BY
Margo
Reynolds:Well,
my legal name is Margaret Rice Reynolds, but I am called Margo Rice and
I was born in Austin, Texas.When
I was six months old, my folks came back to Indiana.I
was raised in Indiana.I went to
school, I graduated from high school at Monticello High School.That
was right in the midst of the big depression. I went to the University
of Illinois one year. Then my sister and I had a marionette show, that
we showed over Indiana and Illinois schools, and clubs and things.Then
I decided to make some money, so I could go into nurse's training. I went
into nurse's training in 1937, at St. Luke's Hospital in Chicago.It
was a wonderful hospital and I had a wonderful experience there.The
war broke out in about 1941, so I decided to go in as a nurse, into the
service in 1942, from Chicago.
DA:What
made you become interested in nursing?
Reynolds:In
nursing in the first place?Well,
I had an aunt who had been a nurse. I had a lot of relatives that were
medical people.I don't know, I
have been interested in people. I have always liked people, I guess maybe
that was the main reason.I had
to do something and at that time, you either went into nursing or you went
in to teaching school.I didn’t
want to teach school. [Laughter]DA:Okay.Well,
then how did you become interested in joining the service once the war
broke out?
Reynolds:Well,
in the first place everybody was . There was a lot of loyalty after Pearl
Harbor. Everybody was enthusiastic about going and most of my friends went
into the service. That's when ... the reason I decided, loyalty and all
the friends going in.
DA:What
branch of the service were you a part of?
Reynolds:The
Army Nurse Corp
DA:Okay.What
was your family's reaction when your told them that you were going? That
you were joining the ArmyNurses
Corpand you were going.
Reynolds:[Pause]
They didn’t tell me not to. [Laughter]I
don’t know, they were down in Indiana and I was up in Illinois.I
went down to see them, they didn’t discourage me from it.People
didn’t discourage people from doing any thing like that then. It was just
done.
DA:Whatwas
the reactions of your friends? ? Just the community in general, about the
war and what was going on.
Reynolds:It
was all after Pearl Harbor. Everybody was ready to just do anything they
could.So that's what we did.We
did what we could do.I was teaching
at St. Luke’s, and there were people there that tried to discourage my
going, because they said they would need nurses back in the States as well,but
I was not swayed.
DA:So,
you were already done with your nurses training in 1941, when the war broke
out?
Reynolds:Yes
DA:Okay
Reynolds:In
fact, I had been working as a graduate nurse.
DA:Okay.So
you enlisted in the Army.
Reynolds:I
became an officer. I was an officer. I went in as an officer.
DA:At
what rank?
Reynolds:At
Second Lieutenant. All nurses went in as Second Lieutenant.
DA:Okay.Could
you tell us a little bit about that initial..... You signed up, and then
what happened?
Reynolds:Well,
I went down to headquarters. I don’t remember just exactly how it was,
but then they asked me if I would recruit nurses? to go to Amarillo, Texas.
So I stayed in Chicago, in that area, to recruit nurses and I didn’t like
recruiting nurses. I stayed there until it was a few months, and finally,
I went down to Amarillo, Texas.
DA:Where
was your first station at?
Reynolds:Well,
the first one was in Chicago because I was recruiting nurses.
[Telephone
Rings]
Nancy
Wilson:Pausing for a phone call.
DA:So
you went into the service in Chicago.
Reynolds:Yes
DA:Did
you have to go through Boot Camp?
Reynolds:No.Nurses
didn’t have to.They went in as
officers. They didn’t have to go into Boot Camp at that time.I
don’t know if they do now or not, I don’t think they do.
DA:Other
than your nurses training, did the Army give you any additional training
in anything else?
Reynolds:Not
particularly, except that there were classes that all the military had
to go to from time to time.Like,
when we had to wear gas masks. We had to go through a period of having
to wear gas masks, and there were other things. They also had classes directed
at everybody on the post.
DA:Okay.Then
they transferred you to Amarillo.
Reynolds:Yes
DA:Amarillo,
Texas.Okay. Can you tell us a little
bit about that?
Reynolds:Well,
I went down there as an Assistant Chief Nurse. I was there for about a
year and a half I think. I was not fond of the Chief Nurse and she knew
it.She wasn't too fond of me either,
but when she was transferred to another place, everybody was really delighted
in that.There wasn’t an awful lot
that was really unusual that went on in Amarillo. I met people.Actually,
I met my husband there,but we didn’t
get married until after the war was over.
DA:Okay.Where
did you go after Amarillo?
Reynolds:I
was transferred to Topeka, Kansas for three months, and then I received
orders to go overseas.
DA:Were
you happy about that?
Reynolds:You
just took it as it came along. [Laughter] You had some question about it,
but you knew that it was expected. I kind of took it as it came along.
DA:Where
were you stationed overseas?
Reynolds:Actually,
I had to go to Camp Miles Standish first. We were there for a week or two
weeks, I can't remember which.That
was close to Boston.They gave us
classes and told us how to pack and so on.How
to pack our clothes, and what we should take, and so on.Then
we left from, I believe, it was Boston, on ship. Actually it was the S.S.
