February 19, 2021
Hello ,
Yes, this newsletter looks different this week! I've simplified it to show up in a format that is easier to read on both desktop and mobile.
And I've changed the color scheme to match my new website. More on that below!
But first, so many of the POW military nurses I wrote about in Pure Grit captured my heart with their bravery and good humor, the book could not contain all the little stories that endeared them to me.
One of the nurse's birthday comes up next week, as well as George Washington's, and I'm seizing this opportunity to draw a line, connect the dots of history and tell you how the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army had hand in honoring a WWII army nurse.
Connecting the Dots to a Purple Heart
1st. Lt. Rita G. (Palmer) James
Feb. 23, 1918 - Feb. 14, 2002
Rita Palmer, from Hampton, New Hampshire, was one of the youngest American military nurses in the Philippines, when the Japanese attacked December 8, 1941.
She celebrated her 23rd birthday tending wounded men in a jungle hospital on the Bataan Peninsula.
The Japanese army had forced US troops to retreat to the peninsula, ground and air assaults pushing their backs to the sea. Two US army field hospital overflowed with the wounded and nurses and soldiers alike sicken with dysentery due to a lack of clean drinking water.
Rita and the other nurses worked 18-hour shifts in primitive conditions. Three days after her birthday, a rat crawled into her sleeping quarter and bit her. Luckily, it turned out not to be serious. But on the morning of April 6th, Rita suffered a worse attack.
The Japanese dropped ten bombs on this field hospital. One hit in the middle of the large red cross in the yard identifying this as a medical site where none of the people were armed. Another bomb hit Rita's ward.
"I remember coming to and having long beams of the roof over me and struggling out from under those," Rita said. "I have no idea how long I was knocked out. I could breathe all right, but one finger of one hand was incapacitated. I didn't even know about the piece (of shrapnel) in my chest for several hours. It didn't penetrate my lung. I had shrapnel in my legs
too."
Only one small section of Rita's ward remained untouched. "We worked wildly to get to the men who might be buried, still alive, under the mass of wreckage, tearing apart the smashed beds to reach the wounded and the dead."
Rita looked up at one point to see another nurse, Rosemary Hogan, being taken from the wreckage. Blood streamed from her face and shoulder; she looked ghastly. 'Hogan,' I called, 'Hogan, is it bad?' She managed to wave her good arm at me. 'Just a little nose bleed,' she said cheerfully, "How about you?"
Rita and Rosemary evacuated to Corregidor Island the night before US forces on Bataan surrendered to the Japanese. They escaped Corregidor before it fell to the Japanese, but were eventually captured along with nearly 80 other Army and Navy nurses.
Rita's celebrated her 24th, 25th and 26th birthday imprisoned in Santo Tomas Internment Camp in Manila, where conditions became more desperate each year. Some of the nurses feared they would starve today before US forces arrived to free them. Rita suffered i.
When American tanks crashed through the gates the night of February 3, 1945, Rita was hospitalized she was weak from hunger and sick with hepatitis and beriberi. She weighted 85 pounds.
When nurses recovered enough to travel they flew home, landing in San Francisco February 23, Rita's 27th birthday. She had a small party, but may not
have been able to enjoy much cake due her starvation diet in captivity, though in the twenty days since she was liberated, she had gained 20 pounds.
Shortly thereafter, both Rita and Rosemary were awarded the Purple Heart for their war injuries. Below you see their smiles. Another army nurse, Mary Brown Menzie who was wounded on Corregidor also received the Purple Heart.
The Purple Heart is the US military's oldest badge of honor, instituted by George Washington, commander-in-chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolution.
The original medal, sewn onto the coat, was a purple heart-shaped piece of cloth edged with silver braid. Washington called it the Badge for Military Merit. it was the first award meant for enlisted troops. Before this, the only way to
recognize heroism by an enlisted soldier was to promote him, or for a general to give him a battlefield commission. and awarded it to only three men for their bravery in battle
Then the decoration slipped into history until the bicentennial of George Washington's birthday, February 22, 1932. For that occasion, the badge was redesigned and brought back into use to honor soldiers wounded in combat. It was officially renamed as the Purple Heart.
Chief Nurse Beatrice Mary MacDonald became the first woman honored with the Purple heart in 1936 when she was honored retroactively for wounds she received during WWI. Betty lost an eye when German aircraft bombed the hospital where she was working in
Belgium.
In the early years of WWII the medal the medal changed again, as the military started to award it posthumously to men who'd died, as well as those wounded. Half a million purple hearts produced in preparation for invading Japan were not needed.
Purple Heart Day is celebrated every August 7th to acknowledge and remember the sacrifices made by the brave men and women serving America.
Writer Resurrects Tech Skills
to Slay Dinosaur
Maybe you never visited my old website, but the look of it had not changed since 2014, which means it was a dinosaur in 2016. Definitely a fossil five years later, and featuring me in glasses I barely remember myself wearing. 😃
I don't write computer code, so I use simple drag and drop website hosting that allows me to create the site myself. I have have a lot of fun working on it, plus that allows me the option to change or add new content whenever I like.
So, might ask, Mary, why was updating it on your list of things to do for the last three years?
I learned something valuable through this process. And I hope I can carry the lesson forward into future projects.
I kept putting off the job of updating my website. I thought I didn't have time to do it. In the back of my mind I considered hiring someone, but I didn't have time to research web designers.
Now I realize, "not having time" was not the problem. I was paralyzed by a few questions I didn't have the knowledge to answer.
In January, I decided to hire a consultant to advise me on upping my game on social media and helping me improve my book promotion. It was a tough decision because I end up spending most of the money I make writing books on researching new books and promoting prior books. It's a zero sum game. You have to love it.
The consultant's knowledge of the market helped me answer my questions and move forward on the website update with confidence. I was amazed that I finished in two weeks and had great fun doing it!
I'm really proud of it. If you see any typos, let me know.
It really pays to have people on my team who are experts in areas where I am not.
Did you hear about the 90-year-old woman who walked six miles through the snow to get her Covid-19 vaccine? It's no joke! Thanks to Lori for sending this to me.
Seattle resident Fran Goldman told local Q13 News, "I had been spending a great deal of my time trying to get an appointment for a vaccination and finally on Friday, late afternoon I got one. I woke up Saturday to all the snow and thought ‘uh oh’," Click here for the full story.
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To find out more about my books, how I help students, teachers, librarians and writers visit my website at www.MaryCronkFarrell.com.
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