By Jen Thomas
Norma Nelson couldn’t have imagined that, on her first deployment as a World War II Army Nurse Corps first lieutenant, she’d end up being the one receiving medical care.
Unfortunately, the ship Nelson boarded, the then-nearly-40-year-old Army Hospital Ship Shamrock, broke down several times on the way to the Philippines and was then swept up in a typhoon. After drifting at sea for days, the ship was finally found and towed back to California, where Nelson and many of the other 300 nurses on board had to be treated for scurvy since they hadn’t been able to bathe for a month.
Nelson’s travel conditions will undoubtedly be better today, as she travels as a guest of the Indy Honor Guard on a day trip to Washington, D.C., to visit the National World War II Memorial. She will be among 70 veterans who will fly from Indianapolis to the nation’s capital, where they will visit the memorial and also see the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. Each veteran will bring a companion. Nancy Jones, Norma’s daughter, will accompany her.
“I’m looking forward to the entire trip, but I’m especially eager to look up the names of friends who didn’t return in the WWII Registry at the WWII Memorial, as well as the Women’s Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery,” Nelson said.
Nelson, 91, lives at Hoosier Village retirement community in Zionsville, where she remains a serious bridge player and participates in water aerobics and volunteers. She has a lot of memorabilia and photos from her time in the Army and enjoys talking about it.
She talks often about her granddaughter, who is continuing the family tradition of armed forces service. Leslie Jones of Indianapolis is serving in the Army National Guard 1413 Engineering Division in Afghanistan. An IUPUI engineering student, she’s one of seven women in the 150-person unit working to deconstruct American installations near the border.
“I’m extremely proud of my granddaughter’s service and I pray daily for her safe return to Indianapolis,” Nelson said.
