Healing Th Pacific, An Oral History

6 Pages 1472 Words

Sophie Georges was born in Calgary, Alberta, on January 14th, 1916. Five years after she was born, her family moved to Pennsylvania, in the United States, to live with her mother’s cousins. Her father had grown sick and passed away; Sophie’s mother had three children and nowhere else to turn. Sophie grew up in Pennsylvania, going to school and helping her aunt with chores in exchange for pocket money once a month to see the pictures. At age twenty she decided to leave her job as a store clerk, and so became a Naval nurse in September of 1936. Once Sophie had become fully qualified, she was given a placement in a naval hospital in Chelsea, MA, and in 1938 was transferred to the Annapolis Hospital. After two years, she was given the option of either going to Dietic School in order to further her degree, or to go to the Philippines with the Naval services. Without a moment’s hesitation, Sophie chose the Philippines. The thought of such a journey intrigued her, and within a month was aboard a transport ship by the name of the Chaumont.
After boarding at Norfolk, the ship traveled through the Panama Canal, stopping over at the infamous Pearl Harbor to pick up a few soldiers, most of whom were then dropped off at Midway. The Chaumont carried onto Guam, reaching the Philippines in July 1940. Sophie had spent the entire trip fighting seasickness, but didn’t care. Everything was so different, so exotic. At this time, the war had not reached the Philippines, and the area was still more or less calm.
Sophie started work right away; she’d been assigned as a junior nurse. Work started at 8am. Lunch was at 1pm, and the nurses then received the rest of the day off. The girls could go golfing, biking, or swimming in the local town. The houseboys cleaned the nurses’ shoes for a charge of $5, and the cleaning woman did the laundry with eagerness and ease. Sophie had no way of knowing that the war had started until her roommate’s boyfrie...