Interview of retired Colonel Lois A. Johns on her career 
in the Army Nurse Corps and her service in the Vietnam War

Lois A. Johns:	Alrighty.

Ruth Stewart:	Lois A. Johns is being interviewed today in San Antonio, Texas, for the WOSL, San Antonio Unit.  This is February the 6th, 2007.  Ruth Stewart is the interviewer, assisted by Patricia Martin.  Lois, tell us a little bit about your growing up years and how you got started into nursing. 

Lois A. Johns:	Uh, I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio.  And my family moved about three times before I [throat clearing] finally left to go to college; but I think it was nice growing up.  Cleveland was not that large; and it was safe, because I could take a street car from one side of the city to the other and a book, so that I could read my way across Cleveland, including changing street cars from the westside to the eastside.  So, that was very simple.  And the other side of the coin was at that time, I had an aunt living over near the dentist.  So, I went to the dentist and then went to my aunt’s and had lunch or whatever.  And sometimes, my parents came by and picked me up and sometimes I took the street car back.  Uh, that doesn’t happen anymore around places.  

Uh, I got in – got into anything that I could possibly get into.  Uh, we played – no, we don’t need [inaudible 1:50].  We played, uh, catch in the street and hit the side of a building and suddenly had unlimited number of hornets coming out. [chuckle] I was lucky my house was near there and I only got stung five or six times.  The boys got stung more.

	There was a field about a 1/2 mile from the house where there was a creek.  So, I gathered tadpoles in the spring from the creek.  And uh, I enjoyed myself going to school.  I was considered fairly bright, so I skipped a grade – from three to five.  And then at the school I was at, at that time, they tested me and said, “Oh you belong in what we call the major work group.”  And I think that was an error, but anyhow… One of the things involved with that was you had to learn French.  The only thing I kept out of my learning of French was when I took my doctorate, I at least had some notion of the language where I had to read it again and translate it.  But anyhow, I graduated from West High School there and I had a… I enjoyed myself with the things that I got into in the way of clubs.  And I also was a member of the Rainbow Girls, which is an offshoot of the Masons.  

	Uh, as to how I got interested into nursing, that’s a very good question, because somewhere along the line I occasionally would help somebody when they fell or something.  And uh, as part of that, I had to have my appendix out when I was 15.  And I liked the people that I coped with at that point.  And when I say, “cope”, I mean it was before people got out of bed.  So, one of the things I did was, the second night post-op, I got out of bed and went to the next bed and drank the water out of the glass that was there. 

Ruth Stewart:	[laughter]

Lois A. Johns	[throat clearing] Didn’t tell anybody about it.  Well, I crawled back in bed and no sequela, no problems.  Well I couldn’t get out of the hospital till I had been in a week; and then I had to stay home for at least a week before I could go back to school.  And I… When they started talking about getting people up early, as they did with the military in the Second World War, I was advanced.  I had already done that.  But anyhow, I got, I talked with my mother and father that I’d like to go into nursing.  My father said, “You need to go into laboratory technician”.  And I said, “No I don’t.  I want to go into the medical side – to nursing itself”.  “Well…”  And so, the arguments continued for a long time and I went to Ohio State University School of Nursing, uh, from which I graduated in 1948, uh, with a Bachelor of Science in nursing.

	And that was as the war had ended and so forth and people coming back to school.  The university started a new program in – and school of nursing – started a new program in education for nurses, so that one built from the degree in nursing to a degree in education.  And I got the med-, doctor-, too many… I got the Bachelor of Science in education in 1950; and was promptly offered a job in Florida running a school of nursing.  I didn’t take it.  I didn’t think I knew very much.  So, uh, I stayed in Cleveland at that point and worked at the Cleveland Clinic in the operating room from ’50 through ’51, at which point I went to St. John Hospital School of Nursing and taught there from ’51 to ’53.  

	In ’50-, in September ’53, I had been offered a job at the School of Nursing – I guess it was – I don’t know whether it was a college at that point or not, but at Baylor University in the School of Nursing, as an instructor in medical/surgical.  And that was September ’53.  I stayed there until – first year I was taught in Waco.  And then I – at the end of that year, I was transferred up to Dallas and I… Yeah, I stayed in Dallas until Sep-, August ’56.  In August ’56 – in September ’56, I had a scholarship from the Natio-, from the National League for Nursing and went to Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, through August ’57.  And received my Master of Science in nursing.  

