CPT Annie Eudelle Garner Oral History Part 1

title:

CPT Annie Eudelle Garner Oral History Part 1

creator:

Garner, Annie Eudelle (Parker) (1916 April 10 - )

subject:

Army Nurse Corps

description:

Part 1 of 8. Annie E. Garner (formerly Parker) was born on April 10, 1916 in Wayne County, North Carolina. Her mother died when her youngest sister was born, so she grew up with their aunt near Mount Olive and graduated from Mount Olive High School. She wanted to go to college but only would’ve been able to if her mother was still alive, so she went into nursing. She spent three years at the James Walker Memorial Hospital School of Nursing in Wilmington, North Carolina. After graduating, she worked briefly in private nursing before moving to Kinston, where she worked for around a year. She then joined the Army Nurse Corps with another woman from Wilmington in 1940. She was stationed at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, and the 2,000-bed hospital was finished after their arrival. She spent three and a half years in the orthopedic ward, as well as some time in the psychiatric ward. Since this was one of the larger training grounds in the United States at the time, Garner often wonders what happened to the people the treated, and how many of them survived the war. Part 2 of _ interviews with Annie E. Garner (formerly Parker) of the Army Nurse Corps. In the second part of the interview, she remembers two of the nurses at the camp who died by suicide. She was serving in the orthopedic ward when Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941. She was given the option to take a course to become chief nurse, but she turned it down because she liked working directly with the patients. They worked 12 hour shifts, 7 days a week. Camp Shelby also had German prisoners of war, who the nurses were told not to talk to or otherwise interact with. She was surprised at how much the American men were willing to help the Germans and the other way around when in the hospital, later writing a sociology paper on the topic. She found little difference between her civilian and Army nursing experiences, because she was always confident that she knew what she was meant to be doing. Part 3 of _ interviews with Annie E. Garner (formerly Parker) of the Army Nurse Corps. She can’t say what she liked best of her service because she enjoyed her work immensely. Even at Moore General and Fort Belvoir, where she was stationed after Camp Shelby, when she felt less connected to her coworkers, she still enjoyed her work. After she left the service in 1947, she tried her hand at working in public health for eight months before applying to the University of North Carolina: Chapel Hill School of Public Health, making good use of the GI Bill. After getting her degree, she worked her way up to being the head of the nurses section and Vice President of the Public Health Association of Eastern North Carolina. Part 4 of _ interviews with Annie E. Garner (formerly Parker) of the Army Nurse Corps. She remembers returning home and her family treating her like nothing had changed, which she had a hard time adjusting to since she felt her service fundamentally changed her. She transferred from Camp Shelby to Moore General because her father was ill, and Moore was closer to home so she could see him more. She remembers many patients were men who had gotten home and to the separation center, only to have spots found on their lungs before their discharge. They would be sent to a military hospital for six months of treatment for their tuberculosis, a delay of their discharge that they were often unhappy about. She remained at Moore General until it was being closed down, so she requested Fort Belvoir, Virginia so she could still be close to her sick father. While still at Moore General, she treated two survivors of the Bataan Death March who had been told to dig their own graves but kept getting forced to do other labor instead of being immediately killed. She left the service in 1947 and worked in several different places for a few years before attending UNC Chapel Hill. After finishing her program there, she returned home and got married. She continued working in nursing and public health for decades. Garner left the service in 1947, having reached the rank of captain. For her service, she was awarded an American Defense Service Medal, American Campaign Medal, and World War II Victory Medal. No transcript of the interview is currently available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Wicher, Melanie Ann

date:

2006-05-09

type:

Audio

format:

CD

identifier:

327.01; 2006.327

source:

CLIR - Recordings at Risk

language:

English

relation:

318754

coverage:

World War II (1939-1945) | 1940-47

rights:

Unrestricted