Anita Gaydos, Navy Nurse - Part II
In Part I of Anita’s account, the Navy personnel on board the hospital ship Solace were working around the clock to take care of the wounded from the Battle of Guam. These were discharged to land based hospitals in the Solomons, Manus, New Zealand, Australia, and Pearl Harbor, to name a few.
As soon as they discharged their patients, their first task was to prepare for the next load. They made dressings, cleaned up the ward, remade all the bunks, resupplied their unit, and prepared charts for the next patients.
Next came Captain’s White Glove inspection, and if the unit passed, the nurses and corpsmen could relax until the next time they had patients. At this time, mail was brought aboard, food supplies were loaded, and the ship refueled. The ship was like a small city and a laundry delivered white starched uniforms to the nurses as they needed them.
The Solace next was involved in the treatment and evacuation of over a thousand casualties from Anguar and Peleliu of the Palau group of islands. Then for three months the Solace treated hundreds of casualties from the fast Carrier Task Forces. Hardly an hour went by that didn’t bring in another boat full of patients from the ships anchored nearby.
On January, 1945, while in Manus, near New Guinea, Anita received orders for a change of duty. Six of the nurses were to have a month’s leave of absence and report for duty at St. Albans Naval Hospital on Long Island, New York. Anita considered this was typical of the Navy. She had been away from her family for fifteen months and thought it would have been great to be ordered near her family in California.
The six nurses traveled on an army transport plane, no seats, just a metal benches around the perimeter of the plane or they could sit on the floor . The plane was filled with other service personnel returning to the states. They stopped on Guam. They had been there in July at the height of the battle and now in January the SeaBees had built a landing strip and a hospital which they visited. From Guam they flew to Hawaii where they traveled by Flying Clipper seaplane to the states.
After a great three and a half week visit with her family, Anita met another nurse who was reporting with her to St Albans and they took the Santa Fe train across country. Anita was assigned to the operating room in charge of the orthopedic and neuro-surgical patients. Again there was a lot of reconstructive work. Some patients had been there over a year and still had to endure much more work. . Being stationed at St. Albans had its bright side, as they were close to New York City. Anita was there for the celebration of both V E Day and V J Day. Service personnel were given free tickets for the theater, for operas, for ballets and the movie theater.
Anita remembers vividly that she was on duty on April 12 when President Roosevelt died. That spring in June, she accepted a proposal of marriage from a young surgeon stationed at St. Albans Leonard Gaydos. The Navy unromatically transferred Anita to Samson Naval Base in upstate New York. Her first month was spent on night duty, walking endless miles through barracks before the night was over.
At this time Anita knew that her husband to be would be discharged in August. They had already obtained their marriage license and on July 19th she flew to Long Island. She and Leonard were married the next day with the Chief of Neuro-surgery giving her away, an orthopedic surgeon as best man and a Navy Nurse as maid of honor. A Catholic chaplain performed the service. On Monday morning she was back on duty at Sampson.
After Leonard Gaydos was discharged, he joined her at Sampson. As he had to report to Harper Hospital in Detroit to complete his surgical residency on September 1st, she arranged a leave so they could visit her family in California and his in Detroit. At the same time, her discharge was in process because at that time married nurses were not allowed to stay in the corp.
Anita says, “ My service in the Navy Nurse Corp was an experience that I will always treasure. I found I had capabilities that I did not realize I had. I saw horrors I would never want to see again. I was there to help those who needed more than help from the injuries they received defending our great country.”
While she was at St. Albans a commendation was awarded to the nurses who had served aboard the Solace, a great tribute.
While Leonard was completing his surgical residency, Anita worked in the operating room at Harper Hospital in Detroit. Dr. Henry Abbot was a resident in Internal Medicine, and Tiffin was his home. He persuaded the Gaydos of the many advantages of working here – no traffic, no long commute, a friendly community.
Anita Gaydos is fortunate in that her children live fairly close to Tiffin. Nancy, the oldest is a psychiatric social worker in Oakland County, Michigan; John is administrator of Proven Winters Horticultural Company in Rochester, Michigan; Barb is a systems analyst in Columbus, Ohio; Marianne is a purchasing agent for a company in Austintown, Ohio; and Tom is a corporate pilot in Pontiac, Michigan. She has seven grandchildren and two step-grandchildren.
– Mary