"I hadn't been there very long before the bombs descended."(Video interview, 16:33)

Kathryn Mary Doody

Kathryn Doody [detail from video] War: World War, 1939-1945; Korean War, 1950-1953; Cold War Branch: Army Nurse Corps; Army Nurse Corps Unit: 8063 Mobile Army Surgical Hospital Service Location: Tripler Army Hospital, Hawaii; England; France; Germany; also: Korea Rank: Major Place of Birth: MD

Enrolled in nursing school by her mother, who hoped that her daughter could achieve something beyond life on a small Maryland farm, Kathryn Doody arrived in Hawaii with limited real-world nursing experience. Treating patients at Tripler Army Hospital on December 7th, she was ushered into a new world of combat medicine; she witnessed her first major limb amputation that day. Following this baptism of fire, she began a long and distinguished career as an Army nurse, going on to serve in the European theater later in World War II and with a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) unit during the Korean War.