Recollections of CAPT Ann Bernatitus, NC, USN, (Ret.), continued (part 2)

Were the patients transported by ambulance?
I don't recall, but we went by car Laura Cobb lined us up in the living room asking for volunteers to go. First thing you know, Mary Chapman volunteered. There were no other volunteers. I don't remember how many times she said "Who's going to volunteer?" Nobody would. So, I got real bright and said, "Why don't you make us draw straws? Then no one can ever come back at you and say, `If you hadn't made me do this, this wouldn't have happened.'" Laura thought that was a good idea. So she went out to the other room and got long applicator sticks with cotton on the end and held them in her hands like this. And she went over to Goldia O'Haver. Goldia then pulled one out. It was long so she knew she didn't have to go. She came to me and I pulled the short one. So I had to go.

That afternoon they took us to the nurse's quarters at Sternberg. You wouldn't believe it. When those nurses came off duty, they always served tea and those nurses were having tea. War had been declared and they were having tea.

Was that on the 9th?
Yes. It must have been. It was the day after the war began that the decision was made to evacuate the patients. (referring to a document) Those 68 enlisted men and veterans who were ambulatory went back to their ships on December 8. Nichols Field was bombed on the 9th. The remaining patients were transferred to Army Sternberg Hospital to be accompanied by two corpsmen and two nurses.

When we got to Sternberg they had us in some kind of a barracks for the Navy patients. Mary Chapman, who was senior to me, took morning duty and I had to take night duty. I have it here (again referring to document). We were located in one of the barracks recently vacated by the Philippine Scouts. On December 10, the Japanese bombed the Navy Yard at Cavite on Sangley Point.

You were at Sternberg while all that was going on?
Yes. We were out in the courtyard of the nurses' quarters watching all this. There were fox holes dug there. It says here, (referring to the document) they were bombed by approximately 125 planes flying at 20,000 feet. The patients who were brought in were given first aid at the Navy Hospital and transferred to Sternberg immediately. On the 11th of December medical personnel at Canacao evacuated and reported to Sternberg in Manila. Within 2 or 3 days of reporting, CAPT Davis received orders to establish a temporary hospital at Balintawok. That was just outside Manila. One half of the Navy medical personnel went with the group. I think that was Laura Cobb, Margaret Nash, Eldene Paige, Bertha Evans, Edwina Todd, and Helen Gorzalanski.

You were still at Sternberg at this time?
Yes. This was where we separated. (again referring to document) Those remaining were divided into teams and assigned to units being set up in other areas of Manila. Dorothy Still, Susie Pitcher, and Edwina Todd went to the Jai Lai Club. Mary Chapman and Mary Harrington went to Holy Ghost. Dorothy Still and I originally were to go to Santa Scholastica with Dr. Carey Smith and Dr. Claude Fraley and corpsmen Jones and Cary.

Santa Scholastica College was a girl's school located in the vicinity of the Philippine General Hospital. We two nurses and the two corpsmen were on the bus just about to leave when someone came aboard and told Dorothy that she was being reassigned to Jai Lai.

So, the two of you were on the bus with the doctors and corpsmen.
Yes.

And someone came on the bus and told her that she should report to the Jai Lai Club?
Yes.

So, you were now the only nurse on the bus with the two doctors and two corpsmen?
Yes. When we got to the school [Santa Scholastica] we found other medical personnel were there already setting up the hospital unit. Our job was to set up the emergency operating room facility. I don't recall our living quarters, but apparently they were adequate. Since we were the only Navy personnel, we formed a kind of clique. In the evenings we got together and sat out on the lawn.

About this time, General MacArthur declared Manila an open city.
That's when all this happened. And why did I get picked to go to Bataan? Only for one reason. When he declared Manila an open city, they were sending surgeons out to Bataan. They weren't picking general medical men. The fact that I had been Dr. Smith's ward nurse and I had the background in operating room, he picked me.

It all boils down to this. Since you had worked for Carey Smith as a surgical nurse, he knew you, he had worked with you. And since he was going, you were the logical choice.
Yes.

Bertha Evans told me that everyone at these remote locations in Manila were awaiting orders and there were no orders. There was so much confusion. The Army marched their patients down and put them on a hospital ship. As Bertha recalled, "What about the Navy patients? What's supposed to happen to them?" Nothing happened. They sat there. Is that how you remember it?
I wasn't with them, That was the whole trouble. (referring to her document) On December 22, Dr. Smith informed me about 7 p.m. that Manila was to be declared an open city and that surgical units were selected to go to Bataan on Christmas eve. Our unit was included.

So you and Dr. Carey Smith and Dr. Fraley, Jones, and Carey, as part of that unit, were to go to Bataan.
Yes.

