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World War II was well under way as she was completing 3
years of Registered Nurses training at Aultman Hospital.
She finished training in August of 1943 and received her
R.N. After taking the State Board exam in December, 1943.
The need for nurses in all services was escalating and the
Red Cross was recruiting. She enlisted in January, 1944 and
received orders to report to Billings General Hospital, Ft.
Benjamin Harrison, IN. On February 1, 1945, she was
commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Army
Nurse Corps.
At B.G.H. she was given a more complete physical, had
dental work upgraded, received required inoculations along
with basic training in military etiquette, use of a gas
mask and was issued military nurses attire.
Her first assignment from there was to the
156th Station Unit at Camp Atterbury, south of
Indianapolis, where she served for the next 13 months. Her
work was on wards of ill or injured soldiers. Penicillin
was just beginning to be the treatment of choice to get
soldiers back into training. When the hospital became
Wakeman General and Convalescent Hospital, wounded soldiers
from overseas began coming for prolonged treatment. She was
then assigned to care for patients needing plastic surgery
rehabilitation. Since it required many months of healing,
she never saw the end results but knew ther soldiers were
given the best of care while they were hospitalized. Before
leaving Wakeman Gen. Hosp. She received her silver bars as
a 1st Lieutenant.
In March, 1945, a request came for nurses to for
overseas duty to replace nurses who needed to return the
States after serving years under adverse conditions war.
She volunteered and was on her way to Army Services
Personnel Replacement Depot at Indiantown Gap, PA in April.
There a large group of nurses were given more military
training, updated physicals and more Army Nurse clothing
was issued, suitable for the ETO. There were 500 going as
replacements. Her group was assigned to sail on the
converted luxury liner Ile De France. On May 1, 1945, they
sailed from Ft. Dix, NJ. The trip was uneventful and on May
8th arrived off the coast of Scotland. That
evening the King of England made an announcement over the
PA system that hostilities with the Germans had ceased VE
day.
They debarked and boarded a British train for an
overnight stay in England. Residents along the way were
jubilant and cheered them on. They arrived May 10 at the
10th Reinforcement Depot and were assigned to
the 102nd GH where they waited assignment. On
May 25th she was assigned to the
107th GH. She reported on June 1, 1945 to
7th GH where she worked until September. The
patients there were awaiting ship transportation back home.
Only the seriously ill and wounded were flown home.
She also served at 163rd GH in England until
she was assigned to the 160th GH and crossed the
English Channel into France. They arrived at Camp Phillip
Morris in a deluge of rain and found their beds wet from
leaks in the barracks roof. Her 1st assignment
was with the 178th GH in Reims, then the
198th GH and finally the 28th Field
Hospital where patients were housed in a French Villa and
the nurses in tents. The next week she went to the
68th GH in Nancy, France. It was there that she
met a familiar face from home, Wade Fox, an MP who was on
duty at the hospital. It was a chance meeting in a
hallway.
The next move was to LeHavre, France where a group of
nurses awaited transportation home. They set sail on
February 25, 1946 for the eleven day journey on the USS
General George S. Squire, a Liberty ship. They encountered
a severe Atlantic spring storm and were confined to their
cabins. The last two days were smooth sailing and she saw
the Statue of Liberty as they entered New York harbor. What
a beautiful sight.
She was honorably discharged from the Army Nurse Corps
at Ft. Dix, NJ on March 6, 1946. From there she traveled
back to Alliance and met at the station by her parents and
her future husband, Harold Devies.
Betty stated that during her tour of duty, besides
seeing much of England and France from the back of trucks,
jeeps or trains, she was privileged to visit places of
interest and enjoyed a weeks leave in Switzerland. She also
saw much of the destruction of war and felt the effects the
war had on the general population. She met many friendly
people and gained a wealth of experience. She proud to have
been a very small part in winning the victory of the evils
caused by one tyrannical individual, Hitler.
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