The Cherry Ames Page: War Nurse, page 4

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Cherry Ames, War Nurse
Fiction Meets Reality, page 4

In this section

Civilian Nursing or Army Nursing?

Civilian Nursing

Army Nursing

Civilian Nursing or Army Nursing?

Civilian Nursing

Though army nursing is presented as a noble calling, the first two books, especially, clearly indicate that a civilian nurse is equally patriotic, because nurses are also needed at home.

Cherry's most pressing concern throughout her senior year in nursing school is what kind of nursing she will do after graduation, and the importance of both civilian nursing and military nursing is evenhandedly emphasized. Cherry realizes that she can "nurse right here on the home front--for civilians were fighting this war, too" (Senior Nurse, p. 92).

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When she is called on to work with premature infants because no experienced nurse is available, she asks her supervisor, Miss Towne, "Would you--would you call this home-front nursing?" (Senior Nurse, p. 93). Miss Towne confides to Cherry, "The Army's calling for nurses and I want to go. ... I'm raring to get out of the hospital routine and taste some excitement!" (Senior Nurse, p. 94). But then Miss Towne looks at the premature infants in incubators that are in her care:

"I ask myself what will become of these little creatures if I walk out on them. Someone has to save soldiers' lives. Someone has to save these infants' lives, too."

"The hospital will get another nurse to take your place," Cherry suggested.

"There isn't anybody to take my place. You see for yourself," Miss Towne said worriedly, "how all the young nurses are leaving here in droves for the Army hospitals. Why, our staff here is depleted!"

It was true. Cherry was pinch-hitting here right this minute, for that very reason. She remembered the extra nights she had put in on the wards a month and two months ago, because they were short-handed. Ann and Gwen had been pressed into service for extra hours, too. Suppose--on top of this shortage--suppose there were an emergency? Not necessarily an air raid: it might all too possibly be a train wreck, a flood, an epidemic. Where were the extra nurses to come from then? (Senior Nurse, p. 94)

Cherry's decision is doubly difficult because she never really considers if she herself would rather go to war or remain a civilian--her criterion is not what she wants, but what will be best for others. Though she is restless with the hospital routine, though she loves adventure, her wants are not important; what is important is how she can help others. Nursing is to be a life of service, not selfishness:

She was constantly being reminded of the crying need for medical care in the battle zones, and her restlessness grew. Everywhere she looked the urgency of war nursing confronted her. ... The shortage of nurses was already acute and Cherry knew that as the war progressed, this condition would grow worse. She fully realized the dire need for nurses on the war front, and at the same time, she could not erase from her mind the picture of all those helpless patients right here, who needed nursing care. Torn between the two, Cherry worriedly debated where she would be of more service after graduation--on the home front? or on the war front? (Senior Nurse, pp. 166-67)

Although she finally decides to join the army, Cherry continues to respect and acknowledge the contributions of the nurses who remain behind. A brand-new student nurse wistfully tells her:

"I wish I were going to save soldiers' lives, like you. But no, I have to stick around here doing little jobs, like folding bandages and taking temperatures and making patients swallow their medicine."

"Little things!" Cherry shook her head. "Those are big things. And you are helping to save soldiers' and sailors' lives. For every new girl who starts her nursing training, a graduate nurse can be released to the Army. If you and Mildred weren't on the job here, I'd have to stay and do your work." (Army Nurse, pp. 32-33).

Every service, no matter how small, is valuable. Taking temperatures is as important as tending the wounded on the remote battlefields of Europe and the Pacific.

Army Nursing

Though Cherry herself worriedly debates enlisting in the Army Nurse Corps, some of her classmates are determined to volunteer from the beginning of their training. Her best friend, Ann Evans,

Figure 4

has two brothers and a fiance in the army, and she explains, "My father was maimed in the last war. He would not be lame today if there had been enough nurses to send even one into the area where he was. ... I'm going to be an Army nurse" (Student Nurse, p. 46).

Another classmate, Mai Lee, a Chinese-American, also dreams of becoming an army nurse, for more dramatic reasons: nursing will be her way of fighting against her enemies and avenging their wanton destruction of her home and family:

"I am going to be an Army nurse, too. ... I was born in this country but my family is in China. Two years ago I went back to see them and the village where my ancestors have always lived in peace." Her ivory face was impassive but her voice shook. "When I had been there five days, Japanese planes bombed our little village." Her small hands gripped the back of the chair before her. "My family was killed, the village isn't there any more. But I'm going to learn to be a nurse and I'm going back." (Student Nurse, pp. 46-47)

Their teacher, Miss McIntyre, says, "I expect that many of you will answer the Army's call for nurses" (Student Nurse, p. 47). Later, Miss McIntyre herself leaves the hospital to become an army nurse and is stationed in North Africa, as she tells the class in a letter:

"... two thousand men and us thirty nurses on that ship, and was it exciting. ... The soldiers call us 'angels in long underwear' ... the bravest, nicest bunch of boys I ever knew. And there they lie. They're so grateful for the least little thing we nurses do for them ... how we nurses drill. You ought to see us run for cover and throw ourselves flat in foxholes. The soldiers say we're good ... can't wait to get well so they can get right back and fight ... exotic towns here, curious food, veiled women, necklaces of beaten silver. We washed our stockings in a river they say stems from the Nile ... such a romantic officer and we're Army lieutenants ourselves, you know. ..."

Far places, adventure, danger, action--Cherry's breath came faster.

"Some of the things I see are pretty sad ... nurses are badly needed. There aren't nearly enough ... here is where you can put to good use all the training you have had ... and here is where you feel that at last you are really useful. Our boys do need you, so won't you please come?" (Senior Nurse, pp. 159-60)

That letter, and one from her brother, Charlie, who is being shipped out--"Don't know where, but anywhere we can eliminate a few Nazis is all right with me ..." (Senior Nurse, pp. 161-62)--set Cherry to thinking seriously about being an army nurse. But she does not make her final, momentous decision to enlist in the Army Nurse Corps until the last minute. As Cherry's class assembles for graduation exercises, an army nurse who escaped from Corregidor appeals to the class:

In her face was reflected all the horror and suffering she had seen--landing barges full of sick and wounded; boys lying fever-ridden and helpless in jungle hospitals; doctors working tirelessly day and night, often without a nurse to help. A note of urgency crept into her voice as she pleaded with them to answer their country's call. "You are needed, desperately needed! If we are to save our men out there fighting for us--if we are even to win this war--you nurses must help. Are you ready to serve?"

Cherry and her classmates had heard other appeals. But this appeal was different. It was being put directly up to each one of them. For the first time, Cherry felt personally responsible for the lives of Charlie and all the other American boys. (Senior Nurse, pp. 214-15)

As Cherry's classmates volunteer, she realizes that "she felt responsible for those boys--way down deep, she had thought of them as her patients! That was her answer! Cherry raised her hand. ... She, Cherry Ames, was going to be an Army Nurse!" (Senior Nurse, pp. 216-17).

Next: Life in the Army -->

Figure 4: Insignia of the United States Army Nurse Corps.