ATTACK


[CONTINUED FROM PAGE 59]


converted a dressing area into a mini-operating theater. Colleague Navy Lt. j.g. Lenore


Terrell described how “ambulatory patients immediately left the hospital to get back to their ships.” Some left to help “rescue their buddies,” then slept “on the fl oor under their beds to make room for them.” She described the spirit of cooperation among hospital staff as “unbelievable.”


A well-timed tackle At 7:45 a.m., Army nurses and corps- men had wheeled orthopedics pa- tients onto the porch of Schofi eld Barracks Station Hospital to watch football. The spectators waved at the low-fl ying aircraft until they recog- nized the rising suns on the planes. Bombing, followed by machine-gun strafi ng, commenced. Rushing to wheel their charges back into the building, Army 2nd Lt. Myrtle Watson was tackled to the fl oor by a patient. She saw two heavy bullets lodged in a door frame, right where she had stood previously; they would have cut her off at the knees had her patient not intervened. Nurses cut patients out of traction, piled mattresses around them, and began treating incoming wounded. The commotion woke Army nurse anesthetist 2nd Lt. Mildred Irene Clark, who would later be- come the 12th director of the Army Nurse Corps. She recalled the Japa- nese pilots were fl ying so close she could hear radio communications between them. She ran to the hospi- tal, where all nine operating rooms soon were busy. She moved tire- lessly from one patient to the next, administering anesthesia, plasma, IV fl uids, and medications. Nurses provided other forms of comfort as well, such as joining men in prayer, reciting Psalms, and closing the eyes of the dead.


78 MILITARY OFFICER DECEMBER 2016


Lt. Grace B. Lally, USN, chief nurse


aboard USS Sol- ace, pre- viously served during World War I.


“If [these patients] can smile, I guess we can. And look, they are smiling.” — Lt. Grace Lally, USN


Selfl ess actions Army 2nd Lt. Anna Urda was al- ready at Tripler General Hospital at Fort Shafter — as a patient with a facial infection — when the bombing started. When she saw a fl ash and explosion at the pineapple cannery fuel tanks, she knew Pearl Harbor was under attack. Urda changed into her nurse’s uniform and reported for duty. “Now I was in charge of the women’s ward, where I [had been] a patient in the last hour,” she recalled. Roommates Army 2nd Lts. Harriet


Moore and Marguerite Oberson fol- lowed the noise outside; a Japanese pilot waved at them from above. “We felt lucky he didn’t want to bomb a hospital,” Moore said. Later that day, Oberson’s fi ancée was killed, but she continued working. The attacks and the staggering number of critically wounded young men — many in their teens — were horrifi c enough to shock anyone, com- batants and caregivers alike. However, nurses reported many seriously in-


jured men refused treatment, telling the nurses instead to treat those who needed it most, or pleading with clini- cians to save their colleagues fi rst. By the end of the day, fatalities from


two hours of airstrikes had risen to 2,400. Most of the dead were military men, the majority from USS Arizona, with another 429 from USS Oklahoma (BB-37). Despite the trauma of that day, Terrell refl ected, “It brought out the best in people.” She could not recall any nurses who “fell apart.” De- spite dealing with fear for their loved ones’ safety or even grief, the Army and Navy nurses dedicated themselves to their jobs by working ceaselessly. Lally later described how she mus-


tered the courage to face and treat so many seriously wounded patients: “If they can smile, I guess we can. And look, they are smiling.”


MO — Capt. Meribeth Meixner Reed,


USPHS (Ret), is a nursing and women’s history researcher in Port Ludlow, Wash. This is her fi rst feature for Military Offi cer.


PHOTO: BUREAU OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY


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