by: Courtney McAffee
June 17, 1917
Today I signed up to be a member of the US Cadet Nurse Corps serving in the war
effort. I guess there are many reasons why I joined. Many of my friends volunteered,
propaganda is everywhere calling women to help the war effort as well, and plus�I
hear there are lots of brave young soldiers fighting out there. They say the training
camp for the new nurses will last about 6 weeks or more. I hope the training is quick to I
can actually go out and start working and caring for the injured and fallen. What have I
got to lose for serving in the war? Most of the family and friends that I hold dear are
already serving in the war whether as soldiers or nurses.
One of the signs I saw when I was walking home proposed that many women were
needed to join in the war effort to care for the wounded soldiers. One read, "Serve
those who served. Nurses are needed in veterens administration hospitals." The
pictures in the poster jumped out as well, it showed scenes of the war and thedifference
that the nurses were making. I thought about this poster for a long time. I walked home
slowly, reflecting on what I read and I realized that I should join the war effort and that
could make a difference by caring for the fallen. Through determination, compassion,
and pity I followed my gut, my instinct, and my mind and I decided to enlist.
July 7, 1917
Well�here I am in training camp for the Nurse Corps. It�s a lot more difficult than I
thought it would be. Most of the senior nurses are mean and have harsh orders, but
luckily enough I was placed under the watch of Miss Clavier. She is nice enough, yet
still manages to have strict discipline. Many times our work and training seems to grow
tedious, but I stick with it because I know I will be out on the western front soon enough.
Today the chores and training were rather boring. All the sheets on the beds had to
be perfectly set, even the pillow covers had to be placed with �hospital corners.� Today
I was making my bed rather messily and Miss Strump, a mean senior nurse, gave me an
evil stare down that sent chills down my spine. I continued to work and improved each
day to avoid running into Miss Strump again.
Miss Clavier had me practice dressing a patients wounds and tending to those who
have severe bleeding. I�m not afraid of the blood, I just don�t like to see and hear
people moaning from pain. The one person I know that can handle these sort of injuries
best is my friend Emily. She was one of the best trainees in our group and she just
recently got sent out to the front. I will miss her dearly.
August 27, 1917
Well, yesterday I was sailing on a boat towards the port of Salonika and today I
arrived. The town seemed quite large and busy. Later in the day I was sent to the front
where I would be serving. The area where I worked was different than I had previously
pictured it. The �hospital� area consists of many wooden huts or tents filled with patients
and physicians hustling about trying to solve everyone�s problems. People are always
moving about and death is abundant.
I�ve gotten used to the sight of death. Just yesterday I must have passed by ten beds
in a row where the dead were lying. No time to pause and pay respects, there is always
something to do or see while being a nurse. There are always people who need your
help. Our hospital site was about 70 miles away from the front, therefore people were
constantly living in life or death circumstances without a pause to even breathe.
Yesterday was plain awful. Moaning was heard throughout the camp from the
wounded. I even had to bandage up someone that I knew from previous war times, they
died that day. It was strange because it didn�t really phase me, I guess I�ve just grown
numb to occurrences of death.
November 3, 1917
Today I went about my routine doings which were: making sure empty beds are up
kept, dressing wounds, and attending to the sick. Some of the nurses in our group even
went through more training to be able to perform anesthetic procedures. This was a six-
week process that I would not want to go through. The nurses here are treated fairly
well, none have died from enemy attacks which is always good. I wonder how long this
war will last�
Many people are dying these days; Malaria is spreading from trench to trench. The
poor dears have suffered so much already. Temperatures are often found to be as
high as 105 or 106. It is amazing to me to see what these people go through for the
liberty of their country.
There were 16 operations today at our station. Some of those who were operated on
seemed so young�to young to die. One of the boys who received the surgery seemed
to be in horrible pain and he was in so much agony he could hardly breathe. The
doctors didn�t even dare to move him. The hospital areas were overfilled today due to
several bombardments by the Germans. There are lines of men just waiting to get
medical attention. The beds and tents are filled to the walls and people are dying left
and right.
November 26, 1917
Many new nurses are coming in to help the war effort. Most of them have not received
enough valuable training to be of much help here on the front. Extra helping hands are
always welcome to help ease the labor presented by the war.
Today I treated many people with trench foot. Their feet have become so swollen they
look bigger than their head! This is the most common illness seen here due to the
harsh conditions in the trenches and the harsh weather. I am glad to see that I myself
have not contracted the illness. We as nurses have to wear special uniforms and
disinfect our hands and bodies often to keep from getting the diseases and to keep
from spreading the diseases to other soldiers and patients.
Another bombardment took place last night, the French made an attack on the
Germans. This means that we should be expecting a counter-attack from the Germans
in the near future. And when this happens, there will be more and more soldiers
wounded and killed which means that our hospitals will be full once again. And the war
goes on...