1LT Dora Rosalie Harch Oral History

title:

1LT Dora Rosalie Harch Oral History

creator:

Harch, Dora Rosalie (Russo) (1922 August 12 - )

subject:

Army Nurse Corps

description:

Dora Rosalie Harch (formerly Russo) was born on August 12, 1922 in New York City, New York. She joined the Army Nurse Corps partially because the director of nurses at her hospital met with her privately and told her the Army was in need of nurses. Her father had served in World War I, so although her brothers didn’t want her to, he approved of her choice to join. She enlisted in September 1944 and went to boot camp in New Jersey for six weeks. After training, she went by train to Los Angeles, California to get onboard a ship headed to India. It took about thirty days for their ship to land, and she was stationed the 242nd hospital station in Bombay for three months. From there, she was stationed somewhere near the northern border of the country for another seven months. That station was temporary, and after ten months in India her unit was moved to Okinawa, Japan. She was stationed there for another ten months before returning to the United States. She chose to get out of the service when they got to New Jersey, instead using the GI Bill to get a degree in public health grom Georgetown University in Washington, DC. She worked in DC until her older sister got sick, so she moved to California and began working in the Orange County Health Department. While in California, she met her husband and, about 15 months later, they had their first child and she stopped working for some time. They had four children total, and she was widowed when her oldest was only 10 years old. The family moved to Irvine, California and there Harch worked as a school nurse. When she was discharged in March 1946, Harch had reached the rank of 1st lieutenant, and for her service she was awarded an American Campaign Meal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, and World War II Victory Medal. A transcript of this interview is available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Addcox, Corkey Marie

date:

2006-05-22

type:

Audio

format:

Cassette

identifier:

396; 2006.396

source:

CLIR - Recordings at Risk

language:

English

relation:

038717

coverage:

World War II (1939-1945) | 1944-46

rights:

Unrestricted