May 19, 2004
Care amid combat
Lorraine Hamilton served as an Army nurse during World War II
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Lorraine Hamilton served her country during World War II in a way that receives little recognition: as an Army nurse.
The Cheboygan native trained as a student nurse at the residential Traverse City State Hospital School of Nursing. Growing up during the Great Depression, she was drawn to the profession because of the financial stability and the nursing care she witnessed during a brother's extended illness.
When World War II broke out during the middle of the four-year program, she decided to enlist upon graduation.
In fact, out of the 18 student nurses in Hamilton's class of 1943, 14 enlisted as Army nurses. It was a patriotic time, she recalls, and she still has a write-up about the group enlistment of these first lieutenants from a Traverse City Record-Eagle dated March 19, 1943.
"We chose as our colors for our class red, white and blue," she said. "One of the girls served in Africa, another in Italy and another was a Navy nurse on a ship; we all went to different postings."
According to an Army historical document available on their website, the Army Nurse Corps consisted of 1,000 nurses on December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor Day. With the United States' instant commitment to the two theaters of World War II, the need for nurses skyrocketed overnight. Nurses like Hamilton enlisted in droves, both veteran nurses and fresh graduates. In addition, between 1943 and 1948, the Army paid for the training of nurses.
By the war's end in 1945, more than 59,000 nurses served in field hospitals, evacuation hospitals, on hospital ships or train ships and as flight nurses on planes transporting wounded servicemen. Sixty-seven nurses were prisoners of war and 201 nurses died during the war.
The contribution of the Army Nurse Corps is reflected in the post-injury fatality statistics: fewer than four percent of injured serviceman died because of their injuries or treatment after receiving medical care or being evacuated.
For Hamilton, the human gratitude of the patients she personally helped speaks volumes.
"These young kids were like your brothers, they were very grateful for the care they got," recalled Hamilton, who also had two brothers serving during the war. "It was very rewarding."
Hamilton worked and trained at various Army bases around the United States, including ones in South Carolina, Atlanta and California. In the spring of 1944, her unit was sent to England, arriving just after the D-Day invasion of France. She worked in an orthopedic field hospital 60 miles from London for 11 months.
Hamilton mainly worked as an operating room nurse there, occasionally assisting with patient care. She said the first week was quiet, then the wounded American soldiers from France came flooding in.
"The first day we got 150 patients, the second day 250 patients and the third day 350 patients," she said. "We were a 1,000-bed hospital and we filled up."
"It was a great time, penicillin had just come in and we were able to give antibiotics," she added of the medical breakthroughs of the era. "We gave it by injection every three hours and by the time we gave our injections to the patients, it was time to start all over again."
After V-E Day in Europe, Hamilton returned to the United States with her unit and other troops on the Queen Elizabeth. She and her friends managed to tuck a little sightseeing in before leaving England but she said she never really explored the country.
Hamilton enlisted for another year and served in a Pennsylvania Army facility before mustering out and returning to Traverse City.
"I chose to come back to Traverse City because I had signed a leave of absence with Munson and I knew the doctors and the set up," recalled Hamilton. "I worked at Munson for a short time and then at Thirlby Clinic with Dr. Thirlby for seven years."
She later married her husband, Bob, who taught in the Traverse City Area Public Schools for years. While raising four children, Hamilton occasionally worked in various facets of nursing, including private duty. She terms it a very satisfying career.
"Nursing is a great profession for a caring woman," she said.