	I then went back to Baylor.  And so, from September ’57 through June ’50 – ’60, uh, through actually May 1960, I stayed at Baylor and I had become an assistant professor.  Uh, in June of 1960, I went on active duty in the army.
Ruth Stewart:	[8:57] How did you chose the – that particular branch of service?

Lois A. Johns:	Uh [chuckle] you bring back a thought, which is in 19-, August 1950, I joined the army reserve.  It was there at Ohio State.  And I guess it was – it ended up being that I was commissioned in August 1950, yeah 19-, August ’50, as a 2nd lieutenant and a member – first as a – at the uh, what had been the 4th General Hospital during the Second World War.  I was also the Western Reserve Unit.  And by the time I left, uh, Cleveland and went… Well no – somewhere along the line, I think while I was there in Dallas, I became a 1st lieutenant.  And then by the time I went on active duty, I was a captain.  And while I was on – my first assignments were at Brooke Army Medical Center.  And while I was in the midst of that assignment, I was asked if I was interested in research, because I, [throat clearing] I had mentioned it several times. 

	Uh, so in 1961, I guess about January, thereabouts, I was transferred to what was at that time the surgical research unit.  And I stayed there until September of ’60.  I received orders at that poi-, early on in I guess about May or June of ’60, transferring me to the Walter Reed Army Institute of, uh, Research – RAIR as it was called.  And I was assigned to the division of nursing under Lieutenant-Colonel Harriet Worley and Major Phyllis [Veronic 11:45].  That’s in there.  [chuckle]

	I learned a number of things there and also wrote out several other little research things.  And in the summer of 1962, I was sent to the University of Washington to take post-graduate courses, uh, which were felt to be needed.  One problem that ensued was Seattle had a world’s fair; and so, I was accused that I was going to Seattle to the fair; I wasn’t really serious about school.  That was not done by either Phyllis [Veronic 12:43] or Harriett Worley.  However, uh, I came back, and Colonel Worley informed me that I needed to apply for my doctorate; [throat clearing] and I needed to look into that.  I… [chuckle] My, my.

Uh, [throat clearing] I checked in with the University of Maryland, since it was nearby and one or two other places; and was gently informed that my background was not completely sufficient for what they wanted.  And while my test scores were very high for the, uh, various ones that I took – the SAT, etcetera and so forth.  Uh, we ended up – I ended up applying to the University of Utah; and Colonel Worley had an in there [chuckle] with the gentleman in the department of psychology.  So, my application was accepted for the department of psychology.  And it was a – the course that I entered into was three semesters of intensive psychology.  And I passed all the courses, but… And didn’t do too badly by the end of them; but when they reviewed a number of us… There were like 21 applying for the doctoral spaces; and 13 were accepted, at which point, one of the doctor people, another psychologist, recommended I go over to the college of education – to the educational psychology department and have a conversation with them.  

And I was accepted into the college of education in ’64.  I went to… Yeah, I went to the university in September ’63 and was transferred into department of psychology in ’64.  And I – at that time I began working on a master’s degree with the probability at that point that I would be – being sent to Vietnam.

That didn’t occur.  I, uh, completed a Master of Science in June 1966, in education and continued in the un-, in the education area, uh, working on my doctorate.  The master’s was – they’re sitting there Trish, uh, review of literature in – I’ll get there – uh, vigilance.  So, I wrote the review of literature.  That was my master’s. 

My doctorate was done with the assistance of the college of nursing and Dean [Quinn 16:44], who was there.  Uh, and then I was, let’s see, it’s an experiment in vigilance in nursing.  And uh, in working with that, the army provided me with literally room and board all the time I was at Utah, plus $100 a year for books, which hardly covered anything.  And uh, I applied to the American Nurses’ Foundation for a grant.  Uh, that was given to me in, in, uh, the fall of 1966, at which time I entered into a large-scale discussion with the U.S. Army about the fact of whether or not I could have the money.  

Uh, I had a young lawyer working with me there at, uh, Fort Douglas, Utah, which – and he was on orders for Vietnam.  And he thought there was nothing that could more fun than to get me the money. [chuckle] So, I cannot remember his name.  I’m sorry.

Ruth Stewart:		[18:16] Well what were you to do with that foundation grant?

