Annabelle's Story - This is Korea ANNABELLE'S BACKGROUND UP TO THIS POINT: Annabelle Felicity Amy Jane Dawson (AKA Annie, Lyssie-Jane, AJ and many variations thereof) lived in Portland all her life but her education was very widespread as after she spent 4 years at nursing school, she for two years traveled from Fort to Fort along the East Coast and received specific front-line nursing. Her birthday is July 4, and she turned 25 in 1951. It is September 1951 when she arrives. She comes from a large family of 12 siblings aged 24 through to 1. These include a twin brother, Jack who is fighting somewhere in Korea. She is as tall as Radar and has blonde curls and blue eyes.
I got off the plane in a place called Kim-Po. This was my first real time on Korean soil a brief change of planes in Seoul didn't really count, and I looked around for where I belonged next. A young man came up to me and saluted.
"2nd Lieutenant Annabelle F.A.J. Dawson?" I returned the salute.
"That's me." He offered his hand and I shook it.
"Sergeant Jonathon Sanders, Colonel Blake asked me to pick up a nurse here. You must be the one; you're the only female here. 4077th M*A*S*H?"
I nodded, "Yes, that's me, I thought I was going to be picked up by a Corporal O'Reilly?" He lifted my bag.
"Yes, when Blake found out I was doing a mail round he decided he wouldn't submit you to Radar's driving skills just yet." I chuckled and followed him to a helicopter.
"Radar?"
"Oh Radar O'Reilly can hear things before they happen, he's only about your height, and has glasses, so that's how he compensates. Ever flown in one of these things before?"
I shook my head, "No, never I'd never even been on a plane till I came out here."
He helped me into the chopper, "Watch the mail bag there. Don't worry, you're with the best darn pilot this side of Korea." We took of and in about 20 minutes I was in the place I would soon call home.
"Welcome to the four-oh-seventy-seventh Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. Best care anywhere." Two Majors, one female one male greeted me after Sgt. Sanders had helped me off the chopper. I saluted instantly and they shared pleased smiles.
"2nd Lieutenant Annabelle F.A.J. Dawson." I dropped the salute and offered my hand.
"Major Margaret Houlihan, ranking nurse. This is Major Burns, second in command." Major Houlihan shook my hand.
"Pleased to meet you, come and we'll introduce the Commanding Officer of this outfit. Radar, take the Lieutenant's bags." A small man my height came up and took my bags.
"Lieutenant Annabelle Dawson, Corporal Radar O'Reilly." Radar saluted.
"Nice to meet you ma'am." I saluted back.
"Likewise Corporal." Major Houlihan smiled directly at me as we turned and walked away from the chopper pad.
"I've heard a lot about you. 24 and a second Lieutenant, you'll be the second in command of the nurses. I hear you've had specific training." I kept walking; the Majors flanked me while Radar, carrying my bags scuttled behind.
"Yes, I graduated from high school when I was 18, and went to nursing school. I spent four years there and when I was 22 I graduated and I spent '49 and '50 at various Forts along the East Coast receiving specific war nursing skills. When the war broke out here, I was told that I would be front-liner but then I was decided I'd be too green and so I was sent to the M*A*S*H unit that was closest to the front. You're 3 or 4 miles I hear."
Major Houlihan nodded, "Very good you'll be a fine addition to this outfit, you'll have you." A Sergeant whistled as I passed him.
"Watch your mouth!" Snapped Major Burns who had previously not said a word. Major Houlihan continued talking.
"You'll have your own tent. We may move some other nurses in there but at present it's your own." We went into the CO's tent and the pilot who had flown me here left as we approached the desk.
"Colonel Blake this is the new nurse, 2nd Lieutenant Annabelle F.A.J Dawson." I saluted and he returned it. I realized then that there were two other men in the room. All three men had glasses, which were at various stages of emptiness.
"I'm Lt. Colonel Henry Blake, CO of this madness, the outfit not the war."
"Or we would have shot you and gone home!" quipped one of the two men.
"And these two men are doctors Pierce and MacIntyre." I saluted them, Major Houlihan murmuring a few pleased words in Major Burns's ear about my formality, and both men shook my hand.
"Annabelle, can I call you Annie?"
I nodded, "Yes Doctor, nearly everyone else does." He smiled and stood up.
"John MacIntyre. Call me Trapper. Say Annie, were you at a lecture at Boston Mercy back in '45, there was a sweet little cookie there asked everyone to call her Amy-Jane?"
The other doctor, still sitting down spoke up, "Amy-Jane, 16?"
Trapper shook his head, "No, 18 or 19."
"Ooh, what a cookie."
