WW II: 32nd General Hospital had its roots in Hoosier soil

Photo (above) by Chris Meyer Photo (right) courtesy of Jean Webster Then and now: Jean Coffey Webster served in World War II with the 32nd General Hospital Medical Corps. She is pictured (above) with some of her uniforms at her home at the Meadowood Retirement Community in Bloomington and (right) as an Army officer in the early 1940s. Currently, Meadowood is home to about 100 IU alumni and retired faculty and staff. Originally founded as Indiana University Retirement Community, Meadowood continues to have strong ties to IU and the community. http://www.retiretoiu.com/

ATV sitcom like M*A*S*H, it wasn't. But former Army nurse Jean Coffey Webster has her own personal share of war memories revolving around a military field hospital.

"I would take nothing for the experiences I had," said Webster, who served as director of nursing at the Indiana University Medical Center after her return from duty in World War II.

Back in 1942, it wasn't simply a matter of signing up and being sworn into the Army. Webster was enthusiastic about going but there was a problem. She didn't weigh enough.

"I had to gain 20 pounds. So I gave up my nursing job and went home and ate bananas and peanut butter," she said, laughing.

By joining the 32nd General Hospital Military Corps, she had the distinction of helping set up the first Army general hospital in England. Webster and her unit went over on the RMS Queen Mary, which had been stripped down to operate as a troop ship.

"I thought the start of our trip was funny. It was typical of Americans when we were boarding the ship to go overseas, we were walking up the gangplank with our coats on and the hoods filled with apples and candy. And we had on field boots and pistol belts and canteens. There was a band down there on the dock playing A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody. And we felt like anything but pretty girls. We got halfway up the gangplank, and the band started playing Pistol Packin' Mama.

Their destination was primarily a cluster of Quonset huts at Fairford in Gloucestershire.

Journey of the 32nd -- a trip through war-torn Europe The 32nd General Hospital Medical Corps was formed at the IU Medical Center in 1942 and two IU School of Medicine physicians, Cyrus Clark, a cardiologist and internist, and Charles F. Thompson, chief of surgery, were given the assignment of organizing the unit. The unit was named in honor of Lilly Base Hospital 32, a World War I medical unit which also had been formed at the IU Medical Center. After receiving training, the 32nd General Hospital traveled to England and, following the Allied invasion of Normandy, it was sent to France, arriving at Omaha Beach in July 1944 as the first general hospital to be stationed in that country. After a stint in Belgium, the unit moved on to be the only American general hospital stationed in Germany, in Aachen. The unit ceased operations in July 1945 and personnel were discharged at the Hoosier base, Camp Atterbury, in October 1945.

Some of Webster's most poignant memories are of the soldiers with spinal injuries.

"The worst thing was to go into the neurological ward. They were so young, and they were so cheerful and so kind to each other. We knew those boys were never going to walk again," explained Webster.

Her experience with former American Army prisoners of war was of a different kind.

"They had this moldy black bread that they wouldn't give up, even though they were in a general hospital. They wouldn't give it up because they kept it in reserve in case they got too hungry or were starving. I remember how those men looked."

For a few days after their arrival, when a plane flew over the hospital, the returned prisoners crawled under their beds "in a second" for protection.

Before the 32nd left for the continent, Webster was transferred to the 104th. She had the opportunity to see London when on leave and experience the fear of the German buzz bombs. Occasionally, she was invited to eat in the homes of English neighbors of the hospital.

"If they asked us out, the best thing we could take was chocolate or sugar or cigarettes for a gift. They put all of their sugar -- I'm sure it was their whole ration for a month -- on the table."

Webster and other veterans associated with the 32nd General Hospital Medical Corps will mark the 50th reunion of the unit next weekend on the Indianapolis campus. A reception in the unit's honor will be next Friday (Sept. 19) from 4-6 p.m. at the IUPUI University Library where an exhibit of archival photos, documents and original film footage has been assembled.

One of Webster's vivid memories is of the English people's fear of a German invasion.

"We had a nurse who needed an appendectomy -- we weren't quite set up yet -- and we needed to take her to another hospital that was 18 miles away. It took hours to get there because they had filed or chiseled off the names of buildings and taken down the markers for number of miles to go, and you had no way to get a bearing as to where you were," she said.

Webster had lunch with Sir Thomas Beecham's niece one time. The niece told of how the British feared invasion. They were instructed to have a pot of pepper inside their door, and if they opened the door and a German was there, they'd delay him by throwing pepper in his eyes.

Life was different in England at war -- blackout curtains and stoves that had to be started with coke.

"And we couldn't start fires before six in the morning or after six at night," Webster explained.

After Germany surrendered, she and some companions were walking home one night.

"We saw a whole group of people around a straw stack. And we asked somebody what they were doing. Well, they had buried jars and cans of fruit in the straw stack, and they were each one getting their own fruit back or whatever they had contributed."

At the end of the war, Webster was mustered out of the Army with the rank of captain. She enrolled at Columbia University and got a master's degree in counseling. While she was still in New York, she got a call from Indiana University, inviting her to become assistant director of nursing at the IU Medical Center.

"The director left shortly after I got there. So I was appointed director of nursing," said Webster. She also had the title of director of nursing services.

Webster, a native of Greenview, Ill., took her training at Union Hospital in Terre Haute and completed her bachelor's degree at the IU Medical Center.

She and her husband, whom she married in 1953, live in the Meadowood Retirement Community.

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