They are charged with the
mission of undoing the damage of war. The process starts with corpsmen,
working along the front lines to treat the wounded, risking their
own lives in the process. It continues in the field hospitals and
then farther away from the battlefield, in the convalescent facilities,
staffed by tireless and resilient doctors and nurses. No job in
any hospital is preparation enough for the relentless task of dealing
with the wounded and dying of war. |

Ruth Deloris Buckley at the Army Nurse Corps Press Conference,
Paris, France (1945). |
RUTH
DELORIS BUCKLEY
Deloris
Buckley always seemed to be in the center of the
action wherever she went as a nurse working in the European
Theater of World War II. On the way from Africa to Italy,
her ship was sunk by a German bomber who ignored the giant
red crosses painted on the vessel's side and deck. Buckley
and her fellow nurses took to the lifeboats and were picked
up by a British destroyer. On a beach in Italy, another bomber
dropped his payload in effort to avoid a pursuing plane,
and Buckley was severely wounded by shrapnel. After convalescing,
she went right back into the fray, finishing out her service
in the relative calm of liberated France. |
Learn more about Ruth Deloris Buckley
Jump
to other stories featured in Chapter Three |
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"I
always wondered what kind of a feeling it would be to think
you are a goner; but I found I wasn't excited, or afraid,
or felt any unusual emotion." (October 3, 1943
letter, quoted in article, "Lt. Delores Buckley gave the girls
hysterics...")
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