Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
4:44 | Army Nurse Mary Ann Koontz was in New Caledonia where there was some confusion about where her group would be assigned. She worked in the psychiatric ward at a hospital in New Zealand until she was needed somewhere else. This time it was India on the Burma Road.
Keywords : Mary Ann Mick Koontz nurse New Caledonia bamboo 8th General Hospital Auckland New Zealand psychiatric ward Mary Sibley Lee India Ledo Burma Road
Mary Ann Koontz became a registered nurse in 1942 and answered the call. The Army needed nurses. They put her to work right away, caring for wounded soldiers. After some military training, she shipped out to the Pacific.
It was a difficult experience. Army nurse Mary Ann Koontz was sent up the Burma Road to a camp to care for a lot of sick Chinese soldiers. She was glad to return to Ledo but it wasn't long until she was traveling up the Burma Road again, this time to Myitkyina, where she cared for people in bamboo hospital wards.
Army nurse Mary Ann Koontz worked in the psychiatric ward and when a new hospital was being built in Myitkyina, she designed her ward with an eye towards security. Many of the men she cared for were truck drivers who were stressed out by their long treks on the Burma Road.
When it came time to leave Burma, Army nurse Mary Ann Koontz had a rough jeep ride across way too much of India. She flew out of Karachi and got stuck for a week in Cairo, which was OK because of the sightseeing. When she got home, she married a soldier she had met in New Caledonia, a career military man.
Although she was never in danger from enemy fire, it was still a difficult life in Burma for Army nurse Mary Ann Koontz. The details of daily life became a problem in the jungle hospital where she worked. One day she saw Merrill's Marauders on their march out of Burma toward India.
