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Tech 5 Shirley Glassman, RN Oral History
Publication date: 24 July 2024
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title:
Tech 5 Shirley Glassman, RN Oral History
creator:
Glassman, Shirley (Leff) (1924 Ocotber 3 - )
subject:
Women's Army Corps (WAC)
description:
Shirley Glassman (formerly Leff) was born on October 3, 1924 in Passaic, New Jersey. She enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps in 1945 after they made a call for medical technicians, partially because she wanted to help them men and women who had been overseas and partially because her parents had no sons so she wanted to represent their family in the war effort. She went to basic training at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, and after completing that her first assignment was at Kennedy General Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. She worked on the clinical rather than administrative end, so she was among the people who took care of patients’ needs when nurses were doing things like passing out medication and dressing wounds. After V-E Day, Kennedy General Hospital was closed down and she was assigned to the Army and Navy Hospital in Hot Springs, Arkansas, which is where she stayed until her discharge in 1946. Many of the men treated there were suffering from arthritis and malaria who were sent to this hospital for the mineral hot springs, so she found it a much happier hospital since there were fewer severe combat injuries. After being discharged in 1946, she used the GI Bill to attend the Barnert Nursing School in Paterson, New Jersey, graduating as a registered nurse in 1950. She married that same year, and had three children. As of the interview, she had been living and working in Florida, volunteering at the local VA hospital, Jewish War Veteran’s post 321, and the Gold Coast Women’s Veteran’s. When she was discharged, Glassman had reached the rank of tech-5, and for her service she was awarded a Women’s Army Corps Service Medal, American Campaign Medal, and World War II Victory Medal. A transcript of this interview is available.
publisher:
Military Women's Memorial Foundation
contributor:
Anton, Janice
date:
2004-03-25
type:
Audio
format:
Cassette
identifier:
345; 2003.345
source:
CLIR - Recordings at Risk
language:
English
relation:
034497
coverage:
World War II (1939-1945) | 1945-46
rights:
Unrestricted