CPT Lucy S. Libby Oral History Page 29

title:

CPT Lucy S. Libby Oral History Page 29

creator:

Libby, Lucy (Slade) (1921 - )

subject:

Army Nurse Corps

description:

Lucy Libby was born in 1921 in Danville, Virginia and grew up in Blanch, North Carolina. She grew up with three brothers and two sisters, and always wanted to be a nurse or missionary. Her father refused to let her be a missionary, so she went to Appalachian State Teachers’ College in Boone, North Carolina to prepare for Duke University’s nursing program. After two years there, she was accepted at Duke University and began there in the fall of 1939. She finished the program at Duke in the fall of 1942, and two weeks later she went to an Army recruiter with a friend to join the Army Nurse Corps. They were both assigned to Camp Davis, North Carolina and stayed together over the course of the war. After 18 months at Camp Davis, they asked for overseas duty because they wanted more of a challenge. They were stationed at Camp Forrest, Tennessee for four months before being sent to a unit in Florida preparing for overseas duty. They were assigned to the 176th Station Hospital and spent three weeks training for overseas in Florida, took a troop train to Seattle, Washington and did 5 more days of intensive training, then shipped off to Oahu, Hawaii. Wen the made it there, they were given the option to stay in Hawaii or go further out into the Pacific theater, and she chose the latter. They had ten more days of training before getting on a ship to Saipan. When they arrived, they were assigned to a station hospital while their actual hospital was being constructed. Her unit was assigned to take care of the Korean people who were found around the island who had been left behind by the Japanese, many of whom died of starvation from the conditions they were forced to live and work in by the Japanese. After six weeks their hospital was completed, and Libby was promoted to first lieutenant, serving as a nursing supervisor. During the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, their 500-bed hospital was forced to care for double their capacity of patients. She was still in Saipan when the war ended, and was the maid of honor for her friend who got married on Saipan between the end of the war and their return to the States. Libby elected to stay in the Pacific, moving to a general hospital in Guam to be the assistant chief nurse. She loved her time there, but was ordered to return to the United States after four months. Her final assignment was at Walter Reed Medical Center, and she was discharged in 1946. When she left the service Libby had reached the rank of captain, and for her service she was awarded an American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with one Bronze Battle Star, Army of Occupation – Japan, World War II Victory Medal, and Army Good Conduct Medal.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Cataldo, Christine Ann West

date:

2004-12

type:

File

format:

CD

identifier:

568; 2005.568

source:

VHP | CLIR - Recordings at Risk

language:

English

relation:

054381

coverage:

World War II (1939-1945)

rights:

Unrestricted