Interview of retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Patricia Accountius on her long service in the U.S. Army Medical Specialist Corps


Ruth Stewart:	Pat Accountius is being interviewed as a member of the Women’s Overseas Service League, San Antonio Texas Unit at San Antonio on October 21, 2003. Ruth Stewart is interviewing, assisted by Carol Habgood. [0:18] Pat, tell us about your joining the service and what led up to that.

Patricia Accountius:	Well when I was [in] [Inaudible 0:26], I was a Girl Scout, and that was at the age of – let's see – I think 12. It was 1942. And so we became candy stripers and went to work at, uh, Lima Hospital in Lima, Ohio. And as candy stripers, we passed water and we passed juices and we had put [inaudible 0:58], and I worked for 2 years as a candy striper as a volunteer. And, uh, our Girl Scout leader left and we got a new Girl Scout leader who happened to be a dietician at the hospital, and the dietician encouraged me to get a work permit because my family was going to move out to a farm, and I didn’t want to move to the forearm. I wanted to finish high school in Lima. And so I went, got a work permit. I was 14 years old, but during the war, [inaudible 1:36] [chuckle] you could get a working permit because they were so short as far as the mobile force went. And then after I got the working permit, I went to work in the kitchen at the hospital, and I worked after school and on Saturdays and Sundays. And first, I did such things as doing dishes, pots and pans, working on the [inaudible 1:59] line. 	And, um, after a few years, um, I started to relieve for the cook and relieve for the baker. 

	And then when I was a senior in high school, uh, I decided to – that, uh, I wanted to go to college and I was interested in going to premed, so I applied to Miami University for, for premed. But after I started, um, my family really didn’t have the funds, and I did stay and I paid my, my grandparents to stay with them so that I could continue to go to school in, in Lima, and I did graduate from Lima South High School.

Ruth Stewart:	[2:46] Is that Ohio?

Patricia Accountius:	Ohio. Right. And I, I applied from – in Miami, and I was accepted, and, uh, like I said, starting [inaudible 2:57] science because I was really interested in premed, but I knew that I probably wouldn't have the money to, uh, be able to continue, so I picked up all the subjects that I needed as electives for dietetic. So I went to the College for Arts and Sciences rather than the College of, of Home Ec with my electives being nutrition and institutional management and things like that. Then I was then going home for the summers, I started rel-, the first 3 summers, I relieved for the dietician while I was in college. Uh, and so [chuckle] I slowly worked up the ladder and was relieving for the dietician then when I was in school. And the [fourth 3:49] year, um, they [fired 3:53] both dieticians, and I was there by myself, and my poor sister, whose [inaudible 3:59] much younger than I was, was a student nurse at the time and assigned in the kitchen. [laughter] It was a very difficult summer for her. [laughter] I think [inaudible 4:10] student nurses, you know, at that point in time, which was one of the reasons I decided I didn’t want to be a nurse back when I was a Girl Scout. I thought this is not for me [chuckle] because student nurses were doing pretty much what, uh, nurse’s aides do now along with some nursing care. 

	So I applied and was selected and went to Oxford, Ohio, Miami University, which was founded in 1809. It's a beautiful school. It's in, uh, Williamsburg-style architecture and was kept [inaudible 4:50] conforming that – to that style, so the campus is a beau-, uh, it’s a beautiful campus. And when I was a junior, we had a letter from an army dietician [and that’s 5:05] in Houston, who indicated that the army had an internship available. And I had been working as a waitress for my meals, and I’d been working in the library at night for my tuition, and I was cleaning houses on the weekends for spending money, and so that sounded like a pretty good deal. If, if you came in, you were commissioned as a second lieutenant. So I applied and was accepted to the Army Internship Program. My first big mistake was that basic was to be at Fort Sam Houston, and so I bought a ticket for Houston, Texas on the train. [chuckle] When I got to Louis to change trains, I was talking to some young man at the counter, and he said, “You're going where?” and I said, “I'm going to Houston, Texas,” and he said, Fort Sam Houston is not in Houston, Texas. It's in San Antonio.” And so they very nicely changed my ticket and switched my luggage, uh, to [chuckle] San Antonio. So I arrived in San Antonio for basic. And I had applied for the dietetic internship at  Walter Reed. 

I knew that I could never afford to do the, the, the medical internship, and they didn’t have the programs then that they have now, uh, for physicians.

Ruth Stewart:	[6:34] So you entered the Army Specialists Corp...

Linden Anderson:	Right.

Ruth Stewart:	...and what year was that? 

Linden Anderson:	That was in 1948. And I graduated from high school in 1948. And, uh, that summer I did not work in the hospital, the last summer. I counseled, camp counseled in Wisconsin, Camp Agawak and, uh, taught [camp] [inaudible 7:02].

Ruth Stewart:	[7:07] So tell us about your early days then as an intern in the, uh, Dietetic Program. 