Lois A. Johns:	Uh, I made the films that – for my dissertation and the, uh…  I used, with the assi-, with the help of the college of nursing people, I used the sophomore nursing students and my…  I learned one thing at that, after that, pick your subjects carefully. [chuckle]

Ruth Stewart:	[18:53] So when did you then get back into the army world?

Lois A. Johns:	In, uh, August 5th, 1967.  

Ruth Stewart:	[19:06] And what was that?

Lois A. Johns:	That was when I went to Vietnam.  I graduated with my doctorate in June of ’67; and then had leave and then arrived in – had orders for Vietnam I guess in April of ’66, uh, ’7.  And, I think that’s one of the reasons why I whizzed through my doctoral, uh, ordeal, [chuckle] is that they, “Oh you’re going to Vietnam?”  You know, there we go.  I said, “I’d like to graduate absentia.”  They said, “No.  You will graduate in June.”  So, I underwent all the various things one had to do to be able to do that.  I got – when I got in Nam, we landed about 11:55 at night, in the dark, in the airplane, with no lights in the airplane.  And they defogged it just in case we had any mosquitos.  And then we were told to run like the devil across to get into the building that was there.  And we had to wait until it was officially the 6th of July, because they had already closed the books.  Uh, so we did.

	And they – we went into great dis-, discussion with a senior female.  Uh, I was told I would be taken to the 3rd Field Hospital; and uh, spend the night there and then go up to Long Binh the next morning.  

Ruth Stewart:	[21:13] To where?

Lois A. Johns:	I asked about the other nurses that were on board with me.  Well, they weren’t sure where they would put them.  So, I strongly suggested that they put us at the 3rd Field Hospital also.  And the – they did.  We all rode the bus over to that hospital.  And the chief nurse was an individual I had served with in the burn unit, the SRU ward.  Another name defined.  Uh, anyhow, very kind.  I had a bed.  I had a shower.  It was 3:00 in the morning.  [chuckle] I was up about 6:30, 7:00; got dressed; had breakfast very quickly; and got on the bus and went up to Long Binh, which is about 24 miles away from Saigon.

Ruth Stewart:	[22:22] L-O-N-G-B-I-N?

Lois A. Johns:	H.  B-I-N-H.  And uh, we settled in there and they let us have the day to pull ourselves together.  And then the next morning we went over to see the chief nurse of all Vietnam. And…  Lovely lady – can’t remember her na-…  All these names… I may call you and say, “These are the names that I could finally remember.”  Uh anyhow, she told – her assistant said to her, “Oh, Major Johns is going up to, uh, 87th Evac.  “No, no that’s been changed.”  They had changed it to send me to the renal unit 629th Medical Detachment attached to 3rd Field Hospital.

Ruth Stewart:	[23:35] 629th?

Lois A. Johns:	629th Medical Detachment (KP) in parenthesis, because that said it was a kidney, whatever.  Uh, and I went back down then the next day to the 3rd Field Hospital.  And I made the nasty comment at least once of why couldn’t I have left all of my stuff down here, instead of trucking it up to Long Binh?

Ruth Stewart:	[24:08] You were just there overnight then as an assignment and then returned?

Lois A. Johns:	Yeah, returned down.  Yeah, it just – it was, it was a replacement depot type thing.  You went up, you were told where you were going and then you went wherever.  So, I missed my first helicopter ride and all that kind of trashy stuff; and went down to, back down to 3rd Field.  Where as I say, I trucked everything I had with me, which I thought was rather stupid.  But then they told me that they hadn’t been certain of my appoin-, uh, my assignment.  And if I go on to the 87th, I’d have taken it with me.  So, I was assigned, [throat clearing] my quarters, which was in the villa.  And I was extremely lucky.  

Ruth Stewart:	[25:06] This is then at Long Binh again?

Lois A. Johns:	No, that’s back in Saigon. 

Ruth Stewart:	[25:11] You’re back in Saigon?

Lois A. Johns:	Yeah, at the 3rd Field.  

Ruth Stewart:	3rd Field Hospital, okay.

Lois A. Johns:	Yep.  And our unit was attached to 3rd Field.  And I, I was one of the senior majors, but I also had my own little unit I was in charge of.  So therefore, I was more of a [wheel 25:44].  So, they put me in the first floor of the, of the villa. And the chief nurse was next door in her room with a bath; and I was in the – like an apartment thing.  Two rooms with a shared bath and air conditioners.  I was a very hoi polloi individual in Vietnam.  

