WWII Army Nurse
Edna Finley graduated from Adrian High School and received her nurses training from General Hospital in Kansas City, graduating in l940. She worked at the old Butler Hospital until January 1942, and then transferred to Boone County Hospital in Columbia, Missouri, where she worked as chief operating nurse. While at Boone County she decided to enlist as an army nurse in World War II, and left Boone on September 28, 1943. She was sent to Shick General Hospital in Clinton, Iowa, for training in how to treat wounded veterans from the Aleutians and the Pacific. She worked there until January, 1944. From there she was transferred to 106 Evacuation Hospital, 2nd Army Headquarters at Camp Forest Shelbyville in Tennessee. She was immediately transferred to maneuvers to prepare for actual wartime duty.
“She was transferred to England, and shortly after D-Day she and her group set up an evacuation hospital in Normandy on either Utah or Omaha Beach near the front line, and began treating wounded soldiers.” She told me there were at least 2200 of them the first day. Her group was involved in the Battle of the Bulge. Her distinct and painful position was deciding if an injured soldier should be given pain killer and left to die, or sent through the operating area in the evacuation hospital which consisted of a tent with tables for performing surgery. Her group continued across Europe following Patton’s 3rd Army.
Edna always enjoyed telling about getting to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest at Berchtesgarden.
Submitted by Carl Shubert (Brother in law of Edna)