Linden Anderson:	Well, here again, then they were, they were very short. Uh, they were short of dieticians, including there were a number of involuntary recalls, uh, from the Korean conflict that were being called back on, back on active duty, and so I started my internship at Walter Reed. And I'm afraid that I spent as much time in staff relief just about as I did in the intern training program except for all the medical lectures, and I did get to do the medical lectures. But I spent a lot of time in the office with the chief working on job descriptions and things like that. However, it was a, a year long, and it was a, a good learning experience. There were 12 of us. And we still most of us correspond. There are 3 now living here in San Antonio that were in my basic, but they were [inaudible 8:08] interns. And, uh, this is our 50th year, as a matter of fact. The American Dietetic Association is meeting here, uh, next week and the 50-year members of the American Dietetic Association are being honored. And registration is $250, and it's free for us. So we're gonna have sort of a, a meeting of everybody who was in both of our internship classes while we're here. [Inaudible 8:37] 50 years for all of us.

Ruth Stewart:	Mm-hm. [8:40] And then what happened?

Linden Anderson:	After I finished my dietetic internship, I went to Fort Leonard Wood Missouri, which had just reopened, uh, because of the Korean conflict, and they were short in our bases and posts and [inaudible 8:58] [internment 8:59]-type hospital. We had [inaudible 9:01] ranges in the dining hall. Uh, they had to lay the fires, which if you got a downdraft. The soot came out all over everything, including the [inaudible 9:12], which occasionally we scraped off [laughter] [inaudible 9:18]. Uh, there were – the place was staffed by Ozark, uh, people who with – basically like mountaineers. They really hadn't had any experience because the place had closed after World War II. And so that was a real learning experience. It was cold. We wore our overcoats in the office, had snowdrifts on our desks. The pipes would freeze. There were 2 of us there. We had 1,400 patients. And, uh, that was my first assignment. And then from there, I was transferred to Okinawa, and I was Chief of, of Ward Food Service in Okinawa. And while I was there, we built the new hospital, which was an 8th story building. It was supposed to be an 18-month tour, and so I shipped by car, my automobile home. 

	However, I got extended [chuckle] until we moved into the new, into the new hospital. But while we were there, they hadn't had a typhoon in years, and we had a typhoon that hit every other weekend for – we had 6 typhoons in 1 year, and they would admit all of the pregnant women into the hospital and I was the [inaudible 10:52] personnel, hospital personnel [inaudible 10:55]. And so our hospitals in Quonset huts, and we moved the first time into the new, uh, field house they h-, they had just finished with hardwood floors, and they had the glass skylights in the top, but we went into the place with field ranges because, of course, the power went out. We had [inaudible 11:24] C-ration [inaudible 11:25]. The nurses forgot the urinals. We used corned beef cans for urinals [inaudible 11:31] [laughter] corned beef cans. 

Ruth Stewart:	[11:35] So you [inaudible 11:36] improvised?

Linden Anderson:	And in that, in that particular time, we, we had taken C-rashes with, C-rations with us because we were not totally prepared to do that and to move. But what happened first was that the water got under the, under the beautiful parquet floor, and it started to warp, and it actually warped waist high. Then the skylights started coming down, and so we put the patients under the bleachers and stretched tarps over them, and, uh, that was the last time we moved into the field house, but every time we moved into something, there were sorts of new and unusual situations. So, um, by the time we moved the third time, we were pretty well [laughter] [inaudible 12:26], and we didn’t [inaudible 12:28] problems we had before. At one time, I was dating a marine, and luckily the marine barracks were right behind – we moved into the dispensary the second time, which was at the marine, uh, marine base, and we didn’t have water. The water tanks weren't delivered by the engineers, and I knew that they were ready to go out in the field, and so the sergeant and I got down on the ground and worked out way over to the marine barracks, and they found some water [trailers] [inaudible 12:59], so we had water for the hospital. That was [inaudible 13:04].

Carol Habgood:	Improvising again.

Patricia Accountius:	And then we moved into the new facilities right before we left, and they were supposed to open that, they were supposed [inaudible 13:11] on the island and the Okinawans used to fit, uh, food carts onto the elevator and would run like crazy up, and they grab the food cart [chuckle] off on the 6th and 7th floors. And then after they got used to the elevators, they just wanted to ride up and down all day in the elevators. And, uh, and then we put in a centralized tray service system, so we [had found 13:41] some English [inaudible 13:42] in Japanese [chuckle] and, uh, to assemble the carts in the, in the new hospital. 

Ruth Stewart:	[13:50] Now this was a period between wars, right?

Patricia Accountius:	This was ’56 to ’58, 1956 to ’58. I left Fort Leonard Wood in 1956.

Ruth Stewart:	[13:59] And what kind of patients did you take care of there at that hospital?

