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of time.
Mr. Cox: Were the nurses who worked together a pretty close group. Did you really cooperate with each other. Mrs. Medcalf: Yes. I was fortunate enough to be in a place where we had good cooperation among the nurses. Mr. Cox: What medical group was this that you belonged to in Chicago? I don't know how the medical worked, were they battalions, what did they call them? Mrs. Medcalf: This was just called the Gardiner General Army Hospital. When they converted from the hotel to the hospital, they had a big dedication ceremony. They named the hospital, Gardiner Hospital. The reason for that was Ruth Gardiner was the first nurse confirmed dying while in service. She was evacuating troops on a plane from Alaska back to the States and the plane went down. She lost her life, and the hospital was named for her. When they first decided to put the big hospital there in Chicago, they bought the Stevens Hotel which was a larger and most expensive hotel. I understand they lost a lot of money trying to convert it and found out they couldn't. They had to resell it. Then they bought this one and it was ideal. Mr. Cox: How long were you there in Chicago? Mrs. Medcalf: I was there a couple of years. We had a lot of interesting experiences, we really did.
Some of them were addicts because of their long extended illnesses. Some of them had malaria. Mr. Cox: What did you think of the doctors that you worked with?
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Mary Medcalf. Medcalf grew up in Georgia and became a registered nurse in Virginia. Then, she went to Michigan to finish her degree. After graduating, she signed up to be an Army Nurse. She was a 2nd Lieutenant. She went to a hospital transformed from the Chicago Beach Hotel into the Gardiner General Army Hospital. Many of the soldiers needed orthopedics. Later, she transferred to Fort Bragg in North Carolina. She met her husband at an Officer's Dance.
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Medcalf, Mary.Oral History Interview with Mary Medcalf, December 27, 2000,
text,
December 27, 2000;
Fredericksburg, Texas.
(https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1603416/m1/4/:
accessed July 16, 2024),
University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.;
crediting National Museum of the Pacific War/Admiral Nimitz Foundation.