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A look at Minonk's citizens |
Tena Tarman - Army Nurse Corps Veteran
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The following article was written by Sherry Lindeman as a tribute to her aunt Tena Tarman who
celebrated her 100th birthday on December 9, 2006 at Synder Village in Metamora.
Tena Tarman was born December 9, 1906 on a farm south of Minonk, Illinois. She was named for her maternal grandmother, Trienje Luppen Gelster. Tena’s mother, Fredericka Gelster Janssen Tarman came to the United States from Ostfriesland, Germany in 1892 at the age of eighteen. In June 1893 she married Paul Janssen and they lived on the Janssen farm south of Minonk. They were parents of John, Henry (Hank) and Anna Janssen. Paul Janssen died in 1898. Tena’s mother married John Tarman who was the son of German emigrants in 1903 and they continued to live on the Janssen farm. They were the parents of Irene Tarman Goliwas Tena, and Charles (Bob)Tarman. Tena’s father died in 1910 and her mother was left to raise six children and run the farm. Tena attended the Woodford School until her mother and the younger children moved to Minonk in 1918. She graduated from Minonk High School in 1925 and from Brokaw School of Nursing in Normal, Illinois in 1930.
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Page 4The evacuation hospital was a semi-mobile unit made up .of khaki tents and were just a few miles from the battle front. They usually heard the gunfire.The corpsmen unloaded the trucks and set up the tents and cots. The nurses made up the beds with sheets. They were under constant blackout, so the hospital tents had double walls and the wards were dimly lit. The ward tents usually had forty cots. Tena said that many of the medications had to be mixed before they were used. Sulfa and penicillin were new drugs used during World War II, and had to be mixed just before they were used. The administration tent usually had a large red cross on it; and there was usually a large red cross on the ground near the hospital for all planes to see. Transportation officers, the supply officer, the chief nurse and her assistant staffed the administration tent. The admissions tent was staffed by a doctor and several nurses. Tena said they had some very fine doctors including a very good neural surgeon. They only did the most urgent surgery in the evacuation hospitals Most patients needing surgery were sent back to a station hospital or a hospital in England. All patients were evacuated to another hospital as soon as they could travel. |
All the nurses worked twelve hour shifts, and they usually changed shifts after each move. The hospital was usually set up near a stream of water that was used by the hospital. Chlorine was put in the water to purify it. Tena was usually in charge of the abdominal and chest ward; and her patients were usually on IV’S . She said sometimes the patient’s blood pressure had to be taken every 15 minutes. Her ward usually had about 40 patients with several other nurses and corpsmen. The nurses lived in tents, five nurses to a tent . Their hospital was never hit by bombs or gunfire; but they heard German V bombs and German planes going over head as well as gun fire from the battle. The hospital moved about every ten days, depending how the battle was going. They always moved at night under blackout conditions, riding in the back of open trucks with sixteen nurses to each truck. Tena said there was always a short prayer service each time they moved and again in their new location before they started taking patients. Tena said there was always a priest, protestant minister or rabbi with the hospital. In the summer of 1944 Tena wrote of moving often and of the French civilians as they moved across France. Many of the towns had been heavily bombed and had much destruction. She said that they were very busy and they heard a lot of gunfire. At that time she was promoted to First Lieutenant. |
Page 5A few days after Paris was liberated Tena said that they traveled through the city by open truck, stopping to eat their K rations that night on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles. She said as they drove through the city that night and many Parisians came out to watch them.At this time when she wrote to us she said , “We have it so much better than the troops in the front lines. On August 24, 1944, Tena’s younger brother, Bob, was killed in battle southeast of Paris. She heard the news in a letter from Velma Arnold, a nurse friend from Bloomington with a clipping from “ The Pantagraph.” This was a hard blow for her, but she said , “I just had to go on.” She was able to travel to her brother’s unit and visit the cemetery where he was buried several times. She also wrote , “I so wanted Bob to get through safely, and to get home again. I’m so glad that I saw him in London. He was happy, and looked so good. He was one of the best!” By October her unit had moved into Belgium and were in buildings. She said, “I don’t like it as well for it means we can’t leave the building except with a escort or guard; and then only on special business. All doors are guarded at all times by Belgium guards. We have to be very careful from now on.”
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Tena wrote that mail was very slow, saying that air mail arrived in two to three weeks, and mail with a three cent stamp took six to eight weeks to arrive Tena said that each nurse had three sets of “fatigues” which they wore for work; and they were washed with the hospital laundry. She said they would brush the wrinkles out of them, and then put them under their sleeping bag on their cots. She said the captain got coveralls for them to wear on moves that were like those the tank troops wore, to keep warm in winter. As they moved into Germany and winter arrived they would set up the hospital and live in abandoned schools and buildings. It was very cold as the windows were usually broken; so they covered the windows with blankets, and they usually had small pot bellied stoves. She went on to say that it was still very cold, but so much better than the conditions of the boys in the fox holes. The Battle of the Bulge started in December and caused a large retreat of American and allied troops from Germany back into Belgium, the Netherlands and France. There were many casualties.
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