Patricia Accountius:	Well we, um, army, navy, air force. It was, uh, basically it was an army hospital, but we supported the [OD 14:11]. And we had like 16 to 18 broken jaws because the navy and the marines didn’t get along too well, and we had all kind of fights and [chuckle] we, um, the men that were over there – the marines could not have dependents, and so they all had motor scooters, so between the fights at the Navy [Club 14:33] and the motor scooters, we – and at that point in time, they wired their jaws shut, you know, when they were broken, and so we had them on liquid diets. [Inaudible 14:46] liquids [inaudible 14:46], [inaudible 14:47] liquids and [inaudible 14:48]. [laughter]

Carol Habgood:	[14:50] Those were the...

Patricia Accountius:	[Inaudible 14:51].

Carol Habgood:	...the major patients that you had?

Patricia Accountius:	Right.

Carol Habgood:	Okay. Okay. [14:56] Um, what were some of your most memorable experiences there?

Patricia Accountius:	On Okinawa?

Carol Habgood:	Mm-hm.

Patricia Accountius:	Well my car was sandblasted. I think I had it painted [inaudible 15:11]. I had it painted after every typhoon except the – except one, and that one came too fast. So I think my car was painted 5 times, you know, the saltwater and the [bleach in the 15:22] sand would just literally take the paint off. One, one typhoon, their wind instruments blew away with 250 miles an hour, and so they didn’t know how strong those winds actually were, but it went, went up toward Japan and then turned around and came back and hit us [chuckle] [going the other way 15:42].

Ruth Stewart:	Yeah.

Patricia Accountius:	That was the one that we didn’t have time – I didn’t have time to get the car painted between – it was the same typhoon.

Ruth Stewart:	[Well 15:54]. [15:56] Other experiences?

Patricia Accountius:	On Okinawa?

Ruth Stewart:	[Inaudible 15:59] get your [water paints 16:01].

Patricia Accountius:	Well [chuckle] we [inaudible 16:03]. The opening ceremony, um, the hospital commander was showing his office, and one of the Okinawan women decided to change her baby on his desk. That [left] [inaudible 16:21], especially on him. 

Ruth Stewart:	Mm-hm.

Patricia Accountius:	Um, it was a challenging experience. Uh, [Inaudible 16:31], our chef, was a patient there twice, and she gave me a [inaudible 16:36]. I don’t think it's legal to bring them back, but she gave me a beautiful tortuous shell, um, box that sits on a little tray, and it has a rosebud [inaudible 16:48] on top [inaudible 16:49]. 

Ruth Stewart:	Mm-hm.

Patricia Accountius:	And, uh, that was right after one of the ty-, typhoons, and she wanted, uh, egg drop soup, and so at that point in time, our perishables, of course, were all gone. We didn’t have any chickens. [chuckle] We had B-rations and, and, uh, canned foods, and so I took some chicken noodle soup, and I strained it, and, uh, I used, uh, powdered egg, and I made egg drop soup, and she thought it was very, very good and wanted to know how I made egg drop soup, and I said chef’s secret. [chuckle] And I never did admit as to how I made egg drop soup. 

Ruth Stewart:	Did you...

Patricia Accountius:	And, of course, we beach, you know, you know, the beach lots of times, and I have a – I sent shells back to my father, um, seashells. 

Ruth Stewart:	Mm-hm.

Patricia Accountius:	I sent the other kind of shells from World War II back as, um, [inaudible 18:00] candelabra and things like that. [chuckle]

Carol Habgood:	[18:03] So 2 types of shells?

Patricia Accountius:	Yeah. Two types.

Ruth Stewart:	[18:07] Was beachcombing your major recreation there or did you have other [inaudible 18:10]?

Patricia Accountius:	Well there were a lot of marines [chuckle] and everybody, you know, was in the same situation, so. And we went to the clubs, and we had a really, we had a really good time, but we also did spend a lot of time on the beach.

Ruth Stewart:	[18:28] Were you able to travel off the island?

Patricia Accountius:	Yes. We could, we could, um, well we would go – we could take any of the embassy, you know, trips, and, uh, I, I went to Japan to visit several times and went to Taipei and went to the Philippines and to India. That’s about it.

Ruth Stewart:	[18:56] Quite a lot of traffic?

Carol Habgood:	[18:59] What about [inaudible 18:59]?
 
Patricia Accountius:	[Inaudible 19:00] would toot us around the island [inaudible] [shift 19:02]. 

Ruth Stewart:	Right.

Patricia Accountius:	The, the water was so blue. There’s, uh, like a, a trench that I don’t know how – I don’t remember how many miles deep it is, but the water is so blue that it was just like you should be able to pick up a cup of it and look in it and it should still be blue. It's beautiful, beautiful place, tropical. [Inaudible 19:24].

Carol Habgood:	[19:27] Were there other experiences that you had that were difficult for your living experience?

Patricia Accountius:	Uh, no. [Inaudible 19:35] about bringing [inaudible 19:3] together because the sand would blow and it was tropical construction, our houses, and, uh, actually we were [inaudible 19:47] with the new hospital, which was an engineer base. We were [inaudible 19:52] at the new hospital, uh, shortly after I arrived. We were in Quonset huts at Camp [Inaudible 20;01]. But when we built the new [inaudible 20:04] hospital, we had actual houses, so we had, uh, um, each person had their own room, and we shared a bath, and we had a kitchen and a living room and a utility room, and of course, maids. We didn’t have to do washing or ironing. It came in your [inaudible 20:27].

