CPT Dorothy Susie Thompson Oral History Tape 3, Side A

title:

CPT Dorothy Susie Thompson Oral History Tape 3, Side A

creator:

Thompson, Dorothy Susie (Davis) (1917 October 26 - )

subject:

Army Nurse Corps

description:

Tape 3 of 3, side 1 of 2. Dorothy S. D. Thompson (formerly Davis) was born on October 26,1917 in China, and spent the first 19 years of her life there, visiting the United States twice in that time. She went to the Shanghai American School, which had been developed by American missionaries and businesspeople. After graduating from there, she decided to go to the United States in April 1937 for college, attending Columbia University’s nursing school. Japan bombed Shanghai in October 1937, and she was scared her parents had been killed. They survived, and her father decided to start a business in Manila, Philippines since he was familiar with manufacturers in the area. Her mother and sister went there too, and so did she after her 1940 graduation. She got her license to work in the Philippines, but ended up working as a civil service nurse at Stenberg army General Hospital. As soon as she was accepted there, she applied to join the Army Nurse Corps. The United States, however, joined World War II before she ever heard back about her application. They were bombed in Manila very soon after Pearl Harbor was attacked, and the city was deemed an open city, which resulted in US troops withdrawing as Japanese troops arrived. She was still a civilian nurse when this happened, so she was chosen to stay in the hospital with the patients who didn’t get out. When they were captured, they were sent to Rizal Stadium to be registered before being sent to Santo Tomas. There, she found another doctor and they informally designated a room as a sort of doctor’s office, treating prisoners in the camp who were sick. Although Japanese guards continued forcing them from room to room for some time, they eventually set up a clinic in a building that had two wings, a lab, and a kitchen. She didn’t eat or sleep much in the camp, in part because of a lack of resources and in part because of how hard she was working in their clinic. Because of this, in late 1943, rheumatic fever she’d had in nursing school recurred, and her health became much worse. When doctors were told to select four internees to return in a prisoner exchange, she was selected due to this health scare and she returned to the United States after 2 years as a POW. They left the Philippines in September and landed in New York in December. As she was leaving the ship, she received orders to report to the Surgeon General’s office at the Pentagon. She found out she had been accepted into the Army Nurse Corps before, but hadn’t received the telegram informing her of it before the Japanese took the Philippines. After officially enlisting in January 1944, she received orders to the Pacific theater. She was on a hospital ship that docked at Tacloban on February 3, 1945 when the 1st Cavalry went into Santo Tomas, and worked as an operating room nurse as casualties were brought in. When she began serving in Santo Tomas she worked as hard as she had before, and once again had health problems emerge, this time leading to being air evacuated and receiving treatment in San Francisco, California. She met her husband while stationed at Fort McKinley in the Philippines, and they married in Manila. Her next station was away from her husband, so she decided to leave the Army Nurse Corps in 1949 to be with him in Korea. When she left the service Thompson had reached the rank of captain, and for her service she was awarded a Bronze Star Medal, American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, and World War II Victory Medal. A transcript of this interview is available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Weigand, Cindy

date:

2002-04-26

type:

Audio

format:

Cassette

identifier:

926.03; 2003.926

source:

CLIR - Recordings at Risk

language:

English

relation:

547168

coverage:

World War II (1939-1945) | 1944-49

rights:

Unrestricted