Dr. Smith told you that you had been selected. who gave him the orders?
Whoever was in charge of Santa Scholastica. The Army was there so I don't know. (referring to document) It says here that on the 24th we left at 6 a.m. and were taken to Jai Lai, where the convoy was to form to go to Bataan. Being alone, I sat on the curb to get out of the way, when one of the Navy nurses, Dorothy Still, assigned to Jai Lai, came out and found me. She wanted to know what I was doing there. I told her I was going to Bataan. She asked me where it was and I told her I had never heard of it until 2 days ago. At that time, I recall walking into the Jai Lai building to see how they had set up approximately 100 beds on the porch. This is in Dr. Davis' diary. It was about this time that Dr. Davis at the Philippine Union College in Balintawok received orders to evacuate the patients and personnel to Santa Scholastica. According to a newspaper article on 3/17/46 by CAPT [Lea] Sartin, approximately 160 Navy and 100 Army patients were treated and facilities were prepared for 700. CAPT Davis ordered the Canacao unit to stay together and serve until further orders came. New orders never came.

What about the convoy to Bataan?
It formed up at Jai Lai.

Did you see the other nurses?
No. Just Dorothy. I was waiting on the curb to get on the bus to go to Bataan.

So you never saw any of them until after the war?
Yes. That's right. Anyway, the convoy took off for Bataan. There were 24 Army nurses, 25 Filipino nurses and me, the 1 Navy nurse. As we passed through the villages, the natives came out and cheered us giving us the "V" for victory sign. Many times during the trip the bus would have to stop and we would dive into gutters along the roadside because the Japanese planes were overhead. Late that afternoon we arrived at Camp Limay, Hospital Number 1. There were 25 wooden, one-story buildings, 15 of them wards. A water pipe outside each ward provided water. The utility room for the bedpans and what have you was the back porch. The buildings were in a rectangle with the operating room building at the upper end with a generator and water towers alongside. At the further end was the building housing the nurses' quarters and the officer's mess hall. The remaining buildings were along each side. Behind the buildings on the left side of the beach was a warehouse in which were stored the equipment and supplies for the hospital. In the center of this area was grass and trees and foxholes dug everywhere. We were assigned two to a room. My roommate Was Arlene Ellen Francis.

The first few days I was assigned ward duty but this was changed and I was reassigned to the operating room. You know, they really left me alone. I only worked when Dr. Smith worked. He was the one who took care of me. The Army nurses didn't bother me. I was a member or Dr. Smith's team.

Let me go on. (continues reading from document) Everyone was involved in setting up the hospital. All the supplies and equipment were crated and stored in the warehouse on the beach. The crates were neither marked nor stored as units so the Navy crates had to be opened before you found the items for your particular unit. I recall a crate being opened and in it were surgical gowns wrapped in newspapers dated 1917.

The operating room was a long narrow building with approximately seven or eight tables set up in the center. Along the window openings were the cabinets with supplies. There were shutters with a stick to keep them open. I'm a bit vague on how we sterilized the gauze and linen but it seems to me it was done in pressure cooker operated by kerosene. The instruments were sterilized by placing them in a foot tub filled with Lysol, then rinsed in alcohol. The period of sterilization depended on how fast they were needed. As the patients were brought in they were assigned to a table by Dr. Weinstein of the Army Medical Corps. The team assigned to that table took care of the patient regardless of what type of surgery was indicated. Casualties were heavy and the operating room was an extremely busy place.

We got there on December 24th. On January 23, 1942, Camp Limay moved to Little Baguio farther down the peninsula. We had two meals a day: 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. The wards ware just concrete slabs with corrugated roofs. They were open on the sides. The operating room was on a little knoll.
On March 3, the hospital was bombed, even though the warehouse on the beach had a big red cross.

You were there when the bombs dropped.
Are you kidding? Outside the operating room was a bench. I almost killed myself trying to get under that bench.

Did you bear the planes coming?
Yes. The alarm would sound and then you could hear the bombs coming down--a whistling sound. On April 7 the Japanese apologized. It had been a mistake. That hospital was right next door to the ammunition dump.

I imagine there were killed and wounded.
Oh, yes. Every operating table would be filled. They would come in from the field all dirty. You did what you could There were lice; I kept my hair covered all the time. He did a lot of leg amputations because we had a lot of gas gangrene out there. I remember one patient we were operating on. Dr. Smith didn't want to sew him back up. He had died. I remember telling him that I didn't want him to do that if anything happened to me. He said, "I'll sew him up just to shut you up." We were washing the dirty dressings that they used during an operation. We would wash them out and refold and sterilized them and use them again.

The operating theater and everything were right out there in the open? No screens or anything?
No. It was just the wards that were open. The OR was in a building. It was at Limay where we bad the long row of tables. At Little Baguio it was in a building. I can't remember exactly how many operating tables we had As you walked in, there was a setup for ear, nose, and throat.

Read part 3