Her father objected even more strenuously than he had when she enlisted in the army soon after war was declared. And this time his objection was that the missions she’d be flying as a nurse, bringing wounded men back from the front lines, would be dangerous. He didn’t want to lose his only child. But nothing could ever stop Louise once she made up her mind, and this time was no different.
She arrived promptly at five p.m. on New Year’s Day at Bowman Field, Kentucky. She was in proper uniform, suitcase in hand, ready for six weeks of intense training. The group was divided and assigned to twenty-bed barracks, and the sergeant in charge directed her to a bed on the far end. The sergeant was as startled as many of the nurses to see Louise appear, but she looked calm and confident as she changed into the overalls they’d been given to do an hour of push-ups before dinner. No one made a single comment to see a woman of her race in their midst. There were a few glances exchanged, but nothing was said.
She lined up behind Audrey and Lizzie in the mess tent, with Alex right behind her. Alex was groaning at the push-ups they’d just done, and Lizzie was making fun of her.
“What happened to map reading on the list of courses?” Alex complained. “I won’t be able to walk tomorrow.”
“Wait until ‘simulated enemy attack’ and parachute jumping,” Lizzie added.
“I’m a nurse, not a stuntwoman,” Alex said, and smiled at Louise. The overalls were too big for all of them, but there were none small enough for women, and they had to make do with what they were given. None of them had had time to make them fit.
“Did you all transfer in together?” Louise asked them. They seemed to know each other too well for the first day.
“Lizzie and I were stationed at the Presidio together, in San Francisco, and we just got transferred here,” Alex explained. “Audrey and Lizzie went to nursing school together before the war, and Audrey just enlisted and finished basic nurses’ training. And we all wound up here together. We requested it.” They were at the front of the line by then, and Audrey turned to Louise with a warm smile.
“Do you want to join us for dinner?” She invited her and Louise was pleased.
“I’d love it. I just flew in from Chicago. I’ve been stationed there for two years. It’s a great city.”
The four of them helped themselves to a hearty but unappetizing meal, and were told as soon as they finished that their half of the unit was to report to the pool. They would be swimming forty laps immediately after dinner. The thought of it nearly made them feel sick.
“I get it,” Alex complained again. “They’re trying to kill us. Is this the simulated enemy attack? Death by cramps in the pool after dinner?”
“No, I think they do that by shooting at us,” Lizzie answered her, and the others laughed. Louise had had a good time eating dinner with them. As they headed for the pool at a dead run after disposing of their trays, Louise wondered if anyone would object when she got into the pool. This was a new experience for her. Even in Chicago, which was a northern state, there were things she couldn’t do, particularly in the military. Her unit in Chicago had been entirely composed of Black nurses, and the patients she ministered to were Black soldiers as well. She had never had a white patient, in nursing school or since. And as the only colored woman entering the pool, she expected someone to object, and was astonished when no one did. She paused for a moment at the edge of the pool, waiting for someone to say something unpleasant, and Alex noticed it.
“What are you waiting for? Oh God, I hope you can swim. I won’t know how to save you, so please don’t drown.” The real reason for Louise’s hesitation never occurred to Alex, which Louise realized too. As far as what she lived with on a daily basis, and had all her life, these women were innocents, and none of them were from the South, so the whole notion of segregation was foreign to them.
“No, just chicken,” she answered Alex. “I figured I’d let you test how cold it is.”
“Thanks a lot,” Alex said and jumped in, and Louise dove in neatly beside her. They were all wearing extremely ugly army-issue bathing suits. And the water, they rapidly discovered, was freezing, intentionally.
After swimming forty laps, most of them could barely crawl out of the pool. While still soaking wet in January, they were ordered to run two miles before they could come back for a hot shower. By the time they did, they were all shivering and their legs were weak from the exertion. Their wet hair under their army-issue bathing caps made them even colder.
“Whose idea was this?” Lizzie said feeling miserable, looking at her three cohorts. “Take me back to San Francisco.” Audrey had actually held up better than the others and surprised herself.
They were allowed to go back to their barracks after that, and were ordered to go to bed. They were told they’d have calisthenics the next morning at four a.m.
As Louise walked past the sergeant, the short, tough-looking woman spoke to her under her breath.
“You think you’re special, don’t you? Is your mama white?”
“No, she’s Ethiopian,” Louise said coolly.
“Smart-ass me, and you’ll wind up in solitary.”
“In the real world, Sergeant,” Louise said quietly as the others listened, worried for her, “I outrank you.”
“This isn’t the real world. This is my world, and don’t you forget it.”
“Yes, Sergeant,” Louise said, and walked to her bed. But she had said what she needed to, and the sergeant left a few minutes later.
“I think they’re just trying to prepare us for combat,” Lizzie said nervously. She hadn’t run into anyone like the nasty little sergeant before.
“I’m used to it,” Louise said softly. “I deal with that in some form every day.” It shocked the others, who hadn’t been exposed to it. But Louise looked undisturbed when they went to the bathroom together a few minutes later to brush their teeth, dry their hair with towels, and get ready for bed. It was the first time she had lived among white women.
“Why in God’s name do we have to get up at four a.m.?” Alex complained as she got into bed.
“Just to prove they can make us do it,” Audrey answered, and Lizzie agreed. “Eventually, we’ll start classes, and it should get easier after that.”
It didn’t get easier for the nurses in the air evac training program for several weeks. The classes were fascinating and intense. The simulated enemy attack was terrifying, with blanks, which they were told were real bullets, whizzing past them and over their heads. The physical challenges were constant and exhausting. They learned field survival, ditching and crash procedures, how to use their parachutes, and what to do if they got lost behind enemy lines. They assumed that their medical skills were adequate for the job they had to do, but their military abilities had to be equally so, in the air and on the ground.