Washington, which was largest ship the United States, hadat
that time.It took us six days to
get across which was a fast trip, but just before we landed in England,
there was a big storm that came up. So we had to go back out and we had
to come back in again the next day. So it took us seven days to get over
there.Then we went straight across
England on a train, and they dumped us in South Hampton. They forgot where
they dumped the nurses. They got everybody else collected to go across
the channel. They had to hold up until the next day, because they finally
found us late in the afternoon. It was raining cats and dogs.We
got on this ship and went across the channel the next morning. First, we
went to Omaha Beach. They didn’t know what they wanted to do with us so
they took us to Utah Beach. We go out there and the mud was clear up to
our knees practically, and they've landed us in a class _A_ uniform.So,
then it was towards eveningand they
still didn’t know what they were going to do with us. So they put us in,
I guess,it was a bivouac area.
These tents, they had dirt floors, and they told us to roll out our bed
rolls and get ready to go to sleep. They would take care of us the next
day .Then they found a place in
a hospitalfor us. They had some
beds. So they finally loaded us up and we went to this hospital, so we
had real beds to sleep in that night.We
were in Carentan, France that night. We eventually took over this hospital
where we had spent the night. I thinkwe
bivouac for aboutthree days, no
about a week. I don’t really remember how long.
D
A:How
many nurses come over with you in your group?
Reynolds:I
don’t know.I don’t know how many
there are in the general hospital.It
was a full supply of nurses for our hospital.I
don’t remember how many there were.
DA:Did
your unit or your nurseshave a number
or name?
Reynolds:It
was 180th General. 180th General Hospital, in Carentan, France.Wetook
over a tent hospital, and we lived in tents through one winter in France.
DA:Whatwas
your first post like?
Reynolds:You
mean in Carentan?Well, it was a
tent.I was the supervisor of the
surgical ward.I had 19 wards to
supervise and there were probably about 30 patients on a ward.Everybody
worked to make it a good hospital. They eventually really made it ... a
really comfortably hospital. There was a contest for all of the hospitals
in the Normandy area and the one that came out on top got to choose where
they were going to go further up towards the front. Ours came out first.The
C.O., the commanding officer, was gone for awhile and we went to look over
several places. By that time, before we left there instead of taking care
ofsoldiers, American soldiers, we
turned the hospital over to the German? prisoners of war.So
they all had to be treated, to be taught. So first the warden, the German
warden came in, and this other nurse who spoke German. I wrote the courses
and she gave the classes. I attended the classes. We gave the classes,
teaching the war men what they were supposed to do. Then German nurses
came in, and then I had to write another course, courses for them. This
other nurse told it in German and we had classes for them. Then the doctors
had to, and then the German doctors came in. They had to do the same thing.
They were all trained and were ready to take over the prisoner of war hospital.Well,
the prisoners of war were there for awhile. The funny thing was, one day,
some there were prisoners of war in the operating room and they said, _You
people are going to go up to Metz, France._ We didn’t know how in the world
they found it out, but later on they said, _No you are going to go up to
Frankfurt, Germany._ How they ever found out that's where we are going,
but that's what happened.The commanding
officer had gone to Metz. He had looked that over and he had about decided.
Then they had a chance to go on up to Frankfurt, Germany and it was a beautiful
hospital that we took over in Frankfurt.Then
later, we went up by train.It was
about a three hundred mile trip and it took us five days on the train to
get there.
DA:How
long were you at your post in Carentan, France?
Reynolds:We
got up in the first of October, the last of September and we left in,I
think it was the last of April. Itwas
about the last couple days of April because the war ended in England, I
mean in France, and Germany in May.Ithink
it was about the 5th or 6th and we were in thehospital
when the war ended in Germany.
DA:So
you stayed at that one hospital during your whole tour in France?
Reynolds:The
whole total in Germany?
DA:Do
you know approximately when you arrived in France, the first of October
of what year?
Reynolds:I
believe, let me think ... it must have been 44.But
that may not be right, but I think it was 44.
DA:And
then you stayed through April of 45.
Reynolds:To
where?To Carentan?
DA:Yeah
Reynolds:Yeah
DA:Then
from there you went to Frankfurt, Germanyfrom
April until how long?
Reynolds:In
August, they wanted to send us to CBI which is China, Burma, India.So
we went back to Reims and waited for our orders there. While we were there
the war ended in CBI. The war ended so we didn’t have to go back up, but
we did have to set up a hospital again in northern France, at Soisonne.
DA:Can
you describe to us what a typical day would be in the hospital,inCarentan?
Reynolds:Ugh...
DA:What
time would you get up?
Reynolds:Let's
see, we had to be on duty at 7:00am orthe
people who worked days had to be on duty at 7:00am, so I guess then we
had to have breakfast before. I probably got up at 5:30 or 6:00am.We
had to be on duty at 10 minutes of 7:00.Then
I made rounds of these 19 wards. We had a lot of rain and a lot of mud
and I thought well, the nurses should have a break about 10:00 o'clock
and have coffee, andhave maybe
something else.So I finally got
permission from the C.O. for them to have that. So they would come down
to my office, little perimeter tent and they would get coffee from the
mess hall, and sometimes we would have rolls, or sometimes we would have
something else to go with it. They would always see that the wards would
be covered.One person or two people
would come at a time.
