Rebecca Baker

[Beginning of Transcribed Material]

 

I:          Okay.  I’m going to conduct this interview, and we’re going to go over some of the things that naming where, the place that we’re interviewing and that’s Norma Wood Library here at ASU and Mountain Home.  This is March 15 of ’06.  Uh, this is Mrs. Rebecca Baker.  And your date of birth is February 18, 1929.  Finally, the names of the people attending this interview are um,

 

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Mr. and Mrs. Baker, Jean Smith, Sarah, and your last name is? [INAUDIBLE].  And the organization we’re working with is the Fran Culture Honors Program, ASUMH.  And we’re going to start asking you about what war and branch of service that you served in.

R:        I was in the Navy Nurse Corps, and it was from 1952 to 1958.  And that was the Korean War.

 

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I:          What was your rank?
R:        I started out as a, came in as an Ensign and got up to a Lieutenant.  Back in those days, the Navy Nurse Corps had one captain.  That’s all,

I:          As a senior officer.

R:        As a senior officer, one Navy captain, Navy nurse captain.  Today, it’s quite different.  We have admirals now.  But back in our day, there was no, in fact, what was sad was

 

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many of the nurses who had been in during the ‘40’s, they remained Lieutenants for 14 or 15 years.  Of course, they went up in pay grades, you know.  They got more money.  Well, if you can imagine.  I made $213.00 a month as an ensign.

I:          So, what you’re telling me, there’s a lot more opportunities for women.

R:        Oh, many, many better opportunities today.  It’s wonderful today.

 

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I:          You served on a hospital ship.  What was the name of that hospital ship?
R:        It was the USS Consolation.  After it was uh, retired, it became the Hope, USS Hope and went around the world as the Hope.  And then unfortunately, it was scrap lumber, or scrap metal.  There was lumber on it, too, but scrap.  That hurt.

I:          Where were you when you enlisted?
R:        Uh, I was not enlisted.

 

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I was commissioned.

I:          You were commissioned.

R:        Yes.  And back in those days, back in 1952, I graduated from nurse’s training in 1951.  And I put my papers in right then.  But what you had to do was wait until you, you could not go in those days unless you were an RN.  Today, it’s a little different.  There are a lot of different programs where you can go in and get degrees.  But back in those days, you had to be an RN.  And um,

 

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I put my papers in as soon as I graduated.  Of course, then I had to wait to take State board and what have you to see if I was gonna pass, which I did.  And then I had to wait.  The FBI came and checked for six months back in those days.  They checked on you.  And I did not find this out till years later.  My neighbors, their voices were sealed, and they told me, they said oh.  The nicest little man came and started

 

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asking questions about you.  And I said what for?  And they said oh, it was the FBI.  Said I was scared to death to talk to them.  But we did.  But see what your job is in the medical field is you have Presidents to take care of.  You have congressmen.  You have this, that and the other.  And you have to be able to have secret clearance.  And so that’s why.

I:          Very interesting.  Why did you join or become commissioned, uh,

 

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what drove you to uh,

R:        That was not my plan when I entered this earth.   My plan was to be an airline stewardess.  I wanted to fly like anything.  But back in those days, you had to be an RN.  No one knows that today.  You have flight attendants today which, you know, whatever.  But back in those days, you had to be an RN.  So, that was my plan. I was gonna go through nurses training, and then I was gonna fly

 

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cause I’ve always wanted to fly.  But what happened?  I got too tall.  The airplanes were too low for me.  So, I said well, the heck with this.  And I joined the Navy.

I:          Do you really have any regret?
R:        Oh, are you kidding?  One husband and six kids later, no, no regret.

I:          Oh wow.  And why did you pick the service branch, the US Navy?

R:        Because I, Carol, Illinois is right there at the confluence of the

 

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Ohio and the Mississippi.  And I was on the water all the time.  And, in water, swimming and whatever, you know.  So, no.  It had to be the Navy.  Had to be the Navy.

I:          What were your first days in the Service like?
R:        It was literally a boot camp.  There were 16 of us in my class.  And we had a Marine.  And he, all he could tell us was that we had left feet.