	Uh, I got all my stuff in there.  I got it put away and reported up to the renal unit; and found out that, uh, the nurse that was there had – it was a hangover from – had a lot of time left before she went.  And the reason I guess I remember Dottie’s name, she was Major Dorothy Fuss.  And that’s what she did.  She fussed.  Uh, she felt that she should have been in charge of the unit and I should’ve left town.

Ruth Stewart:		[27:04] So you were in charge?

Lois A. Johns:	Yeah.  There was a…

Ruth Stewart:	[28:09] Were you called a charge nurse or what did they call you?

Lois A. Johns:	Well, depending upon who was calling me.  I called it charge nurse.  Other people called it chief nurse.

Ruth Stewart:	Okay.

Lois A. Johns:	So, there was a nurse senior major there, who was there for about three or four weeks; and she left.

Ruth Stewart:	[27:29] Now tell me.  Had you had experience in renal before or did they just decide you were going to be a renal nurse?

Lois A. Johns:	No, no.  Well, that’s a very good question, because in my short period of time in the burn unit, I was exposed to the renal patients and to the material – equipment at that time.  But in ’67 it was totally different material, because in ’67 we used what I called the washing machine, because that’s exactly what it looked like.  It was a large – stood on its – on a pedestal-type thing and, uh… No, I guess four legs if I remember.  But anyhow, it was large – looks like a washing machine and, uh, had a centerpiece to it that vibrated, so that the water – I should say the treatment makes it move.  And the tubing from the patient round ‘a round inside this thing; and went back to the patient, so that the blood ran from the patient through the tubing, into the bath and then back to the indivi-, uh, the patient.  

And the potential for damage was high in that, uh, if one saw pink bubbles on top, there was a leak in the tubing and everything had to stop.  And the other potential was that the cotton-pickin’ thing would come apart.  And it did.  And I don’t know what ever happened to the picture that was taken of me, but uh, I was blood from shoe to the top of my nursing cap.  I had blood all over the place.  One of the men took a picture and I had it once; and like all things when you move frequently, it went somewhere.  Uh, I did have to go home and change my clothes. [chuckle]

	And at that time, we had to wear the nursing cap.  And because it was 3rd Field Hospital, we had to be in white uniforms – the chief nurse said.  And that was exceedingly annoying, because going under the tank to get something or to do something, the plastic cap got off and I got reprimanded more times than you could count by the chief nurse.  I shared quarters with the assistant chief nurse.  If she came by, the cap remained off.  If somebody said, “Oh the chief nurse is coming”, we put it back on, you know.  
	
	And [chuckle] there was absolutely no common sense to what we were doing on that basis.  Anyhow, I reoriented to things with the patients that had renal failure.

Ruth Stewart:	[31:03] And you had direct contact with the patients?

Lois A. Johns:	Oh yeah.  I did nursing care.  The [foreman 31:10] did care and I did care.  I, uh, there was no standing by in that unit.  We had to – could have a tops of four patients; and I frequently went two.  And anytime there was any question in someone’s mind about a patient going into failure, we got’m.  And so, I had a Korean patient who got a tire spring in his eye.  It was treated with a topical medication in the eye.  He went into medical renal failure.  Uh, that also was my introduction to kimchi, because they brought cans of it in for him to eat.

Ruth Stewart:	[32:08] Now this was in Vietnam?

Lois A. Johns:	Yeah, oh yeah.  

Ruth Stewart:	But you had a Korean.  [32:11] Was he in the American army?

Lois A. Johns:	No, he was in the Korean army.

Ruth Stewart:	[32:15] In Vietnam?

Lois A. Johns:	In Vietnam.  There were Koreans, Australians and I think some others.  Uh, but definitely Koreans and Australians.  And uh, I could tell you that kimchi is very potent.  [chuckle] And it became a term for the U.S. Army men in that if you had a problem with something and you had to fix it up and it was, uh, something that you jury-rigged, it became that you had to kimchi it.  

