B


Timely preparations By fall 1941, Army nurses were posted at the station hospital at Hickam Air Field, the station hospi- tal at Schofi eld Barracks, and Tripler General Hospital at Fort Shafter, while Navy nurses were assigned to Naval Hospital Pearl Harbor and the hospital ship USS Solace (AH-5). The naval hospital had expanded earlier that year to 250 beds, and Tripler and Schofi eld hospitals could accom- modate up to 1,450 patients. In early December, World War I


Army surgeon Dr. John Moorhead traveled to Hawaii to present a series of lectures on traumatic surgery. His lecture Friday, Dec. 5, described how to treat traumatic wounds with new techniques like aggressive debride- ment and irrigation, directly apply- ing sulfanilamide powder onto an open wound, and not immediately suturing or closing it. As the surgeon launched into his presentation Sun- day, Dec. 7, the doors to the room burst open to shouts: “Surgeons needed at Tripler ASAP!” The quiet morning had erupted


into all-out chaos and destruction, and nurses and other active duty and civil-


58 MILITARY OFFICER DECEMBER 2016


BY 1939, THE UNEASY PEACE that followed World War I was crumbling. As interna- tional unrest steadily escalated, the Army Nurse Corps and Navy Nurse Corps in- creased their recruiting eff orts to build up a presence in the Pacifi c. Q Many military nurses in Hawaii considered an assign- ment in the tropical paradise irresistible, the ultimate adventure. As ordered, they packed dress uniforms and summer frocks — plus gas masks, just in case.


ian personnel immediately rushed to their duty stations. Little did they know they soon would apply lessons learned from Moorhead’s lectures. What follows are nurses’ insights


reconstructing that day, compiled from letters, oral histories, and other fi rst-person accounts. (For a com- plete list of sources, see the story online at www.moaa.org/pearlha rbornurses.)


Assaulted senses At 7:55 a.m., only two of six nurses, 2nd Lts. Monica Conter and Irene Boyd, were on duty at Station Hos- pital Hickam Air Field when they heard jets roaring and then crashing. As Conter later recounted, “Nu- merous planes were diving ... each setting off an explosion and a great mass of black smoke.” The nurses could see waves of Japanese bomb- ers. Then blasts rocked the 30-bed hospital, and they lost power. The hospital was three blocks


away from the barracks along Hick- am’s runway, where the bombs hit fi rst, 2nd Lt. Sara Entrikin recalled. In minutes, injured men began to arrive. But so did nurses, physicians,


corpsmen, and volunteers, who moved patients downstairs in the dark. Staff rendered fi rst aid and dispatched seri- ous cases to Tripler. An hour later, the Japanese


dropped bombs again, shelling build- ings, automobiles, and fl eeing pedes- trians. Hickam Hospital shook once more as a bomb landed 60 feet away. As fumes and smoke streamed into the building, nurses realized their gas- masks and helmets were back in their quarters. Pharmacy staff prepared morphine in syringes that held 10 doses each, and nurses performed tri- age, administering morphine and teta- nus antitoxin. They marked the letters “M” and “T” on the foreheads of those they had medicated; there were no at- tempts to maintain health records. Deafening noise came from planes


crashing into ships, bombs bursting in every direction, machine guns straf- ing from aircraft, and the return fi re of antiaircraft artillery. The sounds of screams prevailed, further dampening everyone’s hearing. Within minutes, the thick choke of burning petroleum had replaced the tropical fragrances of plumeria and hibiscus. The morning, once clear and bright, grew hazy with billowing black smoke. Without electricity, nurses felt


their way around in the dark. Smoke and debris left a gritty feeling in their mouths, but water was not al- ways available; furthermore, many feared the water supply had been poisoned. They saw, touched, and smelled blood in all stages of clot- ting. With bare hands, they cared for hundreds of soldiers, sailors, air- men, Marines, and civilians.


A mass casualty response Chief Nurse Lt. Grace Lally, USN, was dressing for church when she heard machine-gun fi re and planes fl ying too low. From the vantage point of USS Solace, anchored in the East Loch of Pearl Harbor, she saw a dive-bomber hit the smokestack of


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