 

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None of us knew how to march.  He tried.  God love him.  He tried and tried and tried.  But we finally let us pass.  Uh, it was rough.  But after that, it was okay.

I:          How did you feel in the beginning?  Did you have confidence that you were gonna

R:        Oh yeah.  You learned that as a, you lived as a nurse.  You learned life on the first day you’re in nurses training

 

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till, till, you grow up.  What’s sad is many times your high school friends, you go beyond them because they, um, they don’t understand that you’re living life and death every day taking care of patients.  And um, they don’t understand that.  They have more fun things on their mind and what have you.  So,

I:          It’s interesting.  Did you have a lot of disconnect when you came home

 

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and communicated with your friends?
R:        It, I, when I came home, um, what I would do is be with family.

I:          Um hm.

R:        Uh, as I said, I outgrew my friends, made new friends, of course, in the Navy.

I:          But you uh, you overcame your boot camp experience.  And do, but do you remember your instructors, anyone specifically that stands out?

 

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R:        Yeah, Miss Siedel.  She, God love her.  She had been a Navy nurse for years and years and years and years.  And uh, she had a Navy experience, too, in that her brother was a chief.  And so, we kind of bonded there even though she was my boss.  But I had, both my brothers had been in the Navy during the War.  In fact, one brother retired finally after 20 some years in the Navy.  He retired.

 

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And then the uh, other brother, he uh, when he got out in 1948, he had not been able to finish school.  So, he came back and finished school.

I:          It sounds like you adapted to it a little better than some of the other nurses.  Um, where exactly did you go um, on the hospital ship?

R:        Um, let’s see.

 

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Well, the best place, well Korea.  We went into the Harbor of Korea.  And if you could imagine, Korea is the coldest place in this world.  If you can imagine a Liberty boat.  Now we had to park out there because you can’t, there was shallow water.  We had to take a Liberty boat in.  And here is cold.  I mean, it is cold.  And what you had to do was, the fellows on the boat had to cut through the ice to bring us on shore.

 

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And we would be there maybe three or four hours.  And that would, now this is salt water. This is not cold, ice water.  It’s, so, the other important thing was we had, on the ship, we had um, a helicopter deck.  And we got to, the captain asked us if we would like to, there were only 16 females on the ship.  And he said would you girls like to go up to the DMZ line? Now in the news yesterday, they had

 

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that they will now, the South Koreans can go through an area now through the DMZ line up to the North area.  The DMZ line is on the 38^th Parallel.  And up there, we would land and have, they said that the military wanted to see round eyes.  And if you could have seen how we were dressed. I mean, we were dressed in

 

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anything warm that we could have gotten.  We’d put on layers of clothes to go up there.  And those guys, we went and had dinner with them, you know, and talked to them.  They just wanted to touch, the guys did.  But anyway, we looked over to that DMZ line, and you talk about something scary.  That line was full of bouncing betty mines.  And bouncing betty mines are those that are buried that will come up just high enough that when they explode, they get around the knees and etc.

 

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But we could see, we could see the eyes of the North Koreans.  It was scary.  But what we would do is we would do physicals on the people who were there, or if they had to be operated on in Korea, had to be operated on or whatever. Then we would fill up the ship, and it would take them to Japan and drop them off there.  And if they had to have further surgery, they could

 

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have it there.  Or if it’s bad enough, then they could be aired back to the States.  So, Yokosuka, the other exciting part was the time that we went into Hiroshima.  We were the first ship to go into Hiroshima.  This was 1954.  And the captain on the ship told us, he said we are not well liked here in Hiroshima.  You know, that’s where the bombs.

I:          Um hm.

R:        He said, and this was, he said now we’re going into the town.

 

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And he said if anyone on the ship feels that they cannot behave, if they feel that they are going to cause an international incident, I want you to stay aboard the ship, and I’ll give you liberty somewhere else.  And needless to say, no one misbehaved because it was such a solemn, to see these people, these, they took us to the area where the bomb actually dropped, and to the houses.