And uh, kimchi was an assortment of cabbage, onions, garlic, red pepper, celery, if they could get some.  But lots of onions and lots of cabbage.  I have some slides showing the mounds of cabbage that were sold in the fall and the springs of garlic that were sold.  And I never could – kimchi was too hot when I tried to eat it.  And the maid I had made me summer kimchi, which was very garlicy, but not hot.  And uh, I’m trying to think… Uh, one ate something with garlic frequently, because if one went out in – on the general area into the general population, this odor of garlic was sufficient for self-preservation – one ate garlic.  And if one rode the local busses and so forth, one ate garlic.  Yeah, that’s very…  I like garlic, but oh boy.  [chuckle]

So anyhow, with our patients that we had, there was the Korean… I had a navy patient; and I got into an argument with the navy on that one.  They called me to say that, uh, they were considering bringing his wife over to see him.  And I said I didn’t think that was a very good idea in his condition.  And then I don’t know why, I had just gotten in a doctorate in psychology, so I said, “When did she leave San Francisco?” “Uh, she’s in Japan.” [chuckle] “So she’ll be over there today.”  I said, “That’s very nice.  Have you talked any about what we’re gonna do?”  “Oh yeah, they’re going to put her in the VIP quarters in the hospital.”  And uh, I said, “You don’t mind if I tell ya you are extremely dumb.”  That wasn’t quite all I said, but it’s not polite to put it on your tape.

	Anyhow, she arrived; and they brought her up with a navy female officer, a WAVE at that time.  And [chuckle] they took her in to see her husband, who had massive injuries, was semi-comatose.  When he did wake up a little bit, he didn’t know where he was; he didn’t know what was going on; he didn’t recognize her; and, you know, that was when he was in the bed.  We refused to let her in while she was in – while he was on the kidney.  We said, you know, “No way”.

	Uh, they told me that the navy chaplain would be in to see him.  He never appeared.  He did appear to see the wife, but he never appeared to see the man.  Our chaplains, both Catholic and Protestant, came by to see him several different times while he was up there.  Uh, our Catholic chaplain was Father Corrigan.  And he’s – one can remember him very well, because he made jokes, he talked to patients, he did various things; and he was a notable individual.  His replacement was a wuss. [chuckle] The only way to describe him.  

Anyhow, uh, I think she was there all of two days.  On the second day he died.  And they didn’t know what to do with her at that point.  They hadn’t made arrangements to get her back to the States.  I don’t know whether his body arrived before her or not, you know?  Uh, she spent another night at the hospital and then she disappeared.  I thought with the navy officer that was with her, the female, the WAVE, that she was going to faint.   

	Most of the patients were injured drastically.  We had several civilians attached to the military that came as patients.  And we had one Vietnamese child.  We had other Vietnamese also.  

Uh, when I left Vietnam, I wrote two articles that are somewhere around here.  They’re colored… But anyhow, they appeared in the what they called the [U.S. RB 38:34], uh, Medical Bulletin.  And one was Nursing Leptospirosis and Acute Renal Failure; and that was published in July/August 1968.  The other was Nursing Care in the Combat Zone of Patients with Acute Renal Failure; and that was published in February/March ’69.  Uh, I also presented them a paper in [A&A 39:07] Clinical Sessions in 1970, on, uh, care – Nursing Care of Patients with Acute Rental Failure.  That’s in this.  

Uh, when I left Vietnam, I got my boy scout medal.  I got a bronze star.  And uh, that was in July ’67.  

Ruth Stewart:		[39:46] And you went to Korea then or…
Lois A. Johns:		No.

Ruth Stewart:		[39:49] When were you in Korea?

Lois A. Johns:	No, I came back to the United States and was assigned to the Institute of Surgical Research – the burn unit.  I was the first nurse there who was a research individual.  It was a brand-new job that they lend me.  Eventually it was eliminated.  I… This was about six months…

Ruth Stewart:	[40:13] This is at Bamsey?

Lois A. Johns:	Pardon?

Ruth Stewart:	[40:14] Bamsey?

Lois A. Johns:	Bamsey.  No, ISR is separate.  

Ruth Stewart:	[40:19] Yeah, but it’s based at Bamsey?

Lois A. Johns:	It’s on base at Fort Sam and it’s, yeah, it’s next door to Bamsey, but we had nothing to do with them. [chuckle]

Ruth Stewart:	Okay.

Lois A. Johns:	Colonel [Pruett 40:31] didn’t like the idea.  Anyhow, uh, after six months of reorienting to burn care, I started doing my own studies and so forth – small ones.  And I, uh, had great – I had, I was a member of various teams.  And I have listed in there toward the end of the – in the biography thing.  I gave a paper… They’re all in there.  I left’m with ideas for, uh, urinary catheters and infections, uh, circadian rhythm on possible gastric reflux and use of the air fluidized beds with burned individuals.  

