thedrifter
04-19-09, 07:32 AM
If she could, she'd enlist again
April 19, 2009
BY SHENEQUA A. GOLDING Staff writer
Joan Schechner came from humble beginnings.
As the youngest of eight children, Schechner grew up on a farm in Indiana where she helped out by doing chores with the rest of her siblings.
After graduating from high school, Schechner, then 21, moved to Chicago -- or the "big city" as she called it -- and went to nursing school. While she was studying to be a nurse, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and America entered World War II.
The historic attack left Schechner upset and feeling disrespected.
"You felt violated to think that they came and bombed your country," she said.
Schechner said after seeing the attack, she knew right away she wanted to enlist
"Both of my brothers were called (in the draft), and I wanted to go," she said. "I wasn't scared, it just seemed like the thing to do."
About two months after enlisting, Schechner began her service in the Army Nurse Corps and went to Pearl Harbor for a few weeks. She then went to Saipan, a northern Mariana Island, to serve in an Army hospital.
During the battle of Iwo Jima, Schechner said a lot of the hand-to-hand combat was done by Marines, and many of them were young. The casualties were brought back to the hospital she worked at.
One of the them was an 18-year-old Marine who struck a chord with the then-24-year-old Schechner.
"One of the Marines I took care of, he was an Iwo Jima casualty and he kept on saying, 'If I could just go home and eat my mother's cooking I'd get better.' He didn't realize just yet he was a paraplegic," she said. "They all seemed too young to me. I just wanted to give them all a hug and send them home to their mothers, but you couldn't do that."
Tending to the wounds of soldiers may have been what Schechner enlisted for, but there were times her life was in danger as well, which sometimes frightened her.
"Oh yeah (I was scared)" she said. "In your hospital, you heard the suicide planes fly over the hospitals. The siren would go off and it could be one of the Kamikaze planes. We were lucky we were never bombed. They were looking for the big ships out in the harbor."
Despite the danger, Schechner said it wasn't always bad. There were good times.
"The best times actually were with all the nurses because we were together from the beginning to the end. We were confined together," she said. "We worked, we ate and we slept together, and you become so very close together. And then when the war was over and it was time to leave, you felt so very bad."
To keep her spirits up, Schechner said she and her mother wrote letters back and forth. But survival and maintaining sanity for Schechner came from a different place.
"You always had to have faith that everything was going to come out all right in the end."
At the end of the war, the 26-year-old returned to Chicago and began working at what is now called Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
Soon after the war, she married her husband, Robert, and they had four children. He died 14 years ago.
Now 88 and living in Evergreen Park, Schechner said she would enlist again today if given the chance.
"Oh, I'd do it again because I'm patriotic," she said.
Shenequa A. Golding can be reached at sgolding@southtownstar.com or (708) 633-5991.
Ellie
April 19, 2009
BY SHENEQUA A. GOLDING Staff writer
Joan Schechner came from humble beginnings.
As the youngest of eight children, Schechner grew up on a farm in Indiana where she helped out by doing chores with the rest of her siblings.
After graduating from high school, Schechner, then 21, moved to Chicago -- or the "big city" as she called it -- and went to nursing school. While she was studying to be a nurse, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and America entered World War II.
The historic attack left Schechner upset and feeling disrespected.
"You felt violated to think that they came and bombed your country," she said.
Schechner said after seeing the attack, she knew right away she wanted to enlist
"Both of my brothers were called (in the draft), and I wanted to go," she said. "I wasn't scared, it just seemed like the thing to do."
About two months after enlisting, Schechner began her service in the Army Nurse Corps and went to Pearl Harbor for a few weeks. She then went to Saipan, a northern Mariana Island, to serve in an Army hospital.
During the battle of Iwo Jima, Schechner said a lot of the hand-to-hand combat was done by Marines, and many of them were young. The casualties were brought back to the hospital she worked at.
One of the them was an 18-year-old Marine who struck a chord with the then-24-year-old Schechner.
"One of the Marines I took care of, he was an Iwo Jima casualty and he kept on saying, 'If I could just go home and eat my mother's cooking I'd get better.' He didn't realize just yet he was a paraplegic," she said. "They all seemed too young to me. I just wanted to give them all a hug and send them home to their mothers, but you couldn't do that."
Tending to the wounds of soldiers may have been what Schechner enlisted for, but there were times her life was in danger as well, which sometimes frightened her.
"Oh yeah (I was scared)" she said. "In your hospital, you heard the suicide planes fly over the hospitals. The siren would go off and it could be one of the Kamikaze planes. We were lucky we were never bombed. They were looking for the big ships out in the harbor."
Despite the danger, Schechner said it wasn't always bad. There were good times.
"The best times actually were with all the nurses because we were together from the beginning to the end. We were confined together," she said. "We worked, we ate and we slept together, and you become so very close together. And then when the war was over and it was time to leave, you felt so very bad."
To keep her spirits up, Schechner said she and her mother wrote letters back and forth. But survival and maintaining sanity for Schechner came from a different place.
"You always had to have faith that everything was going to come out all right in the end."
At the end of the war, the 26-year-old returned to Chicago and began working at what is now called Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
Soon after the war, she married her husband, Robert, and they had four children. He died 14 years ago.
Now 88 and living in Evergreen Park, Schechner said she would enlist again today if given the chance.
"Oh, I'd do it again because I'm patriotic," she said.
Shenequa A. Golding can be reached at sgolding@southtownstar.com or (708) 633-5991.
Ellie