 

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Of course, the houses were gone.  But the concrete slab that was there that uh, had been a step into the house had burnt butt print on that step.  They had sized where the wheat, and their handprints were on these sides, burned into the wood, just things like that.  And of course, the actual people in the hospital.  And this was several years after the bomb had been dropped, seeing the people.

 

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Exciting.

I:          I was gonna say, it’s probably a very memorable experience, and you will never forget that.

R:        No.
I:          Did you get to see any kind of combat or in the thick of things?

R:        Sometimes on Saturday nights when the little patients came back from liberty, had to take care of them sometimes.

I:          Were there casualties in your unit?

 

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R:        Oh, that’s what we took care of, casualties.

I:          As far as the nurses, your fellow nurses.

R:        No.  No, the nurses were okay.

I:          I can imagine you saw a lot of casualties.  What are a couple of your most memorable experiences?

R:        Seeing the children burned.

 

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Uh, really, there’s not just one thing, uh.  You know, it’s been since 1952 till now and, you know, there’s not really one thing that, I can’t think of one thing.

MALE VOICE:  [INAUDIBLE]

I:          And uh, were you awarded medals, and would you like to tell us about some of the medals that you were awarded?

 

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R:        Um, really, now the only one

MALE VOICE:  National Service Medal.

R:        Well, National Service Medal.  And then um, then I, um, our ship was allowed with the Koreans, we were allowed the Korean Medal.  But other than that, see um, I really, um hm, that’s it.

I:          Okay.

MALE VOICE:  Did you bring those down?
R:        No, I did not.

I:          As far as the highest rank, you were a Lieutenant.  Is that correct?

 

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MALE VOICE:  She was a captain in the other services.

I:          Okay.

R:        I was a captain.

I:          How many uh, people were under you that you uh, under your control?
R:        Oh gosh.

MALE VOICE:  How many people on the ward?
R:        Oh gosh.  Sometimes, I don’t know.  It varied.  Even when I worked at Benton’s, I’d be [INAUDIBLE].

I:          How did you stay in touch with your family in Illinois?

R:        Um, letters,

 

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airmail letters.  And you tried, you tried to call.  But back in those days, uh, telephone calls, you could speak, and then you’d have to wait for the, you know, to go through.  And then they would call back, answer back. It was kind of expensive and frustrating to say the least.

I:          I know you’ve watched the show MASH.

R:        Oh yeah.
I:          Is it anything like that?
R:        The only thing about it, of course we didn’t have the alcohol like they’re making there

 

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in the thing and whatever.  But um, what you tried to do, and you had to do, was try to make light when you could because you were, as I said, like many times, they were in MASH, they were uh, operating what have you , and they, all of a sudden somebody would come up with a joke or this, that and the other.  And you have to do that.  Even doctors in civilian life right.  People can’t understand why they sometimes tell jokes and what have you.

 

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But it’s so tight at that time that you’ve got to have something to get you a little bit relaxed.  Or else you make mistakes.

MALE VOICE:  Tell about seas sickness.

R:        Huh?
MALE VOICE:  Sea sickness.

R:        Oh, seasickness.

MALE VOICE:  Yeah.

R:        Oh.  On the ship, we had one, one nurse, God love her uh.  She’s still around.  But what happened was anytime an anchor came up she went down.  She was seasick from the time the

 

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anchor was up, and I had to take over her duties.  And I also took over her food.  You were asking about the food on the ship.  We had, the officers had to pay for their own food, you know, yeah.  You had to pay for your own food.  So, what we, what they would do is hire, but have a person to um, plan the menus for the entire month.  And of course, we had good food, steaks and whatever the first of the month.

 

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But toward the end of the month, it kind of got kind of whatever.  And so, uh, finally they got a dietician sent aboard ship.  And of course, she knew what to do.  So could, she made our money go farther.  But what we used to do on Guam is that a hospital, the ship would, lettuce and fresh vegetables and what have you would come every two to three weeks.  And you would line up to get a head of lettuce cause you wanted fresh.

 

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Now bananas, we got bananas.  There were all kind of bananas.

I:          Did you feel all that pressure or stress?
R:        Just at times.  Just at times.

