What question can you pose to a Nurse from WWII?

It was very difficult to watch our beloved chaplain, Fr. Weilandt (wee-lun) die of severe burns. He had been walking on the officer's upper deck, saying his prayers when the kamikaze stuck. He was above the red cross and fell into the fire and then the explosion when the gas tank blew. He lived for three days. I visited with him the moment I went off duty, as many nurses did. He was bandaged from head to toe and the only thing anyone heard him say was "Forgive them." We Catholic nurses had already wanted to write to Rome and recommend Fr. Weilandt for sainthood. He was a very special man. And to see this man, of all persons, suffering so, was very, very difficult. We did not want Fr. to die, but his passing brought peace and relief to him. I have thought about him often ever since and have visited a number of times the California mission he was stationed at, San Miguel.

I was an OR Nurse. I had just come on duty receiving patients into the recovery ward from surgery which is where the kamikaze stuck. He aimed for the red cross amidships which is where the surgery was. I was very close to the initial strike, but the explosion of the plane's gas tank threw me hard 20' into the corner where the deck and bulkhead met. I wouldn't have survived, but I had just drawn a syringe of penicillin which the boys got every 4 hours. On the other side of the wall from my medicine cabinet was an elevator and shaft that protected all of us in recovery from further harm. I never understood how the large O2 tank didn't get knocked over. Had it, our ward would have been gone, too.

I hurt my back, leg and shoulder, but all around me was carnage. I could still get around, limping. Our medical doctors had all been killed except for the eye doctor and one other surgeon who now had to make up for the three surgeons who were lost. I made me way to sick bay after my shift, but the line was long of people who were in terrible shape, and I couldn't stand without pain, so I went back to my stateroom and hoped to just sleep it all off. My back and knee have never been the same. I was quite athletic before the war, but was not able to do things I loved after that.

I lost my hearing for 12 hours. I could hear the abandon ship call but the horn was right next to me and loud enough for everyone to hear in the ophthalmology clinic across from us and the ORs. It was loud. My corpsman helped pick me up and placed me in my nurse's chair. I ordered him to bring stretchers to off-board the patients. He was saying something I could not hear, gesturing wildly. Finally I asked him to write it down. He wrote, "Follow me." He helped me limp to the hatch and when I looked out there was nothing but carnage: twisted metal, smoke, flames. The Comfort was ruined. There was no clear way to get the patients to the decks and lifeboats. We were caged in. He helped me back to my chair where I sat next to a young man whose face was mostly missing. He was on oxygen which is why he was next to the nurses station so we could keep an eye on him. I knew he knew he wasn't getting off the ship. Since I was wounded: my body ached, my head was terribly foggy and I couldn't hear, and because I knew we simply did not have enough lifeboats, I held the man's hand and let him know that I would stay with him. We would go down together.

I did not hear the abandon ship cancellation and thought for a few hours that it was the end for us. You knew in the war that when you met someone of an afternoon, they might not still be there in the evening. I lived on the Comfort from her commission and we made beach heads many times. Other ships I was on, as well, were in enemy territory. One time we had to take our shoes off, lie on our bunks fully clothed, close our curtains and not move or say anything for over 12 hours. I could tell by the sideways movement of the ship that we were approaching a dock. We were there in silence for a long time. The patients were not in a line waiting for us. We were a ship for the shellshocked mentally ill and the noise was deafening most of the time. They must have sedated any patients who were coming onboard to maintain strict silence and blackout. That was on the Monticello which crossed the Pacific on a far southern route. We must have been very far south because it was so cold we had to put our jackets on. That trip was the most difficult time I had in WW2, even worse than the Comfort bombing. I will write about that if people are interested.

I remained in the nurse's chair for the rest of my shift, feeling terrible. I didn't hear the cancellation of the abandon ship call until my wardman wrote it down to tell me. I was on the commissioning of the USS Comfort in San Pedro and from the first time we boarded her long before her maiden voyage, we nurses knew there wouldn't be enough lifeboats if we were full of patients. In Okinawa we loaded more than capacity and soldiers were being treating in the passageways. That was due to our wonderful Chief Surgeon, Major Erickson, whom we all admired for his dedication to saving lives. Maj. Erickson, when we were loaded with injured, simply did not take a break when there was someone else to be treated. He worked 12 hours, took a 2 hour nap and was back at it, day-after-day. There were ambulances bring injured as far as the eye could see in Okinawa where ships would go down on either side of us while we were docked in convoy. It was a terrifying time, but we were there to help the boys win the war and we were all glad to be there.

Thank you for your detailed and eloquent response, my friend 1LT Doris (Gardner) Howard I am thankful you survived that horrific event and were able to help so many service members - even while you were recovering form the impact of the kamikaze strike as you help the an whose face was mostly missing until he passed away, I expect.
I am glad you are with us on this network.
FYI CSM Charles Hayden CPT (Join to see) LTC Paul Labrador CPT Barbara Smith COL Mikel J. Burroughs SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SSG Leo Bell SSgt (Join to see)Kim Bolen RN CCM ACM SSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4"SSgt Robert Marx TSgt Joe C. SP5 Mark Kuzinski
LTC Stephen C. LTC Thomas Tennant MAJ Ken Landgren CW5 (Join to see) SGM David W. Carr LOM, DMSM MP SGT

FYI Sgt Joe LaBranche PO3 Steven Sherrill PO1 John Miller SPC Margaret Higgins

Hello Mackay. I was on five ships in the South Pacific: Lurline, Monterey, Etolin, Maetsuycker and I lived on the USS Comfort from before her commission to her coming home to San Pedro for repairs after we were hit by a kamikaze. There were many beachheads and places we landed in enemy territory where we were not told where we were so that if we were boarded by the enemy we couldn't tell them where we had been. We went up from Brisbane and all through the island chains. Port Moresby, New Guinea, Hollandia many times, Layete because we couldn't make it into Manila Bay, the fighting was so severe, so we came around the back way. We were. up in Japanese waters many times before we were hit alone at sea after boarding patients in Okinawa. There were many other places, Townsville and Enewetak come to mind.

I'm not sure what a lot of this means, but this was from my discharge, though I knew at the time it wasn't complete. They were in a hurry when they were honorably discharging 5 nurses through a SNAFU. None of us had wanted out at all, but we just had to live with it.

I think there's more.... ?

Holy cow!!!