Barbara Brandon Palmer Oral History

title:

Barbara Brandon Palmer Oral History

creator:

Palmer, Barbara Brandon (1912 August 25 - )

subject:

American Red Cross

description:

Barbara B. Palmer (formerly Brandon) was born on August 25, 1912 in Indianapolis, Indiana. She went to the private, strict Tudor Hall all-girls high school, then attended Antioch University and Indiana University for two years each, graduating in 1933. After graduating college she knew she wanted to become a social worker, so she went to graduate school for one year, worked for two years at the Indianapolis Family Welfare Society, and later getting a master’s degree from the University of Chicago’s School of Social Work. From her graduation in 1938 until joining the war effort, she worked as a case worker at the Chicago Traveler’s Aid Society. In the summer of 1942, she heard that the American Red Cross was recruiting medical and psychiatric social workers to go overseas, so she applied and was accepted. She went to Washington, DC for an intense training to learn Red Cross policy administration and programs, and their relationship with the Army Medical and Nurse Corps. She was assigned to the 61st Station Hospital before training in Fort Hancock, New Jersey, and shipped out afterwards in a 22-ship convoy. They didn’t know where they were going when they shipped out, guessing that they might go to England to support the North African invasion. As the trip continued, they guessed from the weather they might be heading to the China-Burma-India theater, but they got to their destination far too soon to be there. They landed in the Port of Oran, Algeria and stayed there for a month before heading to the eastern border of Algiers to set up their hospital. She then moved to the 9th Station Hospital while the 61st was being constructed, and she served at the 9th during the Battle of Kasserine Pass. At some point in that battle, their commanding officer was told not to accept more casualties, they evacuated to a spot 30 miles away, and set up and accepted casualties again from there. Her main job at the hospital at that time was to secure and distribute comfort kits, or “Ditty Bags,” that were assembled and shipped from the US. She moved with the British First Army, which trapped the German forces between themselves and American forces moving from the East, meeting in Tunisia. Her hospital received many German prisoners, and at that point her primary job was as a censor of their mail, which she had to be creative about since she didn’t speak German. They then spent the summer in Tunis, and when the Army was preparing to move into Sicily, Italy she became the Director of what became the Regional Hospital Service, helping organize the arrival of personnel to staff military hospitals throughout Italy. She spent a month on Sicily, returned to Northern Africa, then went to Naples, Italy for about a year. Her work from that point on was entirely administrative. She was in Anzio for some time, and after the breakthrough there, their headquarters moved to Rome, and she served as Regional Hospital Service Supervisor there and in Florence and Verona. When the war in Europe ended, she stayed in Europe to close out administrative accounts and to prepare people and systems to go to the Pacific. In December 1945, after World War II ended, she returned to the States and left the service by March 1946. She joined the faculty of the School of Social Sciences at the University of Chicago and worked there for ten years, and continued working as an administrator in hospital settings until her retirement in 1976. When she left the service, Palmer had reached the equivalent of the rank of captain. A transcript of this interview is available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Cochran, Patricia

date:

1991-03-13

type:

Audio

format:

Cassette

identifier:

511; 1991.511

source:

NSCD | CLIR - Recordings at Risk

language:

English

relation:

541803

coverage:

World War II (1939-1945) | 1942-46

rights:

Unrestricted