Interview of Dorothy Schroeder on her service
 in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps during WWII


Jean Campbell:	This is Jean T. Campbell member of the [inaudible 00:04] Unit Women’s Overseas Service League interviewing Dorothy Schroeder another member for the Oral History Committee of the Women’s Overseas Service League. The date is Friday, March 7, 1986.   

Dorothy Schroeder:	Hello Jean.  Um, I’m Dorothy Schroeder.  I’m a native of Minneapolis, Minnesota and, uh, I have, I married a Louisville man so I am now a Louisvillian for the last 36 years.  But, uh, my family are all in Minnesota.  I had, uh, one sister and one brother.  I graduated from Washburn High School in 1938.  I went into nurses training at Saint Mary’s Hospital in Minneapolis and, uh, graduated in 1941.  And at that time, I had a first cousin who was in the same class and we decided we wanted to see the world so we flipped a coin to see whether we would go to Florida or California to work.  And that’s how we ended up going to Florida.  We worked at Saint Francis Hospital on Miami Beach in 1941.  At that time, the, uh, [inaudible 01:29] from the Air Corps was very active in Miami Beach and, uh, we, uh, made a lot of friends and got to love the service.  Uh, and while we enjoyed working at Saint Francis and, uh, we worked in the operating room together, um, it wasn’t long before we began to wish we were in the service too.  We had met some nurses [inaudible 01:55] and so we, um, both went on down and joined and, um, had executed our oath of office on January 28, 1944.  And then we called home and told our folks.  And, uh, they weren’t too surprised.  Um, there already was talk in Minneapolis of having to, uh, freeze the nurses in their jobs because so many were leaving for the service.  And, uh, uh, as I said my family kind of expected we would.  I guess our letters told them that we were planning to do that.  Um, Drew, Drew Field in Tampa, Florida that’s where we had basic training and, uh, from, the first assignment I had was at [inaudible 02:49] and, uh, loved that.  It was just like a country club then and still is [laughter].  Uh, but I have had a lifelong problem with overweight and there was no possibility of my being accepted for Air Evac school which is what all the nurses wanted.  And so I decided to transfer to regular army in order to be able to go overseas.  And I did that.  And I was, uh, transferred to, uh, Camp Claiborne in Louisiana.  Uh, had just a short time there. 

Um, in September of 1944, I was transferred to Camp Barkeley in Texas.  And, uh, joined the 191st General Hospital which was just being put together then.  And, uh, went across county by train to, uh, Camp Myles Standish in Massachusetts which was outside of Taunton.  Not far from Boston.  And, uh, there we waited to, uh, for a ship to take us overseas.  And we did finally go on the USS West Point and, uh, left Boston Harbor on October 31, 1944.  Uh, and that was a wonderful trip.  I, uh, had no problem with seasickness.  It was very crowded.  West Point of course was Americans show, uh, the equivalent of Queen Elizabeth I guess.  And, uh, uh, we were crowded into bunks 4 high and, uh, showers of course were with sea water and the girls thought we were really roughing it.  We found out later it was a luxury.  And, uh, we arrived at Liverpool and went in November 9, uh, from there went by train to Glasgow, Scotland.  And then had a staging area at, uh, a place called Nitshill.  It was just that a small hill.  Uh, [inaudible 05:21] and had coal stoves.  And it was very very cold and wet and raining like Scotland is in the fall.  Uh, but we did have time enough to do a little sightseeing from there.  We had to wear, uh, old [jeans 05:37], combat boots, the whole thing, and a helmet liner.  [Laughter] But we weren’t anywhere near, uh, battle.  Uh, on December 15, we crossed the Channel and, uh, were sent to Etretat, France which is a beautiful little resort community north of Le Havre.  And, uh, there we had another staging area.  We, I understand they were waiting, uh, for the hospital to be evacuated so that we could take over when we arrived in Paris.  And, uh, on, uh, December 24 the day before Christmas in 1944, uh, we were in a train station in Paris at, uh, Saint-Lazare and taken by truck to the first general hospital which had been an American hospital in Paris.  And we were on temporary duty and that was the first nursing I did overseas.  Uh, they were busy and we worked, I worked night duty.  Not in the operating room but, uh, just on the floor.  And, uh, the day after Christmas, uh, we went back to the 191st General Hospital which was opening up in, Etre, in, uh, [inaudible 07:05].  It’s a small suburban town just outside of Paris up to, uh, Orly Airport.  Um, this hospital had been a mental institution for the French and all of their patients had to be evacuated.  And on the day that, the day after Christmas when we nurses went back there, um, the civilians were still taking out, uh, mental patients, and, uh, it was a heart rendering scene.  But, um, let’s see, uh, the place that the army had found that we could use the buildings as, as they were and it was, uh, a wonderful place to have a hospital.  It was a [walled 07:59] grounds and, uh, the administration buildings were 2, uh, 4 stories.  Most of the wards, uh, were 2 stories.  No elevators.  And, uh, the operating room had been set up on the ground floor and they made a recovery on the second floor which was a big mistake because the [inaudible 08:20] were wearing themselves out.  And it didn’t take them 2 days to change those arrangements.  Um, I went to work in the operating room and, uh, Battle of the Bulge of course had just been completed, uh, 2 weeks previously and we were then getting casualties from the station hospital up there and we worked around the clock [inaudible 08:47].  Uh, it was an awfully busy time.  Uh, it was while working in the operating room there that I met my husband who was a surgical technician.  He, uh was the noncom in charge of our operating room and we were good friends for about 4 years before we had our, found romance and married.  Um, the head nurse of our hospital was [Ines Haynes 09:17].  At that time, she was Captain [Haynes 09:19] and she was promoted to major while still in Paris.  And, uh, later was the, uh, first full colonel in the nurse corps here in America [inaudible 09:35] and, uh, was head of the Army Nurse Corps for several years.  Uh, let’s see, while I was overseas, I took advantage of all the time off I could get for leave and those were wonderful experiences I had [inaudible 10:01] in the Riviera, uh, went down with 5 friends and we stayed in Caen.  Spent a day at Eden-Roc, visited the casino in Monte Carlo.  Spent a day sailing on the Mediterranean.  Lots of wonderful experiences.  Uh, a few months later I had an opportunity to go to [inaudible 10:25].  That was a train trip south to [inaudible 10:30] and I did enjoy that very much too.  About this time my young, my only brother [chuckle] was, um, in London getting ready to go back home and get out of the service after completing his, uh, required number of flights in a B-17.  And, uh, so I requested a 10 day leave and was granted that and got back to London and spent some time with my brother before he went home. 