"Yeah." Even Colonel Blake looked dreamy at that.
"Anyhow Annie, I was there, but is there any chance that cookie was you?" My face reddened a little bit.
"The same cookie, I was the one with the questions. I was still 18."
Trapper smiled, "I liked your style, you argued everything that Matron said, and everything you said was so self- assured and right." I smiled, I remembered a young doctor, he had been then no more than the age I was now, with brown curly hair, a prankster if you ever saw one.
"I remember you, I never liked your style. You were trouble." He laughed and Major Houlihan spoke up.
"Colonel, I'll have her shadow Major Burns and I for a few days. Just to get her into the routine, she can start her shift on Monday?"
Colonel Blake nodded, "Whatever you like Major." The other doctor, slightly shorter than Trapper and with darker, straight hair stood up.
"Come now Margaret is that really necessary? Does she have to be turned into a Ferret-Face-ette? Though with a cute face like this, it'd be hard." He cupped my chin in his hand and I awkwardly removed myself from his grasp.
Major Houlihan spoke up, "Nurse if you'll come with Major Burns and I, we'll show you around the camp and let you get settled in." Major Houlihan saluted and left. Major Burns and I followed.
An hour later, I was in my tent, trying to come to get used to my new surroundings when there was a knock on the door and the person marched in.
"So. cookie," It was Dr. Pierce, "18 and wanting to be called Amy-Jane, you must have been some dish then. But you're even more gorgeous now." There was another knock at the door.
"Who is it?"
"Major Burns, I'm starting a shift in three minutes and Major Houlihan suggested I take you with me."
"Come in Major, I'll be just a minute." I sat down and reached for my hairbrush. Major Burns entered and while I quickly pulled my hair back, he and Dr. Pierce talked.
"What are you doing here Pierce this is a lady's tent?" He asked
"I'm fully aware of that and seeing as I'm obviously the only man here I'll go and continue trying to make a lady friend later."
Frank gave a thoroughly inelegant snort, "Nurse Dawson is a respectable and responsible young lady. I'm sure she's not interested in your type of cretin."
Pierce appeared hurt, "Now, now, I'm sure she's cottoning onto me just fine." He took my hand, "My tent for a poker game say 1700 hours?" I removed my hand from his grasp.
"No thank you doctor, I'd really rather not." Burns chased him out of the room.
"Out!"
The last thing I heard before Major Burns slammed the door was "You're so cute when you're angry Frank." I turned around in time to see Frank blow a raspberry at the closed door.
We went to Post-op. Only half the beds were filled, one of them by a nurse.
"Hi, I'm Lieutenant Baker." She offered me her hand.
"Annie Dawson, what'd you do?"
Baker laughed, "I discovered a fox-hole meant for Major Burns there. My ankle was sprained pretty badly. Boy did Hawkeye get burned for that! No pun intended!"
I chuckled, "Well, just stay off it, and if it gives you too much trouble, I can give it a rub, my massage skills are practically known all over Portland."
She smiled, "Thank you Lieutenant,"
I smiled and stood up, "Call me Annie, just cause I'm the second in command for the nurses I don't want to be different from you guys."
Major Burns was calling, "Aah, I see you met Lieutenant Baker, one of the brighter sparks in the outfit. Now your shift in Post-Op will involve."
I checked the patient's charts confidently, I had only been in the room for 15 minutes, but I could sense that Burns was beginning to feel slightly inferior to me.
"Doctor, isn't this is quite a lot of Penicillin?"
Major Burns looked over my shoulder, "No not at all." Trapper and Doctor Pierce had been following us and at my query and Frank's obvious surprise Pierce came up behind me and took the chart from my hand.
"Jeez, Frank are you trying to make this man's blood 50 percent penicillin?" He asked.
"Doctor Pierce I have been practicing for 12 years, I am your superior officer and this man is my patient I say what happens to him."
Pierce was serious now, "Frank, halve that dose or I'll go over your head." Frank gave another inelegant snort. Pierce motioned to Trapper and the two men marched into Blake's office, I followed them, curious and received a wink from Baker.
"Henry, Frank's trying to drown a patient in Penicillin again." Pierce dropped the chart on Henry's desk, right onto a child's brightly coloured painting.
"Watch it Hawkeye, that's Bloomington Gallery work there, isn't my Janie wonderful?"
Pierce nodded, "She's a beautiful artist, I'm sure she has her dad's artistic skills."
"Yeah, like the time the latrine blew up on you, and you wore the seat around your neck!" Trapper hooted and Henry turned his attention to the chart.
"Nurse Dawson, I'm going to give you your first proper assignment, see that this patient's dose is halved." I nodded.
