0:02

Who are tuning into service Johnny,

0:05

the strict private first class

0:07

that are in stories of hunger and war. They

0:10

joined the service women Mapperel harder Pell

0:13

Harbor, a production from my heart

0:15

radio. We used to just give these

0:17

people the food from our miskits.

0:19

You ain't what you could get, and be thankful

0:22

for what you were getting. I'm your host,

0:25

Jacqueline Raposo. So

0:34

I appeal to the owners of plants, to

0:37

the managers, to the workers who

0:39

our own government employee, to

0:41

put every ounce of ever into

0:44

producing these munitions swiftly

0:47

and without stint. We

0:50

must be the great awesenal

0:52

of democracy. Throughout

0:57

the Great Depression and into the start of World

0:59

War Two, the Pennsylvania steel

1:01

mills fired around the clock just

1:04

outside of Pittsburgh. The towns of Rankin,

1:06

Graddox, Swissville, and Regions Square

1:09

spread around the mills to

1:11

feed the men feeding The furnaces, restaurants

1:14

and shops stayed open deep into the night,

1:17

employing more and more women. As

1:19

the depression lingered on Teenager's

1:21

Neck, Don hilltop slit by the firework

1:24

like smoke stack display the

1:26

asthma and emphysyma. They eventually

1:29

caused keeping busy peddling local doctors

1:31

and nurses. There was

1:33

plenty of work for those in this great,

1:35

steel bending, back breaking

1:38

arsenal of democracy, a

1:40

world that required workers, a

1:43

world that welcomed women in rolls they'd

1:45

never been allowed to play before. In

1:50

ninety one, the Women's Army

1:52

Corps was established. Excepting

1:54

what would become three hundred and fifty thousand

1:57

women serving as clerics, lab

1:59

technos, drivers, and even pilots.

2:03

Five thousand women would become Army nurses.

2:05

Within six months of the bombing of Pearl

2:07

Harbor, over seven million women

2:09

red Cross stations, Countless salvation

2:12

army soldiers served overseas. Six

2:15

million women would enter factories in fields

2:17

to free the men up to fight. When

2:20

she became a Baltimore shipyard welder, single

2:23

mother, Meta Montana Hallieber and faced

2:25

judgment from friends and women

2:27

on the trolley skirted away from her tired

2:30

work, boot clad body. But

2:32

Meta remembers taking pride in what her

2:35

hands could make with a little rod and a little

2:37

bit of welding, and the prayers

2:39

prayed into the ships they sent off to war,

2:42

and the careful rebuilding of the bombed

2:44

vessels that returned to them. Career

2:47

Army nurse Francis Liberty recalled nurses

2:50

being scorned as the lowest of the low

2:52

at the start of the war, right along

2:54

with the evening ladies. That

2:57

didn't stop them from landing in Normandy only

2:59

four days after D Day or

3:01

pulling wounded men from the battlefields

3:03

in Italy. It

3:05

was the world into which Army nurse Sister

3:08

Melanie Cambeck was born. At

3:12

the time when Sister Melanie was going to nursing school,

3:15

there was no financial support offered to women

3:17

becoming war nurses. There were certain

3:19

employment rules for mothers of children

3:21

of a certain age. Women entered

3:23

the workforce at double the rate of men, yet

3:26

often made less than half the pay men

3:28

would accept. And as this

3:31

was a segregated world, last

3:33

hired, first fired, made

3:35

it even harder for African American women

3:37

to get ahead. How would

3:39

the young woman who would become Sister Melanie

3:42

Cambeck from

3:44

the Sisters a Divine Providence Convent in

3:46

Alison Park, Pennsylvania. Let's

3:49

slow down and sit to

3:51

hear what she has to share. M

4:00

h. My

4:06

name was Victoria Louise Cambick

4:09

and I was a second lieutenant in

4:11

the Second World War. I

4:14

came from a family that came

4:16

to e Croasia in response to that

4:19

cry for people to work in need steel

4:21

mills. They

4:25

treated the foreigners very miserably.

4:29

Most of the areas had two room row

4:32

houses. Our

4:34

family moved into two rooms. We

4:37

eventually had six children, enormous

4:40

now in their small two rooms space.

4:46

They had a small playground. There

4:48

was a fence around it, but

4:52

some bad children got in and

4:55

they tore everything up. They

4:58

broke the swings and the merry

5:00

go around and all the things that were there. The slying

5:03

board. So

5:06

they put a magnetized fence around

5:08

it so that anybody who tried to break in would

5:10

get a little shock. The

5:15

Croatians knew how to cook only three

5:17

vegetables, cabbage, corn,

5:20

and tomatoes. Those are the only

5:22

three vegetables my mother ever, because

5:24

that's what they learned in Europe, and cabbage

5:27

was a horrible thing. Our

5:30

shoemaker had a race where

5:33

he made milkshakes or a nickel.

5:35

We could buy a milkshake from the shoemaker.

5:38

It would last for a week sometimes because

5:40

with zip on it. We didn't

5:42

have very many treats like that. That

5:45

was very loveliest things for us. Nevertheless,

5:49

I never experienced any shortage

5:51

of food because we were

5:53

raised to eat those three vegetables.

5:56

We had cabbage every day for lunch.

5:59

We had a stove in the kitchen and

6:01

it was awful smelling that cabbage.