And, uh, my last leave before coming back to the states was Switzerland.  We went to a small ski resort village called Grindelwald and, uh, that was Christmas of 1945, and uh, one very memorable occasion that happened, I was in Paris, was, uh, the memorial service in honor of Franklin Delano Roosevelt who had died.  Um, Captain [Haynes 11:37] asked me to go with her.  She had tickets to the service which was conducted at Notre-Dame and, uh, it was just very stirring, uh, a momentous occasion.  All of the allies sent representatives from all over Europe. There were uniforms of every sort and, uh, it was a [solemn 12:05] occasion by invitation only.  Notre-Dame was packed and the courtyard with steps out in front were packed with people who wanted to be there and couldn’t get in.  And of course, when they played Taps, uh, there was the echoing bugler way up high in the dome of Notre-Dame and, uh, as I said it was one of the most moving experiences and made me realize how much, uh, Americans as well, as well as, as Roosevelt were loved [inaudible 12:40].  

And in, uh, January 15, 1946, uh, the 191st hospital went home and we went through Camp Phillip Morris and on the, uh, [Western 12:58] Victory Ship, uh, landed at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey and, uh, that first meal home was all everybody ever said it was.  We had steak and ice cream, fresh milk and fruit [inaudible 13:15].  

Uh, I was discharged from Fort Sheridan, Illinois on February 4, 1946 and went home to my family in Minneapolis.  Uh, my dad insisted that I take advantage of the GI Bill so I enrolled at the University of Minnesota and, uh, put in about 1½ years toward public health nursing.  But, uh, uh, romance happened and, uh, my husband who’s a native of Louisville and whom I had worked with in the operating room all that time in Paris, uh, started visiting and we corresponded and decided to get married.  So I quit school and went to work at the VA Hospital in Minneapolis.  Then after we married I transferred to Nichols VA Hospital here in Louisville and worked until, uh, I was pregnant with my first son.  And we went, uh, built our first full house and, uh, had 3 more sons.  I, uh, worked at St. Joseph’s Infirmary for about 12 years part-time while the boys were small and when they, uh, were getting on toward teenagers I decided to stay at home.  So I was out of nursing for, uh, 9 years.  And then, uh, Jewish Hospital offered a re-entry course for nurses who had been out for a while and I took that early in July and worked for 5 years at Jewish.  When my husband retired from the Post Office, I decided to retire too and, uh, now worked just 2 nights a week, uh, private duty, and have been the same way for 3 years.  I keep my license up because I think I always wanted to be an RN.  And, uh, I thank you Jean for this opportunity to tell my story.


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