Ruth Stewart:	[20:30] But in your actually dietetics work, you had to do a lot of improvising still? 

Patricia Accountius:	Yes. Yes. Uh, the [inaudible 20:38] were sporadic, but especially after the typhoons because we would just lose refrigeration, and they wouldn't have the generator support they needed. They, they [chuckle] after the first 2 or 3, you know, they started to get generators in, in, uh, in country, but [inaudible 20:57].

Ruth Stewart:	[20:59] Did you feel satisfied with the – that you were able to maintain the adequate nutrition for your patients under the circumstances?

Patricia Accountius:	Actually, it was, it was adequate. It wasn’t the most palatable [laughter] [at first 21:14]. If they were to eat it, [chuckle] it would have been adequate. It was difficult with the [inaudible 21:22] because we ended up just about using, uh, baby food, whereas in the hospital, we would puree regular foods, which are much more tasty and have some flavor, but we did have, you know, as I said before, a number of dental patients, so they're the ones that probably is was, uh, the most unpalatable, but everybody else [inaudible 21:47] after, after our initial experience of C-rations, we cooked B-rations, and we kept provisions on hand like to make chicken salad and tuna salad out of, you know, canned meats and things like that. 

Ruth Stewart:	[22:04] Did you receive medals or citations dur-, during your service?

Patricia Accountius:	My [inaudible 22:10] service?

Ruth Stewart:	Mm-hm.

Patricia Accountius:	I have 3 army commendation medals with 3 Oak Leaf Clusters. I have a Military Service Medal. I have the Bronze Star, and I have the Legion of Merit with 2 or 3 clusters. [Inaudible 22:51] 2 or 3, you know, Campaign Ribbons. 

Ruth Stewart:	[22:49] How did you get these?

Patricia Accountius:	Worked. 

Ruth Stewart:	[I guess 22:55], yeah.

Patricia Accountius:	[laughter] Basically hard work. I got the Army Commendation Medal in Okinawa. 

Ruth Stewart:	[23:06] When you were in Okinawa, how did you stay in touch with your family and friends at home?

Patricia Accountius:	Uh, a lot of [inaudible 23:12]. We wrote letters. Basically I don’t remember anybody that ever made a telephone call [inaudible 23:21] except in an emergency. 

Carol Habgood:	[23:30] Do you remember – well you’ve, you’ve described some, but are there other humorous events or unusual events that occurred while you were in Okinawa?

Patricia Accountius:	Oh, many but Okinawa was just 1 tour. [chuckle] Uh, I was invited to attend an Okinawan, um, birthday. [Inaudible 23:54] was my interpreter and his grandfather’s birthday, he invited me to, to come to his grandfather’s birthday party, and they seated me at the right hand of the grandfather, and he was served first, and then I was always offered to be served next. And that was the first time I was ever served [dog 24:18], which I ate, and I also had never had goat before [inaudible 24:30] goat. And whenever the – all of the virgins always had to have the same time off because [inaudible 24:42] tombs on Okinawa, and there’s – when their ancestors die, they tie their, their hands to [the wrists 24:52], and they sit cross-legged inside of these tombs, and then they have these big burial vases, and at a certain time of the moon, the virgins in the family have to scrape their ancestors bones into these vases. And so at least they all claimed to be virgins [chuckle] when this time of the moon came and we had a very difficult time in, in foodservice. [stuttering] At that point in time, they had ward kitchens, which meant that we prepared the eggs and things like that actually on the wards. It was more difficult then actually than when we had tray service in the, in the new hospital...

Interviewer:	Hm.

Patricia Accountius:	...but, uh, that was the only place I've ever been where you had to let all the virgins off at a certain time of the moon. [chuckle] 

Carol Habgood:	Oh, well.

Patricia Accountius:	[Inaudible 25:46] we flew from, from Okinawa I went to Walter Reed.

Ruth Stewart:	[25:51] To where?

Patricia Accountius:	Walter Reed. Back to Walter Reed, not at my request, but I was sent back to Walter Reed as Project Officer. They were putting in centralized service of tray – a centralized tray service system there, which we had put into the new hospital, uh, on Okinawa, which meant that [inaudible 26:14] the ward kitchens where they had done all of the preparation. You were able to cook the patient’s eggs to order, but everyone knew that, you know, how the patients wanted their eggs and [inaudible 26:27]. So, uh, we went to the centralized service, tray service-type carts where everything is done on a conveyor belt in the kitchen and then sent out to the wards, and there's a refrigerated side and a heated side. So I was lucky enough to be assigned to do the floor plans for changing and renovating the kitchen and for establishing the training and what have you to get centralized tray service into Walter Reed, so I got to work like I had on Okinawa 7 days a week from 6:00 in the morning to 10:00 at night. [chuckle]

Ruth Stewart:	[27:12] What year was that or years? 

