T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History Collection

ABSTRACT

INTERVIEWEE NAME: Ida Turcan COLLECTION: 4700.0829

IDENTIFICATION: [1918 - ] World War Two Nurse

INTERVIEWER: Adele Foster

PROJECT:

DATES: 6/23/97 FOCUS DATES: 1920s - 1960s

ABSTRACT:

T 1191

Description of early Mandeville; Turcan enters nursing school; decides to join the Nurse Corps, goes overseas; on setting up field hospital in North Africa; early experiences with casualties; daily life in field hospital; on the SE Louisiana tradition of addressing women as "Miss…"; use of medical maggots and early penicillin; Gen. George Patton; describes types of common casualties seen; on keeping up with friends after the war; on meeting Bob Hope, the Hope visit and other USO celebrities; on dating and marriage in the service; relocation to Italy; meeting Pope Pius; the bombing of a hospital in Italy; considerations and difficulties of leaving home to go to war; transfers to France, begins discussion of D-Day; on dating in France; explains nurse salary and rank before and after W.A.C. involvement; describes visits home on leave; gives opinion of the bombing of Japan; on coming home after war; returning to school at LSU on GI Bill; gets pilot's license; begins work for Red Cross after getting bachelor's in nursing education; meets husband in Baton Rouge; describes Red Cross duties during Hurricane Audrey, 1957;

T 1192

Turcan marries in 1958 at age 39; moves with husband to Arizona; speaks on current military scandals in light of past experiences;

TAPES: 1191,1192 TOTAL PLAYING TIME: 90 min, 15 min

# PAGES TRANSCRIPT: 85

RESTRICTIONS: none