Lingering Fever: A World War II Nurse's Memoir

$19.99
by LaVonne Telshaw Camp

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During 1945, the author found herself in the monsoon-drenched jungles of Assam, caring for soldiers in the China-Burma-India theater of war. Nothing in her training had prepared her for the tropical diseases or the thatched-roof hospital where men spat on the floor, rats were pervasive, and patients used handguns to chase gigantic cockroaches (and wereas likely to sell their medicine as swallow it). The experience was made tolerable by Nurse Camp's romance with one of the airmen who flew the Hump, supplying O.S.S. troops behind Japanese lines and carrying General Joseph Stilwell's Chinese troops to fight the battle of North Burma. She accompanied her future husband on some of his missions. Based in part on letters she wrote to her parents, this is the poignant story of one nurse's experience in World War II. “a wonderful picture of the living conditions at an evacuation hospital in the jungle.... [Camp] writes colorfully about the Chinese patients, Army life, and her impressions of the setting and the culture...a welcome addition to the collection of works on women’s experiences in World War II”― H-Net Review ; “an amazing and well-written narrative…highly recommended”― World War II Air Commando ; “a model for personal narratives: competently and interestingly written, fair to her subjects, honestly introspective, carefully researched…. Well illustrated”― The Cellar Book Shop ; “every reader, male or female, nurse or patient, will be engrossed in this woman’s war experiences”― CBIVA Sound-Off. In 1945, the author found herself in the monsoon-drenched jungles of Assam, caring for soldiers in the China-Burma-India theater of war in a thatched-roof hospital that had few modern facilities. Nothing in her nurse's training had prepared her for the tropical diseases her patients faced, nor had her experiences readied her for a hospital where men spat on the floor, rats were pervasive, and patients, who used their handguns to chase gigantic cockroaches, were as likely to sell their medicine as swallow it. What made the experience tolerable was Nurse Camp's romance with one of the airmen who flew the Hump, supplying O.S.S. troops behind Japanese lines and carrying General Joseph Stillwell's Chinese troops to fight the battle of North Burma. She accompanied her future husband on some of his missions, flying over the treacherous mountains to China and down to Calcutta. Based, in part, on letters she wrote to her parents, this is the poignant story of one nurse's experience in World War II and how her service changed her life forever. In 1945, the author found herself in the monsoon-drenched jungles of Assam, caring for soldiers in the China-Burma-India theater of war in a thatched-roof hospital that had few modern facilities. Nothing in her nurse's training had prepared her for the tropical diseases her patients faced, nor had her experiences readied her for a hospital where men spat on the floor, rats were pervasive, and patients, who used their handguns to chase gigantic cockroaches, were as likely to sell their medicine as swallow it. What made the experience tolerable was Nurse Camp's romance with one of the airmen who flew the Hump, supplying O.S.S. troops behind Japanese lines and carrying General Joseph Stillwell's Chinese troops to fight the battle of North Burma. She accompanied her future husband on some of his missions, flying over the treacherous mountains to China and down to Calcutta. Based, in part, on letters she wrote to her parents, this is the poignant story of one nurse's experience in World War II and how her service changed her life forever. LaVonne Telshaw Camp lives in Mount Laurel, New Jersey.

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