Product Description
A former World War II army nurse shares her extraordinary life stories visualized from her earliest childhood memories over eighty years ago, to the present.Muriel Engelman begins her fascinating narrative by detailing her journey through childhood during the Great Depression and then transitioning into her structured life as a student nurse. Caring for polio patients in a city hospital she becomes skilled in dealing with difficult patients.Upon graduation she was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps and sailed with her hospital unit in late 1943 for England, serving there for six months. Her unit arrived in Normandy, France after D Day, followed the advancing army and eventually operated a 1,000 bed tent hospital in Liège, Belgium. Lighter off-duty moments balanced out the threat of capture and continuous buzz bombs, all while caring for wounded American soldiers. This is all described in excerpts from actual letters penned to her family often by the dim light of a kerosene lantern or flashlight, knowing as she wrote that survival was not a guaranteed possibility.Engelman provides vivid descriptions of the people, settings and memories in a timeless style that will transport anyone back to an era when the future of the world was uncertain, and the bravery of those who sacrificed everything to protect America was not forgotten.
About the Author
Meet MurielThe author, Muriel Phillips Engelman, is a native of Meriden, Connecticut where she attended local schools and graduated from Meriden High School. She received her R.N. degree from Cambridge Hospital School of Nursing, Cambridge, Massachusetts, now known as Mt. Auburn Hospital School of Nursing.Shortly after becoming a registered nurse, she was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps during World War II. Her first army post was Ft. Adams, Rhode Island, and then she was assigned to the 16th General Hospital that was preparing for overseas duty at Ft. Devens, Massachusetts .The 16th General Hospital was part of an army experiment to establish a 1000 bed tent hospital as close to the front lines as possible, rather than 100 miles behind the lines where general hospitals had always been located.After completion of basic training, she sailed with her hospital unit in late l943 for England where the next six months were spent establishing a hospital in preparation for the coming D-Day invasion of Normandy, France. A few weeks after D-Day on June 6, her unit arrived in Normandy and then followed the advancing army to Liege, Belgium where the 1000 bed tent hospital became a reality.After two years of overseas duty, Muriel returned home as a 1st Lieutenant, having earned three battle stars on her European Theatre medal and a fourragere from the Belgian government.
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