Check Six: Convoy Nurses – 78 years ago

From the Images of Old Hawaii website

The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941; nineteen US Navy ships, including 8 battleships were destroyed or damaged; the attack killed 2,403 US personnel, including 68 civilians, and the wounded numbered 1,178. The leading causes of casualties were burns, compound fractures, flesh wounds (gunshots, shell, and shrapnel) and penetrating abdominal wounds. “The command decided that patients who would need more than 3 months treatment should be transferred. Some were very bad and probably should not have been moved.”

“The Hawaii Chapter of the American Red Cross requested the Nursing Service Bureau to obtain the services of seventeen nurses to leave on a ship for a port.” “This call came at 11:30 am. At 1:00 pm seventeen nurses, in uniform, with bags hurriedly packed, leaving families, Christmas trees and packages, were at the Mabel Smyth building.” The first convoy was formed and the evacuation of the wounded began 11-days after the attack.

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