MALE VOICE:  [INAUDIBLE]

R:        Which one?
MALE VOICE:  Hospital.

R:        Eh, nah.

MALE VOICE:  Buy anything.  Opportunities of uh, buying stuff that you think

 

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R:        Uh, we did back in those days, we did have good buying opportunities in Japan.  Of course, it changed now.  Our son has been over there visiting.  In fact, he was stationed Iwakuni for a while.  And I think the price of, we had 360 yen to a dollar back in those days and now, she’s saying wow, yeah.  Back then, you know.  The first time we went out, um, oh, Hong Kong.

 

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We went into Hong Kong, our ship did.  And we tried to fool them there.  We’d say, we wanted to get a coat made or suit made or something made or whatever.  And the uh, the people would say uh, well when your ship leave, when your ship leave?  And we’d say oh, it’s leaving tomorrow cause we wanted to get it done quickly.  And they knew, they knew when we were gonna leave.  We didn’t know.  But they always knew exactly when we’d leave.  And one of the doctors on the ship, his wife had sent him a shoe.

 

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And she told him she wanted it just like that.  So, he took it to the shoe person, and they made the shoe and got it back, and he opened up the box and looked, and on the bottom, it had a hole in it.  And he took it back to him and he said why did you make a, he said you told me you wanted it just like that other one.

I:          What did most of you do to entertain yourselves?
R:        Uh, it depended

 

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where we were, uh.  Of course, back then, you know, we didn’t have, we had record players, you know.  That’s about it, and radios, but they didn’t work.  And uh, then on the ship, what they would do is the uh, crew and everybody would put on skits, and they were always fun.  Um, in Japan, you shopped.  You went uh, you went to Yokosuka.  You went all over the place, of you went to Tokyo,

 

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or you went to wherever to uh, shop.  And the Japanese were wonderful.  I had walked the street in Tokyo at midnight.  It felt just, you know.  Part of it was because I was so tall.  And back then, the people were a lot shorter.  Their diets have changed now, and we have a different uh, people there now that are a lot taller and a lot healthier.  But back then, I was, when I walked the streets, I was tall.  And they

 

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thought I was strong, which I was cause I took up Judo.  So,

I:          Did you get to see any famous entertainers like Bob Hope or anyone?
R:        Oh yeah.

MALE VOICE:  Yeah.  I used to accompany

R:        Well, you did Shirley Temple, too.

MALE VOICE:  Yeah, right.

R:        You did Shirley Temple, too.  And speaking of memorable things was uh, Billy Graham came to Tokyo.  And he filled that place up. That place, uh, that auditorium, I don’t,

 

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had thousands that were there, yeah.

I:          When you were in the Service, you talked about Guam and Japan.  Did you get to travel to many places beyond that?

R:        I really didn’t, well Hong Kong of course.  But I, no, I really didn’t want to uh.  I kind of wish I’d gotten down to uh, Australia.  But didn’t quite make that.  Um, no.  When you’re in love, and he’s there,

 

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You don’t travel.

I:          I see.

MALE VOICE:  [INAUDIBLE]

I:          Do you recall anything particularly humorous or an event that sticks out in your mind that you’d like to share?

R:        Well, the one thing was about that shoe.  I thought that was kind of humorous.

I:          Um hm.

R:        Nothing sticks out really.

I:          Nothing sticks out.

R:        I’d have to stop and think on that.

 

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I:          Did the nurses pull pranks with each other, or was it just too serious?

R:        Uh, some of the patients would try it.  They thought they were gonna try it.  And uh, if they thought they could get by with it, they, they would go a little farther.  But all you had to do is let them know that uh, you know, it wasn’t gonna work.

I:          Did you take a lot of photographs during that time?
R:        Um, back in those days, you took slides.

 

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I:          Slides.

R:        Yeah.

MALE VOICE:  Thirty-five millimeter.

R:        Thirty-five millimeter slides, yeah.  Now, our hospital ship, the Consolation, uh, as I said it’s gone.  The ship’s gone and whatever.  But the uh, members of the crew from 1942 to 1957 I think it was, no later than that because of the Hope, um.  But anyway,

 

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they uh, we still have, uh, reunions every two years.  And um, this next October, we will be having a reunion in Vegas.