Patricia Accountius:	That was, um, 1950-, ’58, uh, to 1960, and in 1960, I was sent – I have – no, it was from 19-, 1959, and I was sent then to – after we had implemented centralized tray service, I was sent to the Health Care Administration Course here in San Antonio at Medical Field Service School, and it, it affiliates with Baylor University, and I received my Master’s in Health Care Administration. I had to have a waiver because I think I had 8 years at service. Uh, and I was a captain when I went. Then from – after completing that course, I was sent to Letterman for, uh, the residency in health care administration, so I spent, uh, 1 year at Letterman. And I was sent – from Letterman, I went to Governors Island, which was a beautiful assignment, and, um, our quarters looked out over the lower tip of Manhattan. The dining room looked out at the Statue of Liberty, and we got to see all of the [power 28:50] boats going out every time a new ship came in and, uh, the only thing is is that the sergeant and I were the only 2 military, and we lived on the island, and when the island was fogged in, the sergeant and I fixed breakfast for the hospital and our troops [inaudible 29:09] hospital. And...

Carol Habgood:	Quite an experience.

Patricia Accountius:	...it was so cold that the icicles came out at right angles from the [sea up 29:17] in the winter. It, it was colder than Alaska because you weren't dressed or prepared or equipped for it.

Interviewer:	Mm-hm.

Patricia Accountius:	And sometimes the ice would come over the [inaudible 29:30] and freeze, and we couldn't deliver to the back at all because it was frozen [inaudible 29:35], and deliveries would have to come in the front door of the hospital. But I wasn’t there very long because my mother came to visit and, uh, the chief of our, our, um, dietician section happened to be there at the same time my mom was, and Mother didn’t know that [inaudible] [Chief 29:56] Dietician Section and so she asked my mother, you know, they just asked my mother how I was [during 30:08] my assignment, and she said, uh, she’s bored with her assignment, but she loves New York. [laughter] And I was so – I only [inaudible] [mess 30:16], and, uh, then I was moved to Brooke Army Medical Center in Fort Sam Houston Texas because they were gonna renovate the kitchen, and so I got to do the floor plan. And we had – at that time, we had 5 different dining halls at Brooke, and, uh, there were – we fixed food at the main kitchen and then hauled the food to Beach, which was the largest building. And then we cooked, we cooked the [diet 30:52] food at the main kitchen, and we fixed the regular food in the Psychiatric kitchen and then hauled it all to Beach, which was the biggest part of the hospital was at Beach, uh, during the renovation. And we had an improvised assembly line. 

	And I just finished that assignment, and we had everything functioning, and so I was on leave celebrating the fact it was over with, and I got a telephone call saying you have to be ready in 30 days to go to Vietnam, which was rather difficult for me because I had my mother with me. I had my brother. My mother and brother had gone with me ever since my father had passed away in 1959. They had traveled with me. So I had 30 days to sell a house in San Antoni, buy a house in Ohio, which is where my sister lived, uh, get my things packed and get, [chuckle] get myself to Vietnam.

Ruth Stewart:	[32:07] And what stage of the Vietnam war was this? Was this [inaudible 32:11]?

Patricia Accountius:	This was 1966/1967. I was the first dietician assigned in Vietnam. When I went there, I [inaudible 32:19] hospitals. When I left there [inaudible 32:21]. But I spent a great deal of time working with the first logistical man because until they can get organized and get the food coming in country, I couldn't do menus like for the hospital. It was worthless because our food delivery was so erratic and sporadic. And some places were on A-rations. Some places were on B-rations. Some places were on C-rations. And, uh, so a great deal of my time was spent working with Logistics, and I, I wrote the menu for the command from Vietnam, which was the first time that that’s ever been done [inaudible 33:12] my quartermaster, but General Eifer was, uh, commander, the First Logistical Command, and at that point in time, the Medical Brigade came under the Logistical Command, not under the [inaudible 33:28] surgeon, and, uh, so with his support and backing – I told him that until we came up with a cyclic menu so that they could get some stockage factors, uh, I couldn't, I couldn’t do what I needed to do in the hospital [inaudible 33:46]. After he...

Carol Habgood:	[And you're usually 33:46]...

Patricia Accountius:	After he understood that this meant the menu would repeat every 4 weeks, this would be then an experience factor and what items to order and how much they needed to order, and so I [sold 33:58] him on cycle menus. and so he told the quartermaster, uh, [saying that 34:06] basically that we would have a cycle menu in Vietnam, and so whether we ended up with the – I wrote the menu for A-rations and then I, uh, wrote the – a B-ration menu supplementing with A-rations and then I wrote a B-ration menu and then the C-rations, and then they sent a team from Chicago over to work on the menu there in Vietnam. But he was most supportive. 

