COL Peggy Jane Newman, ANC USA Ret. Oral History

title:

COL Peggy Jane Newman, ANC USA Ret. Oral History

creator:

Newman, Peggy Jane (Farley) (1941 September 9 - )

subject:

Army Nurse Corps

description:

Peggy Jane Newman was born on September 9, 1941 in Glen Gardner, New Jersey. She attended Huntington Regional High School, graduating in 1959 and going to nursing school at Mount Sinai in New York City. She went into nursing because her father was disabled and she grew up caring for him. Her family was patriotic but didn’t have a history of service, which changed when her brother was drafted and served in the honor guard. In the last year of nursing school, Army, Navy, and Air Force recruiters visited the school and she became really excited about joining, but chose to delay. She became a public health nurse in Rensselaer County, New York for one year, and got a public nursing certificate from the University of Colorado over the next year. She joined the Army Nurse Corps in August of 1967 as the Vietnam War was heating up. She did basic training at Fort Sam Houston in Texas. Although she wanted to go to Vietnam, the Army had more need in Japan, so she was sent to Camp Zama in Yokohama to get to her assignment as a staff nurse. She was assigned to the burn unit in Kishini at the 106th General Hospital. The hospital received patients from Vietnam sometimes within 12 to 24 hours of injury. To her, the burn unit was one of the most emotional and depressing units in the hospital, but found that all the patients and nurses did their best to help pick each other up. In 1970, she was sent back to Camp Zama after the Kishini Barracks hospital shut down. She requested to go to Europe, and was assigned as the Head Nurse at the 45th Field Hospital in Vicenza, Italy. She met her husband in Italy and they got married in Fort Sill, Oklahoma in 1972 after she assigned there as head nurse. While an evening and night supervisor nurse at Fort Sill (Reynolds Army Hospital) and then at Fort Ord (Silas B Hayes Army Hospital in California), she applied and was accepted to the masters in nursing program at the University of Alabama. After receiving her degree in 1981, she went to the Medical Center in Frankfurt, Germany as the Chief of the Health Clinics Nursing Section. In 1985, she returned to the United States to become the Assistant Chief of the Department of Nursing at Winn Army Community Hospital, Fort Stewart, Georgia. In 1987, she became Chief of Ambulatory Care Nursing Services at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC. In 1990, she became Chief Nurse at US Army Hospital (130th Station Hospital) in Heidelberg, Germany. During Desert Storm, she worked to prep the 130th for any emergency patients, but the hospital was not needed. Newman retired in 1994 with the rank of colonel. For her service she was awarded a Legion of Merit, Meritorious Service Medal with 3 oak leaf clusters, Army Commendation Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Army Overseas Service Ribbon with 3 numerals, and Army Meritorious Unit Commendation. A transcript of this interview is available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Scott, Kate M.

date:

2004-11-02

type:

Audio

format:

CD

identifier:

692; 2003.692

source:

CLIR - Recordings at Risk

language:

English

relation:

306438

coverage:

Vietnam War (1964-1975) |Operation Desert Storm—1990-1991 | 1968-94

rights:

Unrestricted