I:          What did you think of the fellow officers?  It sounds like you were pretty much commanding at that time.  But did you

R:        No, no no.  We had a commander.  I had a commander nurse over me.

I:          Did you?
R:        Um hm.  I was lowly.  I was just, I was just a Lieutenant.

 

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I:          Did you bond with her or?
R:        Oh, I bonded with everybody uh.  In fact, I still hear from some of my nurse friends that were, yeah.
I:          Did you keep a personal diary during that time?
R:        Oh no.

I:          Do you recall the date your service ended?

R:        Actually, no because see, by this time.

 

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I uh, I had joined the Navy.  There were six of us that had joined the Navy as regular Navy.  And that was the last of the regular Navy nurses.  And um, after that time, you had to come in as Reserve.  So, then when I got out, I had to go Reserve.  And so, I was already out and, you know, um, pregnant and whatever, and they just sent me a paper.

 

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MALE VOICE:  [INAUDIBLE] married in there some place.

R:        Oh, married.  Excuse me.

I:          Did you go back to work, or did you raise your family?

R:        Both.

I:          Both.

R:        Both, yeah.

I:          Were you able to get any of your education, did you go on to get education through the GI Bill?

R:        I wish.  No, I would have, no.  That was one of the things I wanted to do.  I always said I was gonna learn to fly.  And I didn’t get to learn to fly, flew low with the kids.

 

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I:          You sounded like you made a lot of close friendships, and you meet every two years.

R:        For the, for the Consolation, yeah.  But now other people we meet, and Christmas, all stacks of cards.  We’ve been, I have made this statement many, many times that the military is a sorority and/or fraternity that not everyone can get into cause you really bond

 

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with people.  You’re friends forever.

MALE VOICE:  Even though that’s your base and you go to another base.  And you have friends that have already preceded you at that base.  So, they welcome you with open arms.  So, you’re going home if you go to a new military base.

R:        And if there’s a typhoon coming or, oh that’s a memorable story, too, [INAUDIBLE].  But anyway, um, when there’s a hurricane like Pensacola,

 

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The doctors, they go to the hospital.  The families all get together and get the kids all together and what have you, go to a place where we can all stay together and help one another. When you move and of course, people move all the time, what you do is you help them uh, move in or move out.  You help them.  You’re always there to help.

I:          And it sounds like you’re very active in organizations after you got out.  What are some of the organizations you’re involved in now?

 

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R:        Well, we just, we just got back on a few, uh.  I was with the uh, Cancer Society.  In fact, he and I started the first Relay for Life here back in ’96.  And this year will be the 10^th year for that.  And we’re gonna be co whatever it is, co-chairmen or whatever, uh, this year, uh, with Cartide.  We’ve been with Cartide out of the, it’ll be 12 years uh, with the Historical Society.

 

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and church, whatever.  People kind of hate to see me coming cause they usually, they know I’m gonna be asking for money for some project, you know.  Oh, here comes Becky.  She needs more money for something.

I:          I’m gonna ask you the same question that was asked of your husband.  You have a unique perspective of being a mother.  And as a woman, what do you think about the War in Iraq today?

R:        I just wish that I could go.

 

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And I am able to go.  I mean, I wish, you know, physically I’m ready to go. I would go to protect some of these young people.  But um, we should have stayed there a little longer in ’91, and we didn’t.  They brought everybody back here in a hurry and whatever.  And that’s, I feel we goofed then.  But no, we wouldn’t stay there this time.  Or else.

 

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I:          Or else.

R:        He’ll hear from me.

I:          What would you like to add that we haven’t talked about or anything?

R:        You were talking about something memorable.  I remember the time we were out in the typhoon.  And here we are, this hospital ship, water coming.  They had to put wet tablecloths on our tables to keep the dishes from sliding off, uh.  They had ropes.  If you went outside, and of course we were told not to go outside.