	And also I could get any equipment. The equipment was just stacked and stacked in the warehouses, and none of the troop messes, for example, had electricity. They didn’t have generators. Well we had generators in the hospital because we had X-ray, and we had to have generators, so when we first started the [Seminole 35:08] Hospital, the [Seminole 35:10] hospitals had electricity, uh, when I went there, but when they would come in country, they would not have electricity, so we had this nice little thing where in X-ray they’d take a tin can and they’d [skip stones from 35:23] tin cans, and in the kitchen we’ll have a tin can with stones it and had the [inaudible 35:28] rope in between, and if they wanted to, uh, if they were using the french fry – I could get french fries – if they were using the french fry machine and X-ray needed an x-ray, they’d just pull on the can. We’d cut off the french fry machine, [chuckle] then, and then take x-ray. So we could, we could do things like that, you know, at that point in time.

Interviewer:	Mm-hm.

Patricia Accountius:	And [inaudible 33:55] were in, in May, and the army had taken over Logistics from the navy in April, and we had – since I got 'em, we had lobster and frozen raspberries and all sorts of great things, but they didn’t have any [inaudible 36:13]. [chuckle] And we had all kind of silver for the navy messes, but we didn’t have any [inaudible 36:22] knives and forks and spoons, you know, and things like that.

Carol Habgood:	[36:26] What was your life like there?

Patricia Accountius:	Well when I, when I, when I was first assigned there, I was assigned there to establish a system for hospital food service in country, and they assigned me to the 3rd Field, and I was assigned under the chief nurse, which didn’t bother me, but, um, I was [inaudible 36:52] promotion lieutenant colonel, and she wasn’t, so it bothered her. [laughter] So anyway, they – and I was also the only dietician, so I was getting calls from all of the hospitals from the hospital commanders, and they were all having problems, and so, um, the hospital commander at the 3rd Field Hospital felt that I belonged with the 68th Medical Group and so he called then Colonel Pixley, and so, you know, I think that, that Pat should be transferred and that she belongs with [you 37:26], not at the 3rd Hospital. So I was transferred to the 68th Medical Group, and then the 36th and 55th Medical Groups were calling Colonel Pixley and saying, you know, we want her to come and, and work with the, uh, support centers, and so Colonel Pixley went up to the 31st Medical Brigade commander and said I think Pat should be assigned to the 44th Medical Brigade, not the 68th Medical Group because she spends a lot of time with the other 2 medical groups. 

	So then I was assigned with the 44th Medical Brigade. Well the 44th Medical Brigade, the men lived in the headquarters building. That was their barracks as well as their building. So they [inaudible 38:13] pretty casual. They weren't always [inaudible 38:16], [chuckle] and so they decided that – they had a little place at [inaudible 38:22] headquarters, and, um, it was on top of the swimming pool but the [inaudible 38:33] was under 1st Log Command, you know, at that point in time, and so this was sort of, uh, the [MIRS 38:40] Center for the 44th Medical Brigade, and the communication liaison between the commanding general of the 44th Med-, I mean the commanding officer of the 44th Medical Brigade and the commanding general at 1st Log Command. The only problem was it – and it was located on top of the swimming pool. The office was on top of the swimming pool. It had been carried over. It was a big ‘ol Chinese mansion and estate, and the general was in the mansion and his staff, and then there were temporary buildings all the way around. And I was the only female and the general had the only private john, so I got to know the general. [chuckle] But he, he was an outstanding man. They couldn't have had a better man there I don’t think at that point in time. 

	And [inaudible 39:32] Colonel [Ober 39:33] was subsistence officer, and so whenever any of the hospitals weren't getting anything, they would let me know and then General – and then Colonel [Ober 39:45] would know where the inventories, you know, weren't being kept up and some of the problems with subsistence out in the, in the different, uh, support commands. And it, it really did work very well. You know, we were responsible for, um, feeding not only our American soldiers but we also provided the subsistence for the Australians and the Koreans and then, um, what happened was that the Vietnamese were only getting, uh, the Vietnamese soldiers were only getting 2 meals a day, and so we wanted to give – supplement the Vietnamese rations with B-rations. But part of it was [inaudible 48:38]. We, we had cost of living, uh, COLA [inaudible 40:44] and so really buying all of this – the produce locally available and the shrimp and fruit and things like that and suddenly the price was up to where the Vietnamese couldn't afford, you know, to buy their own food, and, um, so I spent a week [inaudible 41:04] quartermaster of the Vietnamese Army, and I took all of the food that came in, kept them, kept track of the number of people that they fed and tried to figure out what some of it was, like long beans, [compare 41:22] nutritionally [inaudible 41:24]. I think that they were about the same as green beans. 