And you know, I can’t remember my own report of… Oh, stress test.  I did a study trying to stress out nurses and 91 Charlies from the hospital from – and versus those in the burn unit.  They called it dashiki sick test.  Uh, it showed no stress as such.  It showed stress in other ways, like people calling in ill suddenly, people requesting time off suddenly, uh, burnout.  

	Uh, I stayed in the burn unit.  I was told that I would be – they would, they would like to move me back to RAIR in Washington.  And I said, “No.”  Not only no, but “Hell no.”  Uh, so I was sent to Fitzsimons Army Medical Center in Denver in September of, uh, of ‘6, of ’72.  Yeah, by George.  Up there, I had three different jobs.  I was chief nurse surgical section; I was, uh, chief nursing education and training; and I ended up as assistant chief for nursing service.  That last is not my favorite type thing to do.
Ruth Stewart:	[43:15] Assistant chief nurse for…?

Lois A. Johns:	Nursing service for FAMC.  And I also received, while I was up there, the “A” prefix to my military occupational specialty number.  That was denoted that, oh, I was a very top-notch, excellent, educated, whatever nurse.

Ruth Stewart:	[43:42] “A” prefix to what?

Lois A. Johns:	To my military occupational specialty number or commonly known as MOS.  So that it came – when written about, it was an A3448.  

Ruth Stewart:	[44:02] A33…

Lois A. Johns:	48…8 on the end, yeah.  You got it.  Uh, after being at FAMC, at FAMC, in March of 1960, ’76, I was assigned to Korea as chief nurse of all of Korea.  Actually, specifically of the 121st Field Hospital.

Ruth Stewart:	[44:39] 121?

Lois A. Johns:	First, yeah, field hospital.  That was my primary duty.  Uh, my, uh, other duties were as assigned, including… I was – I coordinated with the Korean army and I also, uh, visited all the various and [sundry 45:16], uh… That’s Vietnam.  We had Davy Crockett visit us [chuckle] in Vietnam.  Yeah, okay.  These are… Yeah… Chief nurse of, because it was, uh, 8th Army United Nations and I guess and – coordinator with…

Ruth Stewart:	[45:47] Are these all listed in this document?

Lois A. Johns:	Yes, ma’am.  

Ruth Stewart:	Okay.  We’ll just leave it there then.

Lois A. Johns:	Okay.  That’s fine.  And there are pictures if you want to stop at a name.

Ruth Stewart:	Okay. [Long pause] Go on.

Lois A. Johns:	Uh, I have pictures in Korea.  These three are what – four when there was a reception for Brigadier General Madelyn Parks.  They’re not marked on the back.  I can give you those when we’re through with what we are doing.  This one is a promotion that I did with a lieutenant.  Uh…

Ruth Stewart:	[46:49] Describe to us your quarters where you lived in, in Korea.

Lois A. Johns:	Well in Korea, my first quarters was into a barracks-type thing where I was the only woman, as far as I know, in that barracks.
Ruth Stewart:	[47:05] With all men then you’re saying?

Lois A. Johns:	Yeah.  Oh, we were… It wasn’t anything that appealed.  The boys were upset they couldn’t walk around in their underwear and a few other things of that nature.  Uh, so I went and talked and talked at various things and ended up living off post.  I had a private apartment, uh, with a maid, Mrs. Kang, K-A-N-G.  Lovely lady.  And she cooked my dinner every night.  And I had to buy white rice from the commissary, because the other maids came down to my apartment and had lunch.  And the thing of, of being the upper level was Mrs. Kang had white rice.  So, that was a two-bedroom apartment – living room, kitchen, uh, bathroom with a bathtub [chuckle] and a shower. [chuckle]

	And while I was in Korea, I got my meritorious service metal.  I forgot, in Denver, in Fitzsimons, I got my army commendation medal, curtesy of the burn unit.  That’s in there too.  That was given to me at FAMC; and made everybody happy.  Uh, then I left Korea in, at, uh, the end of July ’77.  And I have made note in the bib-, in the biography of the celebration we had for ’76.  Uh, but the staff had put on a celebration unlike any other.  I’ve got a t-shirt somewhere that they made up.  Uh, I’m not sure you want that – you might want it, I don’t know.  Uh…

Ruth Stewart:	I don’t think we have that kind of facilities for that.

