2LT Jean Venable Normandin, RN Oral History Tape 2, Side A

title:

2LT Jean Venable Normandin, RN Oral History Tape 2, Side A

creator:

Normandin, Jean Venable (Moore) (1920 October 25 - )

subject:

Army Nurse Corps

description:

Tape 2 of 2, side 1 of 2. Jean Normandin (formerly Moore, born Venable) was born on October 25, 1920 in Little Rock, Arkansas and grew up with her mother in El Paso, Texas. Her father served in World War I and her mother was a student nurse during WWI until she marred Jean’s father. Her mother married again in Texas and they had a daughter, Jean’s half-sister, in 1928. Her step-father raised her like she was his own, and she entered the service with his last name: Moore. She graduated from El Paso High School, taking part in ROTC through all four years through the nearby Fort Bliss. She was always determined to become a nurse, so after completing high school she went to a nursing program at Hotel Die, Daughters of Charity, St. Vincent DePaul in El Paso for three years. One nun who she learned from in this program had served as a nurse in the Spanish American War and still received a pension for her service when Jean knew her. She also knew people at Pearl Harbor when it was attacked, and lost several friends on the Bataan Death March. She was doing private duty at a small Masonic hospital in El Paso when she joined the Army Nurse Corps in 1943. Her first station was at LaGarde General Hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana, and once she got there she immediately began volunteering for overseas duty. She knew she was going, slowly began selling things she wouldn’t need, and told her mother about her upcoming overseas assignment. She received her orders after Christmas, was given a week to visit her family, and shipped out from Boston, Massachusetts in January 1944. She met her future husband while boarding the ship as he called each nurse aboard, asking her to a dance that night after everyone was boarded. They landed in Liverpool, England and she went to Cirencester, England with the 94th General Hospital. They were put up in barracks for a few weeks as the hospital’s construction was completed, heading south towards Bristol when it was done. The hospital ended up having 3,000 beds, with only 75 nurses operating the whole thing. The whole 3,000-bed hospital was filled within three weeks of D-Day. Their hospital was visibly marked during the day but the red crosses were not visible at night, so bombs were often dropped near the hospital during night raids. Luckily, her hospital was never directly hit. Her husband managed to write her nearly every day, and she held onto those letters until he passed in 1957 from complications with severe wounds received while serving in the Korean War. They had two sons together, both of whom served in the Vietnam War and were diagnosed with colorectal cancer, likely from exposure to Agent Orange. They married in August 1944 in Bristol England, and Jean had to leave the service in October of that year because she had become pregnant with their first son. When she left the service Normandin had reached the rank of 2nd lieutenant, and for her service she was awarded an American Campaign Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, and World War II Victory Medal. A transcript of this interview is available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Scott, Kate M.

date:

2005-01-12

type:

Audio

format:

Cassette

identifier:

698.02; 2006.698

source:

CLIR - Recordings at Risk

language:

English

relation:

185483

coverage:

World War II (1939-1945) | 1943-45

rights:

Unrestricted