	But I kept a record of all of that, and then I sent it back to the metabolic, the – all the information for a week, back to the metabolic lab, and they calculated, uh, basically the in-, intake. And the Vietnamese soldier, the average was about 5’2” on, on the Vietnamese soldier, and the Vietnamese [inaudible 41:51] was 4’8”. So their caloric requirements, you know, weren't the same as, the same as ours, but their intake was, was totally inadequate. They, they had the 2 meals a day and breakfast was soup, and then the evening meal was soup and rice and any meat [inaudible 42:14] vegetables went into the soup, and, uh, they had – they were given [some – and anything] [inaudible 42:20] to buy the [seafood 42:23] and, and, and the meat. Then they were issued flour, sugar, uh, to, um, and rice. Those were issue items. Roughly they were on their own to get what they could, but like I said, [inaudible 42:38] the price of produce was [inaudible 42:40]. 

Interviewer:	Mm-hm.

Patricia Accountius:	And so we did get then [inaudible 42:46], uh, to supplement the Vietnamese rations with our B-rations. And, um, all of the baby food that was on hand was becoming outdated. That’s when the [inaudible 43:01] in Vietnam [inaudible 43:03], I had to issue it out to the hospitals, and we in turn sort of sub-issued it out to the, uh, [inaudible 43:11], so the...

Interviewer:	Mm-hm.

Patricia Accountius:	...because it was still, it was still good. It had reached its expiration date, and, and, uh, we couldn't, we couldn't use it, but the, but [inaudible 43:24] could, so we just issued it all out to the hospitals and the hospitals [peeled 43:30 ] the dust off and what have you and mana-...

Interviewer:	[Inaudible 43:32].

Patricia Accountius:	...managed to get it out to all the medical groups and managed to get it out to the [inaudible 43:36], so that was [inaudible 43:38].

Carol Habgood:	You were very busy in, in your professional life. [43:41] What did you do in your personal life?

Patricia Accountius:	Well we were – at first we were pretty much restricted to the, the, the, the [inaudible 43:49], uh, because we were at Tan Son Nhut, which is [inaudible 43:57] right outside of – adjacent to Saigon. We, eh, Tan Son Nhut [inaudible 44:04] district sort of run right into each other, and, uh, we basically socialized with, with the people [laughter] that were [not 44:17] in that area. Um, we had a kitchen. We had a, a small – the, the chief nurse and I shared a very small apartment, and then, um, one of the general officers got a villa for us, and, uh, so we were, we were in a villa, and we had a very nice French villa with 3 bedrooms, kitchen, bath. Of course, the bath, we had Saigon water, and the maids would run the buckets of water the day before so [inaudible 44:57] fell into the bottom, you know. And we had to use [inaudible 45:00]. [Inaudible 45:01] we'd see these little tadpoles swimming [laughter] and you sort of strained them out and brushed your teeth. [laughter]

Ruth Stewart:	[45:12] So how l-, how long did you serve in the military overall?

Patricia Accountius:	Twenty-nine years and six months.

Ruth Stewart:	Hm. [45:22] And where were where you when you left the military?

Patricia Accountius:	Well let's see. [chuckle] [Inaudible 45:32] from Vietnam, I was Chief at Fitzsimons in Denver, and then I went from Denver to [inaudible 45:43] – no, to Fort Dix New Jersey, and then I was assigned as Chief at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and then while I was Chief at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, I [inaudible 45:55] time, and the Chief Dietician Section had a heart attack, and I was supposed to be Project Officer for a building that [inaudible 46:04] at the new Walter Reed, but when she had a heart attack, then the Chief Dietician Section was a statutory position as established by Congress, and it's a 4-year tour, and they were having a lot of racial problems, and I was assigned to Walter Reed. They interviewed you, and I said [inaudible 46:32] Walter Reed. I've already had, you know, my 3 tours there, [laughter] but anyhow I, I was assigned to Walter Reed, and then General Bernstein refused to give me up, and you can't really [refuse 46:47] the Surgeon General for very long, so for about 6 months, I was [double] [inaudible 46:51] and Chief of Walter Reed because of, of its racial problems and they [inaudible 46:58] that, plus being Chief of Dietician Section, and, uh, uh, [inaudible 47:04] 7 days, you know, jobs, and so finally, I got out of the staffing at Walter Reed at the time with the situation there. 

	And then, uh, unfortunately, I had bought in Maryland because I was assigned to Walter Reed and ended up in the Pentagon, so I [went to 47:28] meeting every day. And like I said, uh, the Chief Dietician Section, we made all the dietician assignments, plus you approved all the floor plans and layouts, plus you're responsible for all the [inaudible 47:42], and the Army Surgeon General is the, is the executive agent for nutrition for Department of Defense and [inaudible 47:51] representative on the [many wards 47:54] and on the Department of Defense [inaudible 47:57]. His work was [inaudible 48:00], and that was more than a full-time job.

Ruth Stewart:	[48:06] So when, when did you actually leave the, the Army?

