We have been learning about Ann (Benson) Rudolph, who grew up in the Chicago area, graduated from Denbard High School in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, in 1960, and graduated from the nursing program at St. Olaf College in Northfield in 1964, owing the Army two years of service as a nurse for their financial support during her senior year of college.

First, Ann had to pass her nursing licensure boards.

“It was two days in a big room at the University of Minnesota. I remember between exams us sitting on a knoll outside of one of the buildings. Gosh, I get palpitations remembering it. I was at home at my parents’ home when I got the results. They had moved to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, my senior year. We got the envelope and I opened it. You were graded on four sections. I was pretty sure I had too low a number on one and was weeping. Mother took the letter and said, ‘Ann, you passed! You passed!'”

With her Minnesota nursing license in hand, Ann began her journey as an Army nurse.

“We had to go to a Basic Course at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. You had to get yourself there. I flew to Rapid City. Marilee had been my roommate since our sophomore year and all of our junior and senior year. We still call each other ‘roomie.’ I went to her house and she’d gotten a stick shift car. (Ann made a face) Her brother, Jimmy, taught me on the high school parking lot. Wouldn’t you know that all the way from Rapid City down to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, the only hill that we had to go up and there was a stop light, I was driving. (Ann laughed) I said, ‘Merrilee, we’re going to die. (Ann laughed again) We’ll never make it to Texas.’ But I did it and that’s my memory of that trip.”

The new Army nurse recruits, a group Ann estimated at 40 women and some men, began their new life.

“We were in a dorm. Then we all met a bunch of people and got a schedule. We received a uniform with green tops and skirts. They were not solid green, but like a stripe. We were all in a classroom together where everybody learned how to chart and what the rules were. I thought this was a good idea because regardless where we were stationed, all the charting’s going to be uniform. I don’t think we had any homework, but it was interesting because it was what we would be doing, wherever where we were stationed.”

Ann explained that living in San Antonio in summer taught the nurse recruits other skills.

“I remember the buildings all around us in a square — a quadrangle. (We) went to class in a big building and then lined up in that square. Cement. August. San Antonio. By the time we were released after being lined up there after classes, there was an Officer’s Club over here, so we’d all, ‘Zhoup!’ (Ann chuckled) That’s where I learned to drink beer because you were so hot!”

The nurse recruits were fitted for their duty uniforms; nurse whites, dress greens, dress blues, and green fatigue uniforms.

“I was measured for fatigues and boots and we had to wear them in the field. We went off-campus and learned how to shoot a gun. (Ann chuckled) How tired we were when we were done with that stuff! We just all bonded and did it. You just do what you’re told — it’s your upbringing.”

Ann recalled their Basic Course was at least four weeks long, but some nurse recruits couldn’t wait that long.

“A couple of our friends went AWOL. We weren’t supposed to leave, but one went back to Maryland to see her boyfriend and came back. They didn’t even slap her hand (Ann laughed) because she was later in my unit.”

Ann met someone at Fort Sam beyond her new nurse friends.

“I met a guy. We weren’t serious, but we dated. He had big ideas for our future, to which I thought, ‘Are you out of your mind? You are going who knows where and I’m going who knows where? (Ann laughed) This isn’t going to work!’ He was a really nice guy. I liked him a lot, but didn’t love him.”

The nurse recruits had an opportunity to request their initial assignments.

“We could ask for three different assignments to places we wanted to go. Merilee and I went to Walter Reed Army Medical Center. I have no idea if that was one of our choices.”

Ann and her friends, old and new, graduated from the Nursing Officer Basic Course, pinned on the single, gold bar of a second lieutenant, and headed out to their first Army assignment.

“Most of us were just ready to get out of there; go to wherever we were stationed; and start being nurses. (Marilee and I) had to drive her car again, this time from Texas to Washington, D.C.”

She remembered their arrival and first impressions of Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

“It was big. Overpowering. Important. Once we got there she was assigned to Male Neurosurgery and I was assigned to Dependents Neurosurgery, which was women. We enjoyed our jobs. Once we had been there a while, living in a dorm or barracks, we joined with another and rented a townhouse in Silver Springs.”

Ann was an Army Nurse serving on active duty, but her responsibilities shifted while at Walter Reed, leading to unexpected encounters with history.

©2024 William D. Palmer.