going to get better. And the feet are very important andoldiers, infantrymen, anything to do with the common things people lived with, constipation, diarrhea, upset stomach, with abdominal pain we were always concerned, was it an ulcer youause with an have the possibility of a hemorrhage. If you were suspicious of that, we would send them right over to japan. We wouldnt keep them. But if it was diarrhea or worms, we had a tremendous amount of warms. We had really good warm medicine. And i will tell you, those guys would come in with worms and would be so weekend spent that we would treat them with our couple ofand in a weeks they would be a man again. [laughter] and as soon as they got their strength back, they went back on the line. Patties. E rice at one time, i had a young man i was en and then scolding him about drinking water, you know better than that, and he came back at me, when you are thirsty, you drink. And i realized i was out of line to criticize his decision. But anyhow, that was the kinds of things, and we had surgery too. But it wouldnt be what we would call dirty surgery, but we treated the dirty wounds, cleaned them up, and put them back on the line. You feeler what did when you so so many Wounded Soldiers . What were you thinking . You volunteered to come to korea. Job it was my it was nothing to think about. Rough,n it really got and we didnt know whether the line was going to hold or not, and that was, where were we going to go . We were at the tip of the peninsula. All that was down there was water. And the only other thing would have been prisoner of war if the chinese had been able to get across that river. And we never knew. Ourad been ordered to hang ouret with the liner in, canteen with daily, freshwater, and our helmet and our bag with and aportant papers, threeday supply for managing. Interviewer where did you sleep and what were your Living Conditions there . Mary the compound had two old school buildings. And one was the one we used for evacospital, as an hospital, we were semimobile. So we h