Lois A. Johns:	That’s too bad. [laughter]

Ruth Stewart:	[49:45] And from there…

Lois A. Johns:	[You was very quick 49:45]

Ruth Stewart:	…where did you go?

Lois A. Johns:	Home.  I came back to the United States at the end of July ’76.

Ruth Stewart:	[49:56] ’76, not ’77?

Lois A. Johns:	Yeah, ’77, geez.  I think I was ho-, being hopeful at that point.  Anyhow, I was assigned then to the Academy of Health Sciences in a health studies division.

Ruth Stewart:	[50:15] That’s here?

Lois A. Johns:	Yeah.  It’s based on Fort Sam.  I worked at developing a study on how much time patients were given in the outpatient department.  Uh, there was no set – there was an approximate set 15-minute period, but it did not allow for the needs of the patient, so I was developing a stu-, pardon me, a study to find out how much time was used and how much time apparently seemed to be needed.  I left that behind me when I left.  Uh, that was my main chore.  To some extent, I call it scut work – keep me busy till I retired.

Ruth Stewart:	[51:14] And that was when?

Lois A. Johns:	Well I retired in, at the end of April 1980.  My father died while I was assigned there.  And uh, my mother came to live with me.  I… At my retirement parade, I received a Legion of Merit – another boy scout honor. 

Ruth Stewart:	[51:55] On retirement you got that?

Lois A. Johns:	Pardon?

Ruth Stewart:	[51:59] On retirement was when you got that?

Lois A. Johns:	Yeah, on retirement I re-, that was part of my retirement parade, etcetera.  I reviewed the troops from the Jeep.  I, uh, the old guard was here in town for Fiesta.  My birthday is during Fiesta, so… And I retired on my birthday.  I was able to make that arrangement.  And I, as I say, I rep-, the old guard – we paraded and did various things.  It was a very nice retirement.  I had a ball.

Ruth Stewart:	[52:34] What was your rank at the time of retirement?

Lois A. Johns:	Full colonel.

Ruth Stewart:	Full colonel.

Lois A. Johns:	Yeah, cause I was a full colonel in Korea.  You don’t lose it once you get it, unless the, as they old term goes [“tashiered” 52:47]. [chuckle]

Ruth Stewart:	[52:49] What were some of the memorable occasions during your time in – overseas in Korea and, uh, Vietnam?  What were the things that stand out the most in your memory?   You’ve given us a great deal of information, but what would be special memories?

Lois A. Johns:	The most memorable thing to me in Vietnam was the patients I took care of.  Uh, there were other memories.  We, uh, we had a party for new year’s in our quarters.  And we had some liquor left over – that when the Tet Offensive came, all of – many of our nurses were moved into quarters there into the villa and so forth.  And I said to my mother, “I have a man sleeping in my bed.  However, I’m not there.” [laughter] 

Ruth Stewart:	[laughter]
Lois A. John:	My bed really never got cool, because one of the male officers slept in the bed.  There were three of them that stayed in our quarters in the various beds we had.  And including – we had a cot.  And when the chief nurse got real nervous, she slept in the cot.  

Anyhow, uh, all the kids came over to our quarters.  We told them to come over, uh, after they came off nights.  And they had a wonderful party, cause we only had one bottle of booze left.  [chuckle] It was a great morale booster.  I worked, I think, all the time – all the time I was in the army I worked with excellent individuals.  Some few you yelled at, but that’s beside the point.  

Memorably in Viet-, in Korea, uh, standing out was the, [chuckle] were my trips by helicopter all over the country of South Korea, including down to [Chagos 55:04] Island, uh, to see – to do something no other chief nurse had done.  I went out to see the various small clinics at the different army units that were up there, which including getting up the Panmunjom to the area up there and looking over in North Korea and being told that pictures were being taken of me that would be posted in Panmunjom, as well as Pyongyang, pang, pong – whatever – the capital of North Korea , which really wasn’t too taken with as an idea.  But seeing all these different young men and on occasion a young woman, in these units out over the countryside, uh, it was amazing what they could do with what little they had to work with and stuff and the number of patients that they had coming in at different times.  