"Yes Colonel," He wasn't finished though, "Frank, check with me or Hawkeye before you give a dose that big again." Frank sulked visibly.
"Yes Colonel." Henry beamed now that the serious work was over.
"Frank you're dismissed, I want to talk to Nurse Dawson, Pierce and MacIntyre alone." Frank grumpily left the office, and nearly walked into Radar.
"Colonel Blake sir there's an aid station on the phone, 3 miles from here." Colonel Blake had already picked up the phone.
"Trapper, stand up," Pierce chided, "Give the lady a seat." Trapper groaned, lifted his legs and put his feet on the desk.
"Here, sit on that," he motioned to the 'bridge' his legs made.
"Is that an order doctor?"
He smiled, "Yes Annie, it is." I rested my self lightly on his legs. Henry hung up the phone,
"Radar! Get me an ambulance, a driver, corpsmen, a jeep and supplies."
Radar was there, "They're on their way sir."
I jumped, "You'll get used to it Annie," Trapper said, I stood up and he moved his feet back to the floor, "Come here," I approached him and he pulled me onto his lap.
"Now ladies, and ladies, may I have your attention." I looked at him, "First of all, Nurse, I hate using that term, it makes you seem distant, do you have a nickname?"
I smiled, "I was christened Annabelle Felicity Amy Jane. I have so many nicknames I can't count them all."
Henry smiled then too, "Annie will do me, and you can call me Henry. Everyone else does,"
Pierce chuckled, "That's only if we're in a good mood with him! And you can call me Hawkeye,"
I smiled, "Last of the Mohicans?"
He looked surprised, "How'd you guess?"
I laughed, "My brother Jack read that, I gave it to him when we turned twenty, there was a week there when he wanted to be called Hawkeye."
Hawkeye smiled, "It was the only book that wasn't medical my dad ever read, what do you mean by when we turned twenty?"
I smiled, "I'm a twin."
Henry cut in, "can we swap life-stories later, we've got a mission and I think you three are up for the job. That aid station has patients coming out their ears. They want someone to do a pickup on the really bad wounds and patch up the minor ones. Radar's getting you a jeep, ambulance, supplies and a driver so go get your med. bags, helmets and you three are going to get them."
"Henry, you're not seriously thinking of sending Annie there are you?" Hawkeye was surprised
"It's going to be a good experience for her, I'd have sent Baker if she wasn't laid-up. No names mentioned. Hawkeye."
I spoke up then, "I was meant to be a front-liner nurse anyhow, with my training but it was decided I was too green at 24, most of the other women who'd had my training had done WW2. They were all much older than me."
Trapper looked unhappy. "Are you trying for good experience or to scare the pants off her?" Hawkeye chuckled, eyeing me appreciatively.
Henry looked surprised, "I thought you two didn't believe in censorship, and besides, I wouldn't have said she could go if I didn't think she'd be okay. We have a very strong-willed girl here I think. Besides, Korea isn't all fun and games. I want her to see what it's really like, get her used to it right away rather than have her faint or vomit in the OR at the first sign of blood."
Trapper and Hawkeye resigned "Okay, go get ready before I have to kick your butts into gear." We left and soon we gathered outside.
Radar had found Igor, an enlisted man to drive the ambulance and he was sitting behind the wheel while we said goodbye. There were also two corpsmen waiting.
"Lieutenant, just stick right with Pierce and MacIntyre and you'll be okay, they'll look after you, won't you Captains?" Major Houlihan had taken my hand and gave it a squeeze before letting go. Trapper chuckled, grabbed her and kissed her.
"Margaret my dear, if I don't come back, see that our children get a good education." She gasped angrily before Hawkeye moved in for the kill, kissing her too.
"If I don't return make sure my boy Radar gets a proper talk on the birds and the bees, I was going to tell him when he turned twelve, but just in case."
Henry smirked, "Trapper, I'm asking you to look after Annie for me real good okay. Annie, stick right with him." Trapper and I nodded.
"I'll take the most excellent care of our new nurse." He put his arm around my shoulders, "Hey Radar, she's tiny, you've got competition."
Radar looked irritated, "Cut it out you guys."
Henry laughed, "Annabelle, just whatever you do stick right with Trapper and Hawkeye, do everything they say... well everything within reason."
I laughed and Hawkeye began talking, "Don't you worry Lyssie, you're in the best hands this side of Korea, and this is for luck." He took hold of me and kissed me. I made a hasty retreat to the jeep, while Hawkeye and Trapper received some last instructions.
