| Summary: | Doris (Williams) Mitchell was born in October 1923 in Milford, MA. After graduating high school, at the age of 18, she went to nursing school in Wooster, MA. After three years of nursing school she graduated as a registered nurse. Shortly before graduation an announcement was made appealing to their sense of patriotism and suggesting that they enlist in the military. Mitchells first choice was the navy but one of her brothers was serving in the navy as a corpsman and he recommended that she not join the navy. When several of her friends from nursing school decided to join the army she went with them. In late 1944 Mitchell volunteered for service in the US Army Nurse Corps. After being inducted into the army Mitchell was sent to Ft. Devens, MA for basic training. In basic she did a lot of pushups and several long road marches. It was tough training but she got through it. As soon as she graduated basic training in May 1945 Mitchell was put on a train to Ft. Jackson, SC when she spent a brief time before continuing on to New Orleans, LA. In mid August 1945 she boarded a ship bound for the Philippines. On the way the ship ran into a hurricane which caused some damage to the vessel and scared the nurses aboard. After a three week stop in Hawaii for repairs they continued on. She arrived off Manila on 11 November 1945 went ashore the following day. There she was assigned to the general hospital there. In the hospital the army nurses treated primarily sick servicemen although she did have one female civilian who had contracted TB. Many of the GIs who were admitted to the hospital had gonorrhea.
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