 

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But some of the people had to go outside.  That was their job on the deck to do their jobs.  And they put ropes on them because off they’d go.  But that, that ship, I mean this was a huge ship.  It would go up and just come down on that water.  And we were wondering about some of the other ships, and we found out that the other ships, they sent them somewhere else.  And here we were coming up and down in that water.  It was fun, though.  We saw movies.

 

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Oh, that was one of, the best thing was when the uh, Liberty boat came from another ship and had mail.  Oh mail.  And our son and daughter were over in, she was on the hospital ship in the Persian Gulf, and he was in Afghanistan and Iraq, the two times.  What, what I did was I sent them a mail every day because I remember you didn’t care if you got bills, you know.  It was, it had your name on it,

 

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and they called your name and oh, that was the most wonderful experience to get something in the mail. And I encourage people to write and do whatever they can to, for all the people over in Iraq ad Afghanistan, and Bosnia.  They’re over there, too.  In fact, they’re in Korea, too.  And I want them to come home.

I:          I know we asked your husband.  But go ahead and tell us a little bit about your kids and uh, what they’ve

 

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accomplished.

R:        Well, our oldest daughter is a teacher.  And unfortunately, she only taught for the years that the children were small.  And then when they got just a little higher, then she quit teaching whatever.

MALE VOICE:  Full-time mama.

R:        Yeah.  She became really a full-time mama.  She had two children, two boys.  And she’s in Seattle.  And we have another son who’s an OB-GYN.

 

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And he has a daughter.  And she gave us two great-grandsons.

MALE VOICE:  He’s now dead.

R:        Yeah.  He died in October of ’04.  And then uh, and then there’s um, Betsy, uh.  She was a teacher, and she’s got two daughters now that one is gonna be a teacher, and the other one will be a dietician.  She’s already graduated college and taking further courses getting her Masters.

 

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And then we have uh, Rob who’s a PhD, Chemical Engineer.  And he, uh, right now he’s up at Calgary.  And he’s working for Jacobs Engineering, which is a, I don’t know what you call it,

MALE VOICE:  World-wide.

R:        World-wide firm.  And what he’s doing there, his expertise in college, uh, Chemistry, was to uh, oil.  And there’s scads of oil up in Calgary, tar sand it’s called.  An example of that is

 

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you take sand and put it in a cup and then pour hot water in it, the oil goes to the bottom, goes to the top, goes to the top.  The fan goes to the bottom.  And his expertise is how to do that.

MALE VOICE:  He’s the Chief Engineer of this project.  This phase of the project is not [INAUDIBLE].  So, that’s a whole project that he’s working on, this eight billion.

R:        There is oil up there.

 

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MALE VOICE:  Lots of oil.  As much oil as they have in Saudi Arabi.

R:        And then of course, there’s uh, Bruce.  Uh, he is uh, at Oceanside.  He’s the anesthesiologist, a doctor.  And he has been with uh, you say well what’s a Navy doctor doing with the Marines?  But the Marine Corps does not have a medical corp.  The Navy takes care of them.  That’s why it’s always Navy people with the Marines.  And they,

 

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the Marines take, I don’t worry about my son because the Marines take care of their docs.  I didn’t worry about him.  And of course, Brenda is at, uh, she’s at Fordham getting her doctorate in nursing, too.  So, we’re proud of all of them.

I:          Anything else you want to add before we wind up?
R:        No.  I think I’ve rather [INAUDIBLE] You’ll be editing out a lot of this.  But

I:          I don’t think so.

 

0:32:30

It has been my honor and pleasure to be here and interview you and to be, to set on an interview your husband.  I’d like to thank you on behalf of the [INAUDIBLE] Honor Society and ASUMH and the Veterans Project that we have here on Campus.  This has been a pleasure.

R:        I wish you

MALE VOICE:  [INAUDIBLE]

R:        And uh, Frank

MALE VOICE:  [INAUDIBLE] I was thinking that you had the gold star, putting down [INAUDIBLE]

 

0:33:00

MALE VOICE:  [INAUDIBLE] Meritorious Service Medal

 

[END RECORDED MATERIAL]