Mrs. Bernice Pesesky, An Army Nurse

Written by: Ashley Woughter, Tim Von Bevern, Andy Billotte, Kelly Denson

       Mrs. Bernice Pesesky was born on January 9th. She was called to be a nurse on her twenty-second birthday. In 1943, she took a train to a camp by the Hudson River. They could not talk on the train because it was a “Hush Hush” operation and they did not want anybody to overhear them. They took a ship overseas, there were 1,000 nurses on board. For an entire month on the coast of North Africa, she had nothing to do, because there were no battles being fought, so no injured soldiers came in. They set up a hospital on Thanksgiving. She met a guy in the service and got married.

       Mrs. Bernice Pesesky also had a life before the war. She went to school at the Casper, Wyoming High school. When she finished school her interest was in medicine. She acquired this interest from her father. He wanted her to go into medicine. She worked as a pharmacist at a local store. She also did various babysitting jobs. She entered the army after her twenty-second birthday.

       Life during World War Two brought some good things and some bad things as well, for Mrs. Bernice Pesesky. Mrs. Pesesky was stationed in North Africa and Southern Italy during the war. She was an army nurse. When she was stationed in North Africa, she received patients with injuries such as diseases, and spinal cord injuries, as well as many other things.

       One thing that helped pass the time when they had no patients to treat, was riding bicycles, going to dances, sometimes going to movies or plays, and playing or swimming on the beach. A special ceremony called a stand retreat was held with the army. She and her fellow nurses had to march in formation and stand at attention when this was going on. The American, British, and French flags were being retired in this ceremony, and the anthems were being played for each.

       When she was still in North Africa, Anzio beach was being taken over by the U.S. Many soldiers were wounded from this battle. After they treated the soldiers, their hospital was going to move. Their hospital was the last to leave North Africa. She was moved to a hospital in Florence, Italy, where she served for a short time. Then she moved to Pestoyia, which is north of Florence. Here she was very close to the front lines in combat. She said she could see the battles and hear the gunfire at night. Shortly after the war in Europe, she went back to the states and continued to be a nurse.