DA:So
yours was more of an administrative type of job.Did
you have any of the direct care of soldiers?
Reynolds:I
didn’t. Now there was a word that came from the chief nurse that this one
patient was complaining a lot.They
couldn't figure out why, so finally I went in there and went into this
one ward to find out.I asked him
what was the trouble. He gave me about a list of 17 different things, three
fourths of them that couldn't be taken care of.All
of the other patients that were up, were around there sitting and laughing
at all of the things that he said. Sometimes I would say, _ Now, you know
that we can’t take care of that,_ but I saw to it that about three things
were taken care of that day. Then everyday after that when I would make
rounds, why they would all collect around to see what he had to complain
about. After he left in England, I got a letter from him which was surprising.I
can’t remember what it was but it was something about appreciating and
I don’t know what.
NW:That'snice.
Reynolds:One
time when I was making rounds, it was raining.You
could always count on that it was raining.Some
of the patients that were up were sitting on a cot, up at the front and
there was a heating stove. They were pretending like there was a dog. Theysaid,
_Here FIFO ... here FIFO ... come on, come on, come on._They
were playing with that dog the morning long and finally, it was time for
them to go to the mess hall. They had to walk aboutthe
distance of about two blocks and they started out. Theygot
about half the way there and one of them said, _Oh,we
forgot FIFO!_ and here it was raining cats and dogs and one of them turned
around and went back calling FIFO... FIFO... finally, they got to the mess
hall with FIFO.
NW:What
were the living conditions like for you?
Reynolds:I
lived in a tent.We all... there
were eight of us in a tent.Everybody
lived in a tent.
NW:Okay.By
tent, do you mean my definition of a tent?Like
outside, like a regular tent?
Reynolds:Well,
it was a military tent.There were
eight of us that slept in it.Which
was, I mean,it wasn’t the kind
of a tent you tent out camping with.There
was a concrete floor.I think there
was a concrete floor.I don’t know
if there was a concrete floor or not. No, there wasn’t a concrete floor.It
was on a dirt floor.
NW:Okay.You
slept in cots?
Reynolds:Pardon?
NW:You
slept in cots?
Reynolds:We
slept in cots.
NW:Okay
Reynolds:There
was a little potbellied stove.When
they shipped them over, they would separate; one would fit down in the
other one. Each tent had a potbellied stove to keep warm.
NW:Okay.What
about recreation?What did you do
on your time off?Did you do anything?
Reynolds:Well,
let's see... we had Ping-Pong tables.We
always had a dance every weekend.We
did some reading and a lot of writing of letters. We were always glad to
get letters.Oh, and then there
were groups that had been over there a lot longer than we had been, not
hospitals, but various military outfits, and they liked to have parties.
They would have to come to the chief nurse and say they wanted so many
of the nurses to go to their party. So the chief nurse usually came to
me and asked me to get a certain number of people to go to a party.We
went in a military vehicle.We had
to go in one, all together, and come back in one.
NW:Who
would attend the dances and where would the dances have taken place that
you spoke of earlier?
Reynolds:Who
would attend them?
NW:Besides
the nurses.
Reynolds:Well,
the people that had them were G.I.'s. I remember one dance that they had,
it was in a barn. There was a post that went up in the middle of the barn
and there was a trough that went around it, some kind of a yolk. They would
have a horse go around with this thing that would go in the trough, and
it wouldsquash the grapes and things
to make wine.There were a lot of
interesting places where we had parties.
NW:Could
you tell us a little bit about the reaction of the male service men to
you, to the women nurses being there, if there was a reaction?Was
there any reaction?
Reynolds:They
showed respect.NW:They
did?Okay.
Reynolds:As
far as I was concerned. I think that most everybody felt that they showed
respect,and were appreciative.
NW:Good.
Reynolds:We
were all in the boat together. So everybody kind of worked together and
knew what it was.I know there was
one tent of nurses in our outfit, there were six or eight of them. They
were all really lovely people, but they would come off duty and then come
back to their tent and gripe. None of the rest of them did. Everybody else
participated in what was going on.Now
one time, when I was at Carentan, there was this chief nurse, asked me
if I would go with her and a couple of other people to Mont St. Michel.
She arranged my hours so I could go. We had a wonderful trip and every
once in awhile you could go off, something like that.
NW:You
stated earlier that you met your husband in Carentan, France?
Reynolds:No,
in Amarillo, Texas.
NW:Oh,
Amarillo, Texas. So when you were in Carentan, France you had already met
your husband and he was back in Amarillo?
Reynolds:He
was in Amarillo, and he tried to get out, and he tried to get out, and
never could get out in the whole war.He
had to help set up the military base in Amarillo.
NW:Okay.Was
it difficult for you then, to leave him in Amarillo and be in Carentan?
Was there any kind of emotional distress?
Reynolds:Well,
sure there was, except you kind of accepted it as it came along, cause
you just had to, that was all.If
you didn’t, you better not be there.