And, of course, the other side of being, being memorable was at that point in time, in ’76, the WAC was dissolved; and the women were integrated into the army.  Uh, the women had a…

Ruth Stewart:		[56”28] What year was that?

Lois A. Johns:		Uh, the women had a, a great number of problems.  

Patricia Martin:	’76.

Lois A. Johns:	The officers also had problems.  When I say women, I mean enlisted.  The women officers didn’t know what to do with their male counterparts and vice versa, I swear.  But the enlisted women got very upset because they would go to the enlisted clubs.  And I don’t think you want – I don’t know if you want to put this in there, but Korean women were brought in by truck to the clubs as guests.  And the American women got very upset.  The Korean women were jealous.  They wanted the American women out.  They didn’t want them in the clubs.  And at least once, the women found the products of the conception in the restrooms.  And uh, nobody could identify where it came from – they came from.  So, it, uh, it was much difficult… 

As a senior woman on the post in Seoul, Korea, [Yun Sung 57:43], uh, I had visits from enlisted women and their sergeants.  And I did a fair amount of counseling.  I also told’m I had nothing to do with’m.  I could not help them.  Go take their sergeant and go back through their lines of authority.  And once they stopped coming, that was it.  I didn’t – I wasn’t concerned with it in the first place; and I wasn’t concerned with it in the second place.  And I participated, while I was there, in a study of integration of women into the army.  And I’ve got that stuff sitting here too. Uh, let’s see… Oh yeah… 

Ruth Stewart:	[58:47] Uh, after you retired from the army, you stayed here in San Antonio.  Uh, did you continue serving at, at the burn unit?

Lois A. Johns:	No.  No, no.  Once you’re out, if you’re smart, you stay out, because we average 400 burn patients a year.  

Ruth Stewart:	[59:08] What did you do then after you retired?

Lois A. Johns:	Well, my mother was with me and she had a number of ills.  She had one, two, three surgeries done.  Uh, she was on steroids and became diabetic from them.  She became blind.  And we finally had to give up, cause she kept falling and I put her in a nursing home.  Uh, she died there the day after my birthday in 2002. [chuckle] Not hard to remember.  

Uh, I myself, I am involved – and I had that in there also that I am involved with Navajo and Sioux missions for education purposes, as well as four Indian colleges.  Uh, they receive money.  We send, uh, on occasion, we send clothing, etcetera, toys to the Native American – well to the Sioux Indians.  

And uh, I was appointed coordinator for the state of Texas for the Vietnam Women’s Memorial.  And that was when they were starting to go through congress and fighting with the fine arts commission.  And we did… There are several different things here in town to raise money.  The memorial came through San Antonio and we had people seeing that.  Uh, on November 11th it was dedicated in Washington, D.C.  I was there, and I marched with the rest of the women down Constitutional Avenue; and went to the dedication itself.  It was, it was the 10th and 12th of November for the period of time.  And it was a large-scale reunion of people finding each other that they hadn’t seen since Vietnam.  It was also very noisy at times.  And I have told you more about Vietnam than I have ever told anybody else.

Ruth Stewart:		We appreciate this information very much – very, very much.  

Lois A. Johns:	Part [chuckle] was humorous, you know, you couldn’t do any… [pause] Uh, what one would call, uh, not dead humor, you know – I’m trying to think of a word for it.

Ruth Stewart:		[1:02:11] Black humor?

Lois A. Johns:	Yeah because, uh, the sign over the unit was, uh, “All who will enter here, you know, are going to die” is, in essence, is what it said.  You know, uh, that was their… And some of the patients that we got… Uh, one patient, a civilian came in, was drastically injured – pancreas, liver, etcetera.  And the Red Cross worker came up.  He wanted a letter written to his girlfriend in Hawaii, telling her he’d be a little late getting there.  And uh, I said to the Red Cross worker, “I really didn’t think you ought to write that letter.”  “Well I have to after he dictated it.”  “Okay.  It’s your problem, but I don’t think you ought to do it.”  So, we moved him.  I went to lunch and they moved him to be run on the kidney and he promptly died.  I came back up, you know, “Where…”.  “He’s dead.”   “Oh, okay.”

Ruth Stewart:	...completed this story by saying when she came back from lunch that the soldier had died, but the letter had already gone out to the girlfriend; and she was concerned about what was going to happen from then on.  Uh, she gave an excellent story of her life in the military and her life in nursing. And we completed the interview at this point.

/al