6:05

I bringing up was very, very poor because

6:08

of our circumstances. Although my

6:10

father had a good job at the mill. He

6:13

was in charge of the place where they melted

6:15

the steel logs to make war

6:17

material out of it, but

6:20

I hardly ever saw him because he was

6:22

worked three shifts. Nevertheless,

6:25

I was my father's favorite child. We

6:28

were very close. One

6:30

time, my baby was being born to

6:33

three years younger than I was. He put

6:35

a stool, my brother said, made at

6:37

the foot of the stairs, and he said, now

6:39

you sit there until I tell you to

6:41

get up. So the people were

6:44

running up and down the stairs with all kinds

6:46

of errands. And

6:48

when the doctor finally came after delivering

6:51

the baby, he looked at me said, my you're

6:53

a good girl. You sat there the whole

6:55

time without moving. I

6:58

was very proud. I

7:03

was a middle child, you know, middle

7:05

child or left to do their own thing.

7:08

I got attention because I helped people,

7:10

so I wanted to be helpful. I

7:13

always wanted to be a nurse. I guess I

7:15

saw it on somebody's TV or I

7:17

saw the nurses going around helping

7:19

people in the neighborhood. I

7:23

was seventeen when I graduated from high

7:25

school. I took a job

7:27

in a small store where

7:30

the wealthy people had their clothes

7:32

dry cleaned. I got

7:34

five dollars a month for working there

7:37

year a day. I

7:40

used to give some of it to my mother because

7:42

she always needed money. It

7:44

took me about five years to save

7:47

enough money to go to school to

7:49

become a nurse. I

7:52

was older, and because of that, they gave

7:54

me all the hardest patients. I had

7:57

to work extra hard to keep my position

7:59

in the whole spill. But my mother was

8:01

very proud of me when I graduated,

8:04

because then I could get a job and

8:06

earn a little more. We

8:10

are mobilizing our fitzenship

8:13

will. We are calling on men and women and

8:16

property and money to

8:19

join in making all the plants affective.

8:24

When I graduated from nursing, they

8:27

were so in demand of nurses

8:29

that I said to nursing my girlfriend

8:31

and I said, let's go join the army.

8:34

And he did. Money

8:38

ways stop

8:48

there was a young man in the hospital who

8:51

apparently had some sort of back

8:53

injury, probably a fratchur

8:55

in vertebrae. He was in a flat

8:58

bed and I went to try

9:00

to rub his back a little because I

9:02

felt he needed a background from lying

9:04

flats for so long without any care.

9:07

He didn't want any female to touch

9:10

him. Eventually I coaxed

9:12

him into getting a background to made

9:14

him feel better, and he let me take care

9:16

of him after that. And

9:19

there was an elderly gentleman who was

9:21

dying because

9:24

he required so much attention. Our

9:27

leader put him some back alley

9:29

where he was not going to bother anybody.

9:32

She wouldn't let me go back there too often

9:34

because she said he takes too much time to

9:37

spend on that kind of person. Because

9:39

these other people need more attention. That's why

9:41

she kept me in the big place. In

9:43

the big ward. All I did was carrying

9:46

plateful of golf medicine. That would

9:48

the only nursing we did at that time. I

9:51

never heard him complain too much about the

9:53

food. They were fond of sweets,

9:56

and I always tried to make sure that they

9:58

had something sweet to satisfy

10:01

their appetite for sweets. Even

10:03

in my own apartment, I ate very

10:06

sparingly, and even at the officers

10:08

club and and normal food, I

10:11

received enough food, and I found everybody else.

10:13

Did I find

10:15

it hard? But I find it satisfying because

10:18

that was my nature to help people. And

10:20

I even want to visit that dying man

10:22

without letting my supervisor note. I

10:25

walked back one time to visit him. He

10:27

was uttering phrases like dying people do

10:29

unconscious already. I

10:32

just felt that I had to do that for these

10:34

people, because they needed it. Six

10:44

hundred and seventy one thousand wounded

10:47

troops returned home to hospitals like nurse

10:49

campbacks at Camp Lee, Virginia. But

10:52

so skilled were the nurses that had treated

10:54

them on the field that fewer than four

10:56

percent of them later died as a result

10:58

of their war wounds. Or does he ease overseas?

11:02

The slack clad nurses had worked

11:04

in unsanitary field hospitals.

11:06

They had kept up morale by helping to distribute

11:09

backed up v mail. They'd fed starved

11:11

patients and concentration camps, and

11:14

tended free prisoners of war on the roadside.

11:17

Seventy seven nurses were notoriously

11:19

taken Japanese prisoners of war themselves,

11:22

continuing to treat patients while also

11:24

cooking weeds into cold cream to stave

11:27

off their starvation. By

11:29

the end of the war, fifty nine thousand

11:31

women, including five hundred African

11:33

American women, had become Army Nurse

11:36

Corps nurses. Sixteen

11:38

were killed in direct action, sixteen

11:40

hundred received commendations for

11:42

outstanding conduct. The

11:45

Women's Army Corps disbanded when the armed

11:47

forces integrated in nineteen It

11:50

wasn't until two thousand and fifteen that the

11:52

Department of Defense opened all combat

11:54

jobs to women. Today,

11:57

women make up about of the Air

11:59

Force, of the Navy,

12:03

of the Army, and almost nine percent

12:05

of the Marine Corps. We'll

12:08

be right back. You're

12:23

listening to service that are in stories

12:25

of hunger and war from my Heart Radio. I'm

12:28

Jacquelin Proposo, and we're

12:30

here with Army nurse Victoria Louise Cambec

12:33

at the Army Hospital in