Sioux City Army Nurse, Soon to Leave for Overseas Duty, Tells of Service
Lieut. Verlinden Relates Training and Regulations
By Wesley Pedersen
Maybe there’s something to these army regulations after all, fellows, especially when they apply to women.
Take, for example, the army nurses who in private life habitually lugged around large satchel like purses containing everything from hankies to—well you name it. As army nurses they’re permitted to carry only small billfolds—an idea which the male animal will approve heartily if he’s ever had to carry sweetie’s purse or run back several blocks to the place she “lost it.”
But that’s only one of the improvements army training can make in a woman, says Miss Alma Verlinden, second lieutenant in the army nurses corps, who, after serving 10 months at Camp Joseph T. Robinson, Arkansas, will leave Friday for overseas duty. Lieut. Verlinden is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ben Verlinden, 5000 Stone Avenue.
What Army Teaches
One thing army training teaches women, if you can judge by looking at Lieut. Verlinden, is to carry themselves in a military manner, almost as if they’d attended a glamour school and been taught the essentials of “good carriage.”
Another good thing about army training for women – it teaches them not to talk so much. Lieut. Verlinden, for instances, answers questions with a minimum of words, yet she answers them fully.
And army training evidently agrees with the women, too. Lieut. Verlinden described it as wonderful. “An army nurse is respected to the nth degree,” she said.
Regulation dress uniforms for army nurses consist of dark blue jackets and overseas caps, with light blue, contrasting skirts. If a nurse is a lieutenant, she wears the same gold bars as an army officer of the same rank. She can be promoted to the rank of colonel – but whatever rank she holds, the army nurse gets the salute of the army man, and of the W.A.A.C.
Speaks to Nurses
Lieut. Verlinden, a graduate of St. Vincent’s hospital college of nursing, served in Sioux City and in Denver as a private nurse before she volunteered her services to Uncle Sam. Monday night she addressed nearly 250 members of District 1, Iowa Association of Registered Nurses, at their annual Christmas party at the Mayfair Hotel. And she boosted the army nursing corps plenty.
Preceding Lieut. Verlinden’s talk, Dr. J.N. Lande, Sioux City physician who recently returned from 14 months of volunteer Red Cross service in England, told association members about the nursing profession in England.
“The English nurses are almost dictatorial,” said Dr. Lande, telling of the efficient manner in which the nurses there directed work in hospitals where there are shortages of doctors.
Two Directors Names
Miss Wave Arnold and Miss Geraldine O’Boyle were elected members of the board of directors for three-year terms. A private duty section was organized for nurses serving 12-hour days. Miss Johnson was named chairman; Miss Stella Petronis, vice chairman and Miss Margaret Schmitz, secretary.
The association members also voted to request that their wages be increased from $6 for every 12-hour period worked to $7.50. The nurses planned to ask that their other wages be increased proportionately.
Mrs. Helen Kettleson, president, had charge.
Source: The Sioux City Journal, Dec. 8, 1942 (photo included)
[excerpt]
The colonel [Colonel Johnston] met old Iowa friends among the nurses. He had sent some of them north while he was in command at Camp Robinson, including Lieut. Alma VerLinden of Sioux City and Lieut. Mary Smiles of Waterloo.
Source: The Des Moines Register, September 10, 1944 (photo included)