NW:What
about the difference, if you would see any difference, from the way that
you lived in Amarillo, Texas or in Indiana to the way you lived in Carentan?Was
there a big difference?Was there
a cultural difference?
Reynolds:Well,
of course ? we just associated with the military.Nowwe
had thereacross the field somebody
that lived ... a French woman. We could take our laundry over there and
she would do it.We had a French
woman come in and clean our tents ever so often, but you had to hide everything
because they would take whatever they could.They
weren’t really very clean.
NW:Okay
DA:Well,
that’s different.
NW:Right
Reynolds:I
had a permanent while I was in Carentan.
NW:A
hair permanent?
Reynolds:Yeah,
a hair permanent.They had these
machines that heated up.There was
no control on the heat and they put these aluminum ... these ammonia wrappers,
and then they would put the clamper on. They heated up real fast. There
was no control on the heat on your hair.The
man who did the permanent ... he had a comb, and he usually took your comb.
You took your shampoo because he used the same shampoo over and over until
the shampoo was gone. He had a comb and if you didn’t bring your comb with
you, he would first comb through your hair and then turn around and comb
the hair of the person behind.So
they weren’t as ... we might have been too clean, I don’t know, but they
weren’t clean enough.You needed
to strikea happy medium there some
place.
NW:Okay.How
did you feel knowing that you were responsible forwards
and the nurses?Were you stressed
by the maximum responsibility that you had by making sure that the soldiers
were taken care of in sense?I know
that you stately earlier that you really weren’t in direct contact with
them. You were more of administrative responsibilities.Was
that hard or difficult for you or did it come naturally?
Reynolds:Natural
I think.I mean it went kinda along
with what I had... I had enough experience before.Now
what was stressful, I did have to stand inspection. Greeted the inspectors
in a certain way and show them the wards, also the linens in the kitchen
and all of that stuff.
NW:Right....right.
DA:How
did the nurses react to you?
Reynolds:All
of us were really good friends.All
of us were.
DA:I
was going to ask this question later, but I will ask it now.Is
there any of the nurses that you bonded with over in France that you still
keep in contact with today?
Reynolds:Up
until last year.She was in San Antonio,
Texas.Now I did keep in touch with
some of them, for awhile, but you know that was over fiftyyears
ago.I should write again to this
one in San Antonio, Texas, but some how or the other you kind of let things
drop by the wayside.I kept in touch
with her up until the last couple of years.
DA:How
easy was it, do you think, to be in the military during the 1940's?
Reynolds:How
easy?
DA:Or
how difficult, being a woman in the military?
Reynolds:I
think there was a difference being an army nurse or being a WAC or a WAVE.See,
army nurses have been in the military for a long time.But
the WACS or the WAVEShave not been.Army
nurses have had strict training even in nurse’s training. So it wasn’t
that big of a difference in the chain, going into the military as it might
have been for a either the WACS or the WAVES because they hadn’t have any
kind ofexperience at all. That you
had to discipline yourself.Thatis
just my impression.
DA:Did
you have contact with WACS or WAVES?
Reynolds:Very
little.
DA:In
what you did have contact,do you
think that they had a more difficult time than the army nurses?In
their experiences?
Reynolds:You
mean the WACS and the WAVES?
DA:In
making the transition into nursing.
Reynolds:I
can’t say. Iwasn’t around them
enough to know.Now the only time
that I was around them,we were getting
ready to come back to the states. We had orders at Reims.We
were there for about a week and even then they were in a certain area and
we were in a certain area.I really
didn’t have much contact with them.
DA:Okay.I
was reading a report that said that over 200 army nurses were killed in
the line of duty.At any time were
you or your unit in danger because of the war?
Reynolds:We
could have been.We could have been
in danger coming across the ocean, but luckily, we were on a fast ship.
We zigzagged so that we couldn’t be picked up by a submarine.Then
one time, one night, the chief nurse and the commanding officer said for
us to turn off all of our lights because there was some Germans in the
area.When we went upto
Frankfurt we were ... well, we got a Battle Star for going up to Frankfurt.
You never knew when you were in danger and when you weren’t, but we all
felt pretty secure.
DA:Okay.So
you did not really experience the front line battle.
Reynolds:Just
the fellows that came back from the front line.
DA:Approximately
how far back do you think Carentan was from
End
of Tape 1, Side A
Beginning
of Tape 1, Side B
DA:This
is side two of tape one.I was talking
to Margo again. How far back was your unit from the main body?
Reynolds:Well,
I think the main fighting was probably in Brussels about that time, and
we were in Normandy, back in Normandy, in France.So,
I don’t know how far it is.Anyway,
that is about the distance. Then they proceeded to go on, the fighting
proceeded to go on up in Germany.
DA:Okay
N
W:I
have a question. The soldiers that you were taking care of, you said that
they were coming from the front line.Could
you tell us a little bit about that, about the condition of the soldiers,
maybe the mindsets of the soldiers?Did
you hear any stories about the front line?Being
around the people who were.