Patricia Accountius:	I left, I left – well that, that was a 4-year statutory tour, so at the end of the 4 years, I wanted to get out, but I got talked into taking the job as Chief [inaudible 48:21] Division at [inaudible 48:23] command, but the job in the Surgeon General’s office is basically policy, procedural assignments, personnel, layout, equipment. The, um, Chief [inaudible 48:37] Division at Health Services Command at that point in time, the Chief Dietician Section was responsible for the operation of all of the facilities in the continental United States, uh, and, uh, Hawaii and, and Alaska, so we took over [inaudible 48:59] while I was Chief at, um, Health Services Command. Health Services Command is located right adjacent to the Academy at Fort Sam Houston, so that’s where I spent my last 4 years. And [inaudible 49:15] physically covered, and when I was in the Surgeon General’s office, I covered all the overseas hospitals. When I was at Health Services Command, I covered all the hospitals in the continental United States, Alaska, Panama, and Hawaii.

Carol Habgood:	[49:32] So you sort of reached across the wall?

Patricia Accountius:	[chuckle] I, I got there one way or another. [laughter]

Carol Habgood:	[49:41] So then, your retirement then was from, uh...

Patricia Accountius:	Health Services [inaudible 49:46].

Carol Habgood:	...Health Services Command to stay in San Antonio...

Patricia Accountius:	Right.

Carol Habgood:	...following that?

Patricia Accountius:	Right.

Carol Habgood:	[49:51] And that leads you to now living here at the Army Residence Center?

Patricia Accountius:	Yes.

Carol Habgood:	[49:56] But there were several years in between that you lived in your own home?

Patricia Accountius:	Right. But I, I lived in [inaudible 50:04], and then I couldn't keep up with the grounds and what have you, and so I moved into, uh, a house in [Walnut 50:13] Ridge, which was just as much house but not quite as much grounds...

Carol Habgood:	Mm-hm.

Patricia Accountius:	...[inaudible 50:22]. But then when – after I retired from the, from the army, uh, one of the dieticians [inaudible 50;30] who’s also a resident [inaudible 50:33], uh, was working for the state, and she had a friend that needed a dietician, and she talked me into going to work for him. It was a man at [inaudible 50:46] nursing home. So I worked there for a short period of time, and then, um, [inaudible 50:53] employment [inaudible 50;55] had been our consultant for our dietetic internship. Uh, when I was on active duty, I had hired her as, as consultant. So when they built the, um, new complex [inaudible 51:11], the assisted living nursing home, uh, and retirement center, she asked me if I'd be willing to set up food service there [inaudible 51:22] before, you know, the nuns had been at – St. Joseph’s had been like a convent. That was a challenge. [laughter] 

Ruth Stewart:	[51:35] Eh, did you join any, uh, veterans’ organizations after you left the service?

Patricia Accountius:	I, eh, well first I joined profes-, uh, [inaudible 51:46]. Yes, I joined the American Legion, but then I was the state, um, Texas State Nutrition Counsel when the Texas [inaudible 52:00], um, [inaudible 52:02] group and, uh, uh, worked with health care facilities [inaudible 52:07], and I had offices in all of those, and then was adjutant for the Legion. And then after, um, well after I finished in [inaudible 52:23], that’s when they [worked] [inaudible 52:25], and so Colonel [Stubblefield 52:30], who was the executive director, knew that, that, um, I'd been working with nursing homes, and so he asked me if I would set up, uh, to help care for state licensure here, but then they had some problems in food service, and I ended up taking the kitchen and the [Sky 52:56] Lounge and the [inaudible 52:57] as well as health care. And I agreed to do it only until they found someone that could work fulltime, so [and one 53:06] dietician retired, then I quit. [Inaudible 53:10] the state serving the nursing homes.

Ruth Stewart:	[53:15] Did you experience in the military [your 53:17] many years, uh, [influential view 53:20] of war or the military?

Patricia Accountius:	Well you have to remember that I came back from Vietnam and had blood thrown at me [inaudible 53:37] second lieutenant [inaudible 53:39] Colorado State, and we had to go in uniform when we went to meetings, and, uh, [inaudible 53:49] had big signs [inaudible 53:51] we came outside, um, [inaudible] [bombs 53:57], um, peace, all kind of peace things and what have you. When I was stationed at the Pentagon, I got hit with a bag of pig’s blood once. [chuckle] 

	Uh, that gave you a very strange feeling because when I was, when I was stationed in Vietnam, I [spent 54:22], uh, our sickest patients went to the 3rd Field to be stabilized to Medevac out, and some of them were, were not, uh, combat-type injuries, but they had [falciparum 54:36] malaria, and they were renal, renal patients, and, uh, they had a very strange diet that we came up with that they could tolerate, and, um, but I worked there and more than, more than once helped them triage. And after you’d cut these young kids – after you’d cut the uniforms off of them [or whatever 55:02] you see blood, uh, after you’d gone out – gone into [inaudible 55:07] some the surgeons and [inaudible 55:09] body bag, not [inaudible 55:11] it was right inside the back door, uh, and then you’d come back and, and you're treated like you started the war, [laughter] you are responsible. Um, that, that’s, uh, gives you a little different feeling, and I think it's just tremendous the difference with the Americans and their perception now than there was during the Vietnam conflict. 

Ruth Stewart:	Thank you very much for the interview, Pat. 


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