"If you get hit, you get hit. If you didn't get hit, you thanked goodness, but you knew all the time that you could be killed. You're in a combat zone all the time, and people get killed in combat zones." — Lt. Helen Molony, 48th Surgical Hospital/128th Evacuation Hospital.
Helen Molony's memory of the dangerous road trip toward the Kasserine Pass in North Africa is just one of many documented in the gripping book, "And If I Perish: Frontline U.S. Army Nurses in World War II."
Written by former Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center nurse Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee and psychologist Evelyn M. Monahan, the book explores the battles of World War II as seen through the eyes of nurses like Molony, who served overseas.
From Operation Torch, where nurses with no military training landed on the beaches of North Africa, to the bombing of the hospital ship HMHS Newfoundland to the horrors found when emancipating the prisoners at Dachau, this book chronicles the day-to-day lives and extraordinary conditions nurses worked under to care for wounded soldiers on the battlefields of Europe and North Africa.
More than 59,000 nurses volunteered to serve in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps during World War II; 217 lost their lives and more than 1,600 were decorated for meritorious service and bravery under fire. Yet their stories have rarely been told outside of family circles.
The authors wanted to do something about it.
"As strange it it may seem today, no one kept records of these women — not the military, nor the U.S. Veteran's Administration nor any historical society," said Neidel-Greenlee, who served in the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps. Monahan served in the Women's Army Corps.
The authors were inspired to write about these nursing vets after their own experiences in helping coordinate a national effort to recognize women veterans.
In 1985, Neidel-Greenlee was appointed the first women veteran's coordinator at the VA medical center in Atlanta. And in 1987, Monahan was appointed coordinator for the VA regional office in Atlanta.
As the 50th anniversary of World War II was approaching, they were asked to co-sponsor the first national salute to women veterans of World War II.
After the ceremony, the women sent out a national appeal asking for remembrances from women who had served as nurses during World War II. Soon, the authors received buckets of letters from women and their families who wanted to talk about their experiences.
The result was a 12-year journey of writing and recording the stories of more than 70 of these women. The book was published this past fall.
"We hope the book shows what some of the women of the greatest generation have done," said Monahan. Many of the women who were interviewed never saw the finished product, passing away before it was published, she said.
The book is available on amazon.com and at Borders Books & Music.