Reynolds:One
of the main complaints that we heard, they said, _There were radios all
over the front lines why can’twe
have radios back here._So, I was
invited, there was a group of us that was invited, to thisspecial
services group. They had radios and stuff.I
told them the dilemma that we were in.They
said, _ Well, I can get you a radio,then
all of the nineteen wards that you have, it can be hooked up to them, butit
took quite a whilefor him to get
it.I was about ready to, I thought,
I am fed up with this fella. [Laughter] I was about ready to not see him
anymore,but then he finally gave
it to us. It was a very, very sensitive radio, so that the people in our
special services said, _We know if we put this out here in about three
minutes the men will be fooling with this and then it wont work, so can
we put in the officers club._I said,
_You can do with it whatever you want._They
said, _We’ll take the one out of the officer’s club and use it for the
wards._Anyway, I think it was in
the officer’s club about five minutes and the officers started fooling
with it, soit didn’twork
and they did it three times. Finally, they took it out of the officer’s
club.
NW:What
about the physical conditions of the men that you took care of?
Reynolds:First,
they would go to a station hospital and they were treated there. Then they
were shipped back to us.Then from
there, they were either shipped back to England or else the United States.As
soon as they were able to go.
DA:You
said after you left France and you had your orders to go to Frankfurt....
What was like to go into Germany at the end of the war?
Reynolds:To
go into Germany?When we crossed
the Rhine, we were tied up there for one day, over a day, because there
was no bridge across the Rhine. The bridge had to be built.There
were trains waiting, and waiting, and waiting, to get across. Coming back,you
could always tell the French trains, because the Frenchmen had their wives
with them; why, I don’t know.I guess
they always took their wives with them.They
had the trains all decorated with flowers and everything, all over the
place. You could tell, there goes a Frenchmen, cause that is the way they
were.But one time we were in Germany
and we hadn’t gotten to Frankfurt yet. It was raining and there was a big
area that hadAmericans, but they
were all out in the rain and evenoutside,
they had seats for toilets.They
were just out exposed to everything and they were going to the toilets
and so on, it was really a sad situation. I don_ t know exactly, it was
a prison place.And let’s see...What
else did we see?When we got to
Frankfurt, the hospital that we took over at that time was one of the most
beautiful hospitals you could have wished for.It
was a beautiful hospital.It had
been just built for the Luftwaffe, whichwas
the Air Force, but there was one area that had been bombed. It was not
supposed to have been bombed. The English, and the French, and the Americans
had decided that it would not be bombed, but one of them made a mistake
and bombed one end of it. It was shaped like a U. I was in my office one
day and I looked across and I saw this... it was a tree that was sticking
up on theroof of the building, cause
the building had not been completed to where they were repairing it. I
asked somebody what that was for, and they said, _Well, the Germans always
put a tree in the roof until the roof is completed, it is supposed to bring
good luck.
DA:Whatwere
the physical conditions of the country, when you all went in?
Reynolds:At
first, when we were first up there,it
was daylight up until almost ten o’clock.Mobs
and mobs of people were walking, walking, walking. They were coming back
to their... to their homes, I guess.I
wish I remembered that better.We
were just amazed at the number of people. They also had an area outside
of the city where they could go and work until a certain time, andplant
gardens. They were all of them going out there they were always busy.It
was such a big contrast between the French and the Germans, because the
Germans were so busy and so thorough and the Frenchmen were lazy. They
liked talking more and so on.
DA:How
was the supplies in France and in Germany for the nurses, as far as, like
medical equipment, medicines, bandages?
Reynolds:How
did we get them?
DA:How
did you get them and was there enough?
Reynolds:I
never heard that there weren’t, so I guess there were.
DA:So,
you never struggled to get supplies?
Reynolds:Not
that I know of.
DA:Okay
Reynolds:Of
course there was a lot that goes in hospitals that you don’t know.
DA:Okay.I
was just wondering, there in Germany if you had access to supplies or....
Reynolds:One
of the things, when we were teaching the German prisoners of war to take
over the hospital, our thermometers are about the size of a small pencil.
That was one of the hardest jobs teaching those Germans ... how to read
a thermometer. After we got to Frankfurt, Germany, we found some thermometers
that they had and they were flat. They were about that wide, with great
big numbers on them and you could read them. It was so hard to teach the
prisoners of war to turn it a little bit and then you could get that.
DA:How
did the German people react to you as an American or to the Americans being
over there?
Reynolds:Actually,
see it was right at the end of the war. We were there three days before
the war ended.This was back in Frankfurt.The
warwas in Berlin.We
had people coming in and working in the hospital. The women that come in
and cleaned our rooms, they were so unhappy if they couldn’t get every
job done.They worked so hard and
the chief nurse would say for them to go on home, they didn’t want to go
home until the job was done.They
were wonderful workers.And they
had a good attitude.
DA:So
you don’t think there was any animosity?
Reynolds:Oh,
I am sure there was.
DA:But
you didn’t....
