Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
5:37 | When Dorothy Managan was a nursing instructor at Fort Lewis, she was surprised one Sunday morning to find MP's milling about the church. There was a very important visitor for that morning's service. When the war ended, she was assigned to tend to returning American POW's. She considered it an honor.
Keywords : Dorothy Managan nurse Fort Lewis instructor Harry Truman church atomic bomb Prisoner Of War (POW)
Dorothy Managan was at nursing school when the news came about the attack on Pearl Harbor. That made her even more determined and, she joined the Cadet Nurse Corps while still at school.
It was early in 1945 when Dorothy Managan went to Fort Dix to begin her training for the US Army Nurse Corps. She enjoyed trips into New York City to see plays and musicals. The next stop was Fort Lewis, where they decided she was going to be an instructor for the newer recruits.
After the end of the war, Dorothy Managan decided to pursue a nursing degree instead of remaining in the US Army Nurse Corps. She hitched rides on Army planes to Fort Dix for her discharge, and then went back to college.
World War II took the lives of many, but Army nurse Dorothy Managan is confident that the medical care was as good as it could have been for the time. She recalls how that war united the country like never before or since.