"No funny business okay, if she gets worried, reassure her, but no monkeying around! I'm a bit worried about sending off our newest, youngest, unmarried nurse with you two goons, but I think she'll come in useful. No hanky-panky." Hawkeye and Trapper nodded, cracked a poor joke which I couldn't hear and fought over who was driving.
"Trapper, you can drive a golf ball, drive a man crazy, drive me up the wall, drive me around the bend, drive in, drive through, drive out, drive around and drive a knife right through my heart, but you will never drive when I'm in the jeep." Trapper resigned and we left.
I squawked and grabbed Trapper. "Hawkeye slow down!" Trapper called, "Annie nearly got thrown out of the jeep!" Hawkeye sniggered but did slow down. Normally the 3 miles would have taken us no more than 10 minutes or so, but we had to take a roundabout route, to avoid minefields and woods.
I fell silent, and Trapper looked at me, "Penny for your thoughts Annie?"
I looked up at him, "Hawkeye" I whispered,
"Oh, he kisses everyone, and if he has his way, he'll get a lot more from you." Trapper kept his voice low and we hunched together in the back of the jeep.
"No. You probably don't see, I've never been kissed before."
Trapper nearly shouted, "Annie, you're joking, never?
I shook my head, "Never ever, well, never from a man who wasn't my relative well except for just then."
Trapper looked very surprised, "So that means you're a vir. Don’t worry, I shouldn't really say that."
I smiled as Hawkeye pulled up in the aid station, "I'm a virgin, I'm proud of it, don't worry."
Hawkeye heard that and gasped as the ambulance pulled up behind us, "You, with a face like that?" I blushed then as someone came up to us.
"Drop it Hawkeye," I said and we were lead to the wounded.
I had expected worse to be honest. I found it reasonable easy to help both the doctors, and when they found a simple case, which needed just a few stitches and could go back to the front-line, and they left him with me. I saw a few pretty gruesome sights, limbs hanging on by nerves and things like that, but a few deep breaths, counted by Hawkeye as I worked kept my breakfast and lunch down.
"Nurse," The corpsman, Igor was calling, I ran to him, "There's blood in this guy's mouth, he's choking," I bent down and felt gently down his side, there was broken ribs on his left and so I rolled him onto his right, blood and saliva flowed from his mouth, glad for the rubber gloves I was wearing, I cleared his airway and as I listened to his labored breaths, I thought there was a punctured lung.
"Shoot, doctor!" I called Trapper came running "This guy's got a breathing problem, there's blood in his throat, and his ribs on his left are broken.'
"You did good to roll him off his ribs, and clear his mouth," Trapper listened with a stethoscope, "This lung's punctured, I think that all four ribs that are broken are in there, what happened to him?"
One of the corporals at the station came up, "Thrown by a shell blast. Is he bad doctor?"
Trapper nodded, "He will be if we don't get him back real soon, is there a chopper you can get him on?"
The corporal shouted a few words and a Sergeant came up, "Captain, there's a chopper headed to Seoul in two minutes, if you stick him on that the pilot will do a drop-off at your M*A*S*H." Trapper nodded,
"Corpsmen!" I realized we'd been shouting ever since we'd arrived, the sound of gunfire and shelling was everywhere. The corpsmen carried the patient to the chopper.
"Good call Annie, your experience is going to come in handy here. Check him out for me, he looks touchy." I bent over the private.
"Am I okay?"
He asked, "Yes, just shrapnel in your leg, you'll be fine,"
He smiled, "Is everything else there?"
I grinned, "Yes, you'll be a father someday, now just relax, and yell out if it hurts while I bandage it." I quickly bandaged the man's wounds, which covered most of his upper thigh.
Hawkeye came over, "Shrapnel." I said, "There's no serious nerve or artery damage he's relatively minor." Hawkeye's sweaty face looked down at mine.
"Annie you're a lifesaver - literally. Trap told me about the lung case." He checked the patient, "Nice call, check him out, and I'll be with you in a second." He helped Igor carry him to the nearly full ambulance while I ran to the next patient. I tripped and fell headlong in a puddle. I heard Trapper's laugh as I pulled myself up again and crawled to the soldier.
"Annie!" He cried, throwing both arms around my neck, wincing painfully as he did so.
"Jeremy! Jeremy! Oh my god, are you okay? I never thought I'd see you!" I hugged him and kissed his face, which was as muddy as mine.
"Annie, what are you doing?" I let Jeremy go and he fell back to the ground, I realized there was blood on my uniform his blood, not mine. He had a bullet in his shoulder. Trapper ran up and sprinkled sulfur on his wound before bandaging his shoulder tightly to his chest.
