Newman, Connie Oral History

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Connie Newman was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut in January 1921. Her father was abusive and her mother divorced him when she was a young child. She was raised by her stepfather and mother. Her parents moved to New York City while in High School and she decided to stay in Connecticut and graduated from Milford High School. She found a job at McGraw-Hill Publishing in NY and worked there for 3 years to earn money to enter nursing school. She attended Bellevue Nursing School in NY as World War II started. Her two other brothers were also in the military during the war. She enlisted in the Army Nurse Corp in Oct 1944 and served until March of 1946. Achieving the rank of 1st Lieutenant. Upon enlisting, she was sent to basic army nurse training at England General Hospital (Atlantic City) for 6 weeks. From there she went to Fort Niagara, New York (to work with German prisoners) and then Camp Anza, California as a member of the 96th Army field hospital. She, along with a small group of nurses then left the United States and traveled on the USS Admiral Benson, heading for India. The trip took 30 days in April 1945 and went around Australia. They landed in Bombay, India then went to Calcutta, India by train. She was first temporarily assigned to the 142nd General Hospital in Calcutta for the surgical ward and then sent to Chabua, India in Northern India, assigned to the 234 General Hospital, while waiting to go to China. Eventually, it was decided they were not to go to China and they replaced a group of nurses that had died in a plane crash in Ledo, India. Next, they were sent to Japan, by ship (USS General Collins). The trip took 47 days and they were not told where they were going. By the time they reached Okinawa, Japan, the war was over. She mentions a typhoon around the time that caused some ships to sink. She was then assigned to the 233rd (later 9th) General Hospital. Connie was a charge nurse for surgical patients. They lived in tents until eventually moving to huts. In her limited free time, she also found time to sing Blues with the SkyLiners and Red Ranson's Orchestra, part of the 333rd bomber group. After a few months, they were replaced by another group of Army nurses. In Jan 1946, she boarded the USS Lyon to go back to the USA. Landing in San Francisco in Feb, she traveled by train to Fort Dix, NJ and was honorably discharged. She decided to go back to Texas. Eventually marrying in 1947 and becoming a Garland School Nurse.