Reynolds:Well,
when I first went up there, I was in charge of this.... there were eighty?
six on this ward and it was emergency, accidental gun shotwounds,
and burns. One day, we received seventeen fellows that had accidental gun
shot wounds.You’d say how did you
get this?_Oh, a Fraulein and I were
out fooling around and she pointed a gun at me and shot me._Now
what exactly, what it was I don’t know. Whether she didn’t know that there
was ... it was loaded, I don’t know exactly,but
this was not unusual for this to happen day after day. So whether the GI's
were going out with the Frauleinby
that time ... What the feeling was I don’t know.They
could go into town.The hospital
could go into town and get the people to come out and finish out the roof
and the work that needed to be done.
D
A:Could
you describe to us the living conditions you seen in France and Germany?The
local people ... What their living conditions were like?
Reynolds:Well
now, in Carentan, France, it was more like it was kinda a country area.Carentan
itself was a town.See, we were outside
of the town.There were farmers around
and there weresomehouses,
were pretty old. Some of them were...but
they did keep their places clean. Even the French kept their places clean,
the ones that we saw.It was pretty
country side.There were a lot of
hedgerows.
DA:Did
you get to try the French and German food?
Reynolds:Not
an awful lot.Actually we were restricted,
becausethey used human fertilizer
for fertilizing the soil. Since we had not grown up into that kind of living,
we were more exposed to ... We had more of a chance of picking up something.So
we were not supposed to go to theoutside
but people did.People did, but
we weren’t supposed to.
DA:That’s
interesting.What did you think about
the German and French culture when you were over there?Was
there anything that really struck you?
Reynolds:We
weren’t thrown with them too much.In
France, we were there at Christmas time and there were a group of little
French children. They came around and sang Christmas carols. We sang Christmas
carols back to them, which we appreciated.But
we weren’t really thrown with them too much, we were some.We
saw the French people, they always wore black.The
French people always said, you could always tell the American nurses because
they always looked scrubbed.But
we weren’t thrown with them an awful lot.
DA:What
did you like about being over in Europe?Was
there anything?
Reynolds:It
was wonderful.Ifthere
hadn’t been a war, it was really a wonderful experience, and I enjoyed
it.I was ready to come back.Actually,
there were several of us and they asked if we wouldn’t stay on. We would
get a promotion and so on, but we were all just ready to come back.But
it was a good experience.
DA:Did
you bring home any souvenirs?
REYNOLDS:Yes
I did, but I don’t have any.I gave
them to my daughter who lives in Atlanta.I
don’t think I have any.
DA:What
were you able to bring back?
REYNOLDS:Well
let me think.I couldn’t bring back
an awful lot.I tell you, I did bring
back ... It was Chanel, you know perfume and Platine.I
forgot what the other was, there were three of them.I
brought a little of that back.I
can’t remember what I brought back.I
brought back presents for the .... I brought back some jewelry.In
fact, that was a beautiful thing that I got in Brussels.Thenecklace
it was like a lov?a?lier.I gave
that to my granddaughter.
DA:You
were in Brussels also?
Reynolds:Well,
I was in Brussels on leave.I was
in Brussels on leave and in Switzerland on leave. At the end of the war
they didn’t like for people to stay around idle, so they made arrangements
for them to go on leaves. Then we were allowed to go on leaves a little
bit during the war.
DA:Did
anything neat happen to you when you were on leave? What was some things
that you got to see?
Reynolds:Well,
I got to Paris a couple of times. I went to Mont St. Michel. I went to
Nancy, France. I went to Brussels. I went to Switzerland, that’s quite
a few.
DA:Yeah,
yeah that sounds pretty good.Did
you make friends with any of the local people?I
know that you said that you kind of were kept in your unit, did you meet
any friends?
Reynolds:We
didn’t have a chance to, except we always enjoyed going over and talking
with the lady that did our laundry.A
lot of the places in that area we had to be careful where we walked, cause
there was still land mines that were planted. There was a lot of stuffthat
was still there from World War I.
DA:Like
what?
Reynolds:Land
mines that were planted. The French were just slow in cleaning up things.
The French were different people than the Germans, and the Swiss.
DA:Could
you contrast some differences there?
Reynolds:All
you had to do was go across the line and you could tell the difference.
DA:How
so?
Reynolds:Things
were clean across the line.If you
go into Switzerland, they were just spotless and go into Germany and they
were spotless, in France they were not.One
way you could tell, by their restrooms.Somebody
could write a book on the restrooms over there.The
farther east you go in Europe the more you could write a book on the restroom
conditions there.
DA:I
was wanting to ask you a question. You said you received the Battle Star.
Reynolds:One
Battle Star.
DA:One
Battle Star?Was there any other
medals that you received while you were over there?
Reynolds:Well,
we received what was called a toilet seat on your sleeve, because that
was when we were in the hospital that was picked first to go, because we
had won in Normandy. That contest that I mentioned before.Let’s
see, then of course, we got every year that we were in the service, we
got a marking. Every year we were overseas we got another thing, I don’t
remember .
DA:What
was your reaction when you heard that the war was over?
Reynolds:Well,
you mean the war with the Germans or...
DA:The
war with the Germans.