"Annie, who's this?" I smiled, and took Jeremy's unwounded hand. "Trapper John MacIntyre, doctor, he'll look after you. We'll have you at the 4077th where I work in no time. Igor! Come and get this one, and take special care of him." Igor and another solider who I'd recently stitched up, put him on a stretcher and carried him off.
"Annie, what do you mean by hugging wounded?" Trapper asked.
"If he was your brother..." was all I said as I stood up and found the puddle again. Trapper helped me to my feet, I was covered in mud.
"It's a good look on you. He's your brother, but you called him Jeremy, not Jack." I bent over a patient "I have five brothers, and Jack, Jeremy and Joseph are in Korea."
Trapper nodded, "I can take this, go help Hawkeye." I ran over to Hawkeye.
"Oh, taking camouflage a little far aren't we?" He quipped.
"Yes doctor," I bent down and helped him fix up the patient we were working on.
We were back on the road when we saw a bunch of troops walking towards us. We stopped when they flagged us down.
"Can you take a look at this foot?" Their leader asked, Hawkeye jumped out of the jeep, and it was a simple matter. He got back in and we'd just started the engine when there was an almighty whistling and an explosion the ground seemed to shake and the troops hit the ground. I don't know who said more unsavory things, Hawkeye, Trapper or I as was yanked out of the jeep and pulled under it while more mortars dropped around us. I was so scared; the front had been bad but for some reason, when we were two miles back from it, I guess I didn't expect to get shelled.
"Annie, it's okay." Trapper had put his arm over me, I didn't realize that I was shaking and crying. I was terrified and as the shelling stopped, Hawkeye ran out, Trapper kissed my muddy- blonde curls
"It'll be okay Annie, we'll need your help out there." And then he ran out to a fallen man too. I took a deep breath and followed.
"Annie, get my med. bag from the jeep, we'll patch them up and put them on the ambulance." The ambulance had stopped when the first shell hit and now the corpsmen were resettling patients dislodged by the blasts. Another mortar fell and I jumped as it narrowly missed the road.
"Hang in there Annie, go and check him out." Trapper squeezed my hand tightly as I gave him his bag. He pointed at a solider and I scrambled over to him.
"I'm gonna be okay aren't I?" he asked.
"You'll be fine, we'll get your bleeding fixed and you'll be at a M*A*S*H in a few..." I jumped as a mortar fell and the blast threw three men.
"Annie, get him," Hawkeye called, I saw that he and Trapper had already taken the other two men. I tied the bandage off and motioned to Igor. I ran to take the man thrown by the blast.
I rolled him over and my breakfast instantly came to my mouth. His face and stomach was half-gone, and burns covered his chest - he was dead. I crawled a few feet and threw up my breakfast.
I heard Hawkeye, "Trap, can you take her?" Trapper was behind me in a second, holding my hair back while I brought up my lunch as well. I continued to retch, but it was mostly just saliva now.
"Oh sweet Jesus," I murmured and nearly collapsed, Trapper just caught me before I fell face down in my own vomit. He rolled me back onto his lap, his right arm cradling my head. His left hand began rubbing my stomach in slow circles.
"Come on men, let's keep moving!" The leader of the group called to his men, most of them got off the ground, some struggling up with help. Three men never left the ground.
"Christ that's awful," I was sweating and crying, my tears leaving tracks on my bloodstained and muddy face. Hawkeye came over and I saw his disapproving glance at Trapper's hand, which still continued its unhurried circles over my abdomen.
"Amy Jane, are you okay?" Hawkeye bent down beside me.
"Oh my god, it was terrible, so bloody awful."
I sat up a little, both men hurrying to support me, "I know Annie honey, I know, but it's like your first time of anything, you'll get used to it after a few more times." Trapper continued soothing me, his arm tightly around my shoulders and his hand still on my stomach.
"Sir, do you want us to ahead?" Igor was there.
"Yes, if you beat us in, tell Henry we'll be right behind you." Hawkeye stood up and offered me his hand. "Annie, do you think you can stand up?" I shook my head weakly.
"We've really got to get going though with that load of wounded we've got though, they'll need our help." I tried to stand and fell on Hawkeye.
"Easy does it," Hawkeye caught me.
"Okay, steady now," Trapper righted me and helped me take a very shaky step. I saw the body of the man I couldn't save and fell to my knees again. I retched again, my empty stomach bringing up nothing. I was still shaking and Hawkeye rolled me onto my back. Trapper slid his arm under me and lifted me.
"You okay Annie?" He asked as he carried me back to the jeep. Hawkeye stretched out in the back and Trapper lay me against him.
"It's so goddamned awful, the inhumanity of it all." Hawkeye sighed as I leant against him and shifted me into a more comfortable position between his legs, "Honey, this is Korea."