Nestled into the flatland not far from Somerset, England was Nissen-Hut station hospital. Though the hospital only had 834 beds, it saw over that per hour. Even if the nurses tried their best to clean everything up, wrap everything up, and send it back to battle we still knew that sometime soon a few of those good men would be sent home inside a coffin...
The first time I knew that nursing was what I wanted to do was when I was waiting at the harbor off the coast of Portland to get on a ship. This ship was to lead me to my destination: Great Britain, where i would be working as a nurse for the United States Army Nurse Corps: like 60,000 women would aspire to do. It surprised me to see that I would be taken to Europe in none other than a troop ship, exactly like the one that Jack had gone away on just days before. To the people wanting justice it didn't matter if I was a nurse or a soldier, they just wanted help. My help. And that's what I was meant to do.
We walked through bushels of trees and tall discrete grass until we were withing sight of several slender-shaped buildings. I could see the American Flag waving in the wind. Once inside of one of these buildings, this one titled "station", we lined up against a long wall. A women stepped forward and called out for our attention. She read off a long list of names and when "Addison, Lucy" was called I followed a group down a stairwell and was handed a bag and a bundle of clothes. The bag was for my belongings and I quickly changed into the uniform for my new job. Once again, I was lead down a hallway to a stairwell which opened into a large room with a man standing in front of rows and rows of folding chairs, almost completely occupied with women in the same apparel. He raised a hand, and then spoke. "Alright girls, now that you're all here it is time to begin training."
It was well known that Lt. General Somevell had issued the previous year that all new nurses were to go through a four-week training class to learn the ropes of the Army Nurse Corps. The program started with lots of information:
- Army Organization- the way the Army wanted this to work and how we could meet its protocol
- Military Customs and Courtesies- the way we were to show our American respect and spirit everyday of our job
- Field Sanitation- how to clean the hospital properly, and how to look after severe wounds and burns, also how to protect ourselves and others from infections, contagions, and how to clean tools
- Defense- against air, chemical, and mechanized attacks that may be a threat to the hospital, basically learning escape routes and evacuation procedures
- Personnel Administration was the next thing we learned- covering small surgeries to anesthesia administration, we also learned how to care for shock victims
- Military Requisitions and Correspondence Unit (it was the army after all)- we learned how to use emergency firearms and artillery
- Property Responsibility- how to look after supplies and medical kits(kits consisted of 12 thermometers, 6 medicine glasses, and one teaspoon), also how to properly divide medicine into appropriate amounts and dosages
Nissen-Hut:
It was always noisy, crowded, and claustrophobic no matter where in Nissen-Hut you went. There were always bloody rags to be washed and muddy floors to be mopped. No one really spoke to each other unless there was a reason to. The only people that I ever spoke to were the patients. Us nurses left our socializing for off-duty occasions. Sometimes when I'd be knelt down, trying to manage a soldiers wound he'd look me in the eyes and start talking to me. I didn't do much talking back, it was more comforting if I wasn't interrogating them with questions, but I sure listened. They'd talk about their wives, their mothers, that special girl they should have kissed before going off to battle. Some told me about their sons, their daughters, the newborns they'd left behind and missed dearly. Others stayed silent and looked at me with painful gazes as I caressed their wounds with my cool hands and foot-long bandages. I know that I saved their lives, that I sent many of those children home a father, many of those women home a lover, and many of those mothers home a son.
Of the fifty or so nurses at Nissen-Hut, I remember each one as if it were yesterday. I remember how we would spend the few off-hours we could get in our cabins. Everyone there had a different story to tell. Some, like myself, were there because of weakness: they couldn't send their husband or brother away knowing he might not come back. A few were there strictly on an adventure: either running away or needing some excitement. A handful were there to serve their country: wanting to stand behind the United States through thick and thin and to heal it one troop at a time. And then there were the group who "just wanted to get into nursing already and then go back to their families". Though we all came for different reasons, we all really just wanted a chance to help someone. And it was given.