Reynolds:Well,
when we got up to Frankfurt, Germany, the first thing that we did was to
scrub the hospital.We scrubbed
the beds and everything else and we were scrubbing the beds and it came
over the loud speaker that the war had ended in Germany and we made a few
comments and then went on scrubbing beds. [Laughter]
DA:What
was the reaction of the soldiers in the hospital?
Reynolds:We
didn’t have any patients in it yet.
DA:Oh.
Okay.What was the reaction of the
locals, theGerman people that they
heardthe war was over?
Reynolds:We
weren’t around them at that time.We
didn’t know.But I think everybody
was glad to hear it.
DA:So,
once the war had been officially over.... then you were in Frankfurt, correct?
Reynolds:Yes
DA:Okay.
What happened say from Frankfurt then on, while you were overseas?
Reynolds:You
mean after we left Frankfurt?
DA:Yes,
how long were you in Frankfurt?
Reynolds:We
were in from the last of April to ... I think it was about the middle of
August, cause I think the war ended towards the end of August with the
CBI. Anyway, we had received orders to come back to Reims, France to wait
for orders to go to the CBI and do you know what CBI is?China,
Burma, and India.We weren’t looking
forward to that. We didn’t sit around and moan about it though.
DA:How
so?
Reynolds:How
so what?That we didn’t sit around
and moan about it?
DA:That
you weren’t anxious to go to China, Burma, and India.
Reynolds:That
would have been really rough.That
was a really rough assignment and that was where a lot of the rough war
was going on at that time.We felt
like we were ready to come back to the United States, but anyway, the war
ended so we had a celebration. Then we got orders to go and set up another
hospital in Soisonne to take care of the GI's. The GI's that had developed
venereal diseases andhad to all
be cared for before we could send them back.So
we weren’t happy about that either. [Laughter]
DA:Okay.So
then from August when you left, how long were you overseas?
Reynolds:It
was the latter part of August that we left Reims. We went up to Soisonne
and there were three of us, they were sending people out on points. There
were three of us nurses that had higher points than the rest of them. So
they took us by jeep to Metz to join another outfit that was coming back.We
were there for a few days and then we went up to wait for a ship to bring
us back to the States.
DA:So
from August, how long did it take you to get back to the U.S.?
Reynolds:I
was on the ship on Thanksgiving. We had thought of all of these foods that
we were going to eat in the United States when we got back. [Laughter]
DA:Okay.So
then somewhere in November you got back to the United States?
Reynolds:It
was right at the last because we were ... I think our first day over there
off the ship was Thanksgiving Day.We
had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day.
DA:Where
did you go to in the United States?
Reynolds:We
landed in New York. It was about two or three o’clock in the morning. They
picked us up on a bus and took us to, I think, it was Ft. Dix. Seems to
me it was Ft. Dix.Then they served
us some scrambled eggs and something, and told us we could have one long
distance call free, the next morning.
DA:Who
did you call?
Reynolds:Well,
the funny thing is after I had left the outfit, the 180th General. No,
just before I left, I got a letter from my mother and she said, _We are
moving._ She didn’t say where they were going and that was the last I heard
of her until I got back to the States again.I
wasn’t sure, so I finally called my sister and they were down here in New
Albany.So when mother answered
the phone she said,_Where in the
world have you been?_ [Laughter]I
thought to myself,she knows I’ve
been over here for a year and a half, but they kept announcing groups of
people that would come back. They said the people from the 90th General,
the officers from the 90th General had arrived two weeks before I got there.
Those were the male officers, they didn’t say anything about the nurses.
So anyway, she was waiting for two weeks wondering why we hadn’t landed.
DA:You
said something that I wanted to ask you.You
were talking about points, what was a point and how did you get them?
Reynolds:You
got so many points for the certain length of time you were in, and you
get so many points for being in Europe, being overseas, and for how long
you were over there. I don’t remember anything else, but there were so
many points and I had. In the 180th General, I had been in as a nurse a
lot longer than most of anyone else.
DA:Do
you know how many points you had personally?
Reynolds:I
don’t remember.
DA:How
many points it took to get out first? What the magic number was? [Laughter]
Reynolds:I
just know the three of us had more points.
DA:Okay.
So then when did you get decommissioned, once you come back to Ft. Dix?
Reynolds:I
had a lot of leave coming to me. I got a letter saying that I had been
promoted to Captain by that time. I think it was in January, finally that
my leave was up.
DA:January
of 1946?
Reynolds:Yeah,
_46' or _45' ... _46' or _45' ... it must have been _45'.
DA:Where
did you go after you were out of the Army?
Reynolds:Well,
I came here to New Albany, that is where my folkswere
and my sister was here.I stayed
here and then I got a job in the VA Hospital in Dayton, Ohio, but I didn’t
like it.So I went intoPsychiatric
nursing at an institute in Connecticut...a couple of years.
NW:What
about your husband, he wasn’t your husband at this time, correct?
Reynolds:We
didn’t get married until after the War was over.
NW:Okay.So
the whole time you were in Carentan and also in Frankfurt you were courting?Is
that correct, you were together but not married?
Reynolds:But
we weren’t even together because he was in Texas and I was....
NW:Right,
so when you came back to New York and then to New Albany.... When did he
come into play?
