DOROTHY SCHOLL
US ARMY NURSE CORPS 1941-1946
Dorothy Belle Scholl was born 29-APR 1913 in Shamrock Missouri (NW of Warrenton off I-70). Her father was Milton Scholl (1859-1939) and mother was Carrie Deliah Cobb Scholl (1872-1953). Dorothy had five brothers: Forest, Henry, Harris, Dennis, and Francis and four sisters: Mattie, Josephine, Irene, and Mary. Dorothy graduated from Montgomery High School and entered nurses training at Independence Sanitarium. Dorothy had talked about becoming a nurse ever since she was young. Following her training at the sanitarium, Dorothy served as a private duty nurse at St. Joseph Hospital and then went to Letterman General Hospital in San Francisco where she served as a civilian nurse for the Army. She was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in May 1940 and left for the Philippines on 28-AUG 1941.
In 1941, Dorothy reported to an assignment in the Philippines, much coveted by the Army nurses then on active duty. She was stationed at Sternberg Hospital in Manila. The balmy green islands were a paradise for liberty, and the ratio of patients to medical personnel ensured a reasonable work schedule for the nurses assigned to the various Anny medical installations on the islands.
For the Army nurses there, it was a time when duty hours were often, and liberty opportunities were unlimited. Many of the nurses took advantage of their abundant free time to develop their golf or tennis game. Night life might consist of dinner and drinks at the Army-Navy Club in Manila, followed by evening gowns, dress uniforms, dancing, and entertainment at the popular Manila Hotel. In such a carefree atmosphere, romances flourished.
Then on 7-DEC 1941, Pearl Harbor was bombed. Just ten hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan launched a surprise attack on Clark Field in the Philippines on 8-DEC 1941.
Dorothy was about to become the first U.S. Army Nurses to serve on the battlefield.
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