Red Cross - Part II

In our RC unit Frankie as Social Worker was in charge, Lucy and "Sadie" Recreation workers and I was staff aide - sort of a general handy woman. We wrote letters for patients, planned recreation, took patients on sight-seeing trips thru Rome, helped with problems - similar to Gray Ladies in domestic hospitals.

In April and May 1945 I was sent on TD (temporary duty) to the 34th Station Hospital (Colonel Max was in charge) which was outside of Rome about 20 miles in an old monastery. There I met mamie Mauk and Rebecca Blackburn.

In july the 73rd was sent back to the States on their way to Tinian but I was left in Rome with the 34th which moved in where the 73rd had been.

In April 1945 we got Lucy married to Carl Loftis. His outfit had moved up to France and we had to sweat out his arrival.

I lost a couple of patients on one of the sighseeing trips and had to have the MPs pick the up. The patients were quite pleased they had gotten away from the hospital for a few hours, but it took me quite a whild to live it down. Colonel Schade of the hospital wasn't too pleased.

"Sadie" was sent to Livorno and Rita McDonald joined us in her place. She was a medical secretary.

I was given a few days of R & R and drove to Florence with a couple of RC administrators. Later, I was able to wangle a trip to Switzerland, but it took 3 starts before I made it.  The first time, I was called at the hospital before leaving for the airport (Ciampino) and told they couldn't fly that day. The next time we flew over Milan, but couldn't land because of porr weather which caused at least one green face (the soldier opposite me) and a lot of air sickness (me included). By the time we got back to Rome, a sandstorm was in progress and we were sent to Naples to spend the night. The next day we made it back to Rome. The third time we couldn't land in Milan but came down in Genoa and were taken by jeep to Milan, arriving in darkness.

Switzerland was such a relief after Italy. It was so clean, the air so fresh/ A wonderful interlude. Everything worked well.  One night I was asked to give a dance exhibition! It seems the night before I had gone dancing with a soldier and someone in my group had seen us. Evidently we dances quite well.  He was a good dancer but all I did was follow.  I had to refuse because I had no partner and I wasn't that good! (In the bargain I didn't want t get the soldier in trouble. He was already in enough trouble - he was AWOL.

Of course, Italy had the dust and dirt, the rubble of former buildings, the insecurity of not knowing when something might bread down.  Getting stuck on the elevator of the hospital was a fairly common occurance - particularly when we were first in Rome.

I had a chance to attend a couple of audiences with the Pope, Pius XII, and attend a concert at the Vatican gardens when Beniamino Gigli sang. I also met Tatiana Tolstoy, Leo Tolstoy's oldest daughter.

Mamie Muk and I left Italy on the aircraft carrier, Randolph, with Capt. Jackson R Tate, as the commanding officer in December of 1945.    The weather had been terrible - one of the worst storms of the season. The ship right behind us turned back. We sprang leaks in the bow and lost catwalks. Practically everyone was sick (several thousand people on board). I was so close to it but somehow managed to stave it off. Mamie was in her berth most of the time. My roommate ordered me not to get sick and I didn't.

When we left, the Captain promised us he would get us back to the US by Christmas. We made it at 2pm Christmas day.

Red Cross - Part I

In March 1944, Millie resigned from NJ Bell Telephone Company and joined the Red Cross as a Staff Aide.  After 3 weeks of training at American University in Washington DC and another 3 weeks in Fort Knox, she went home for a weekend. The next week she left from the Prince George Hotel in Brooklyn.

She remembers being part of a large group (88) that was ... "sent on a British Hospital ship, the Atlantis. The weather was perfect, the ocean like glass and lights on every night according to war rules. Since this was a hospital ship, its position was supposed to be known at all times and the lights were always on.  I was like a wonderful cruise. In true English fashion we had a lot of the niceties - tea, moring and afternoon with fabulous little goodies with the afternoon tea.

"For some reason I always made up my berth so tightly I couldn't slide in.

"We reached Naples and anchored to an overturned ship in the harbor, then were sent to the Repo Depot (Replacement Depot). No lights, bare buildings, no glass in the windows. (There was) only one air alert, probably a false alarm, but the food was the worst. I was just ready to go on a hunger strike, whin June 1st Iwas sent in a command car to join the 73rd Station Hospital. It was stationed in Caserta at what had been the royal stable. Caserta was the capital of Italy and the King's palace was there.

"Out patients were a mixture with a great many from Africa - Senegalese, etc. The Red Cross unit was composed of Frankie Adger, Lucille Horton, and Natalie Olmstead (Sadie Hawkins). When I joined them, they were expecting Madeline Carrol but they got Millicent Chapman. Only the initials were the same. In the evenings we slippped out at times and visited the Canadians down the street and Am. Air Force Spec. Serv. unit out about 10 to 15 miles. Everything had to be done in darkness and pretending it was an emergency (we were in an ambulance) if we were stopped. Fun!

"About 3 weeks after I joined the 73rd, the hospital was moved to Rome - to the Marine Barracks on the Tiber - just a few blocks south of the Recreation Center where Mussoline had his swimming pool. I stayed there almost 18 months.  

"We were transported in open 6x6 trucks. No cover. The trip took about 10 hours with a field stop once or twice. By the time we reached Rome, we were filthy. Taking off glasses left white eyes in black faces.

"It was several weeks before the hot water was in service. Until then everything we did was done with cold water.  Try washing hair in a helmet in cold water, it was like putting my head in the Arctic Ocean."

"I was stationed in Rome from the end of June 1944 to November 1945. The war went on a left us behind."

The Bernardsville News - 1 May 1945