Reynolds:Let’s
see, I think I called him after I got back to the States.Then
I remember his calling me this one time, and how our lines ever crossed,
when I was in Dayton at the VA Hospital. Our lines crossed luckily and
we talked then, but I had talked to him before then. I don’t remember.
NW:Okay.
When did you all get married and where did you live together?
Reynolds:
We got married in _48', so it was after he got out. He got out after I
did. He was in the service longer than I was.
DA:Did
you all write letters during this time?
Reynolds:Yes,
he wasn’t a very good letterwriter,
I mean, he wrote a good letter but he didn’t write as often as I had liked
for him to.
NW:Do
you feel that being a nurse in the World War II changed your perspective
on life or did it have any dramatic changes on you?
Reynolds:Oh,
I think that it did.
NW:Any
that you can think of?
Reynolds:I
think one of the things I was most thankful for was living in a tent hospital,
because you could find out you could live with people, and get along with
them and enjoy them. You didn’t need a lot of material things.I
think that is the most outstanding thing, but people really got along.
They tried to get along, and they enjoyed each other.
NW:What
about anything negative? The con?side, do you regret anything, shall I
say?
Reynolds:I
don’t think so.I think you make
up your mind. It may be wrong, or it may be right, but at the time you
think you are doing what you think is right.So,
I don’t think so.
NW:What
do feel was your biggest contribution to the War effort?
Reynolds:[Laughter]
I don’t know, I guess it was just going along and enjoying the experience,
but thinking it was a terrible thing, but you might as well make good thing
out of it. If you’re going to do, whatever you’re going to do.
NW:Do
you have anything that you would like to talk about that we haven’t asked
you?Or any comments that you would
like to make, or any questions of either one of us that you would like
to have stated on record?
Reynolds:There
were just a lot of interesting experiences that we had. It was a great
experience.Now Ill tell you, there
were officers that joined our outfit that had been over there for three
years, or more, and you could tell it was really draining on them. The
worst thing was, we didn’t know how long it was going to go on.Everybody
wanted to get back home.There were
some great people that I remember. I remember the Doctor particularly,
he was so ... When he joined our outfit, he had been over for three years.
You could tell that there was a certain amount of bitterness except he
wasn’t a bitter person.When they
had been in England, he had met a nurse in England. They were keeping correspondence.
He was married back in the States, and his wife, I think, shewas
probably not a very understanding person.When
we got up to Frankfurt, he wanted so badly to go back to the States. One
night he had, a little too much to drink and he wrote a letter to his wife
and a letter to his girlfriend, this friend in England. He switched the
letters.Then it was shortly after
that, he was wanting so badly to go home and he got the orders, and then
he didn’t know if he wanted to go or not. [Laughter]I
saw him afterwards. Hiswife was
not a really, an outgoing person but they were back together again.
DA:You
said that you had a lot of neat experiences over there.Would
you like to share any of those?
Reynolds:Well,
let’s seeifI
can think of any... [Pause]Mostly
it was dances and where we went, there were really interesting places.
End
of Tape 1
Beginning
of Tape 2, Side A
NW:This
is tape two side one, finishing with Margo...
Reynolds:We
went up to Kronberg Castle. There were several parties up there, which
was quite an interesting place.I
think it has been mentioned in history several times since then.We
went to parties at S.C.A.F.E.Headquarters.Actually,when
we went up to Frankfurt that was mainly what we were supposed to take care
of.We also had what was called an
open mess, which was people pulling ones from the front line.They
would stop for meals and you would go in the dining room one day,and
you had no idea who you were going to bump into.There
would always be someone in there that you had known someplace else.One
time there was somebody that was outside of my... there were four or six
of us living in a room. Somebody was outside and they said, _Is there anybody
here that used to be at Amarillo, Texas?_They
said,_Well yes,MargoReynolds,
or MargoRice_ at that time.So
he came in and I saw him.He looked
as if he was about fourteen or fifteen, but he was a little bit older than
that.He said, _Do you remember how
scared I was to come overseas?I
got you to write my mother so you could tell her that you thought I was
doingwell, and that I was going
to get an advancement one of these days and so on.__During
the Battle of the Bulge, I was in the midst of it, and there was a woman
that was having a baby and I had to deliver the baby._ [Laughter]He
said, _I found out that there were a lot of things that I could do that
I didn't think that I could do._
DA:Just
one last question... If there would be anything that you would like people
to know about what your generation did over there, what would it be?What
would you like to leave to people?
Reynolds:I
would like to leave this: The people in the military are getting a lot
of credit for what they did, but, I think that the people that stayed here
in the States had just as hard a time as the people in the military.I
think they should be remembered too.They
had to do without a lot of things that we didn't have to do without.They
didn’t know where we were,they didn’t
know what was going on, and there was a lot in their minds because they
didn’t know what was going on.And
I think they need to be remembered too.
DA:Well,
thank you, Ms. Reynolds, we really appreciate your time and we hope that
we do a good job in transcribing this for you. [Laughter]
Reynolds:I
hope that it turns out all right.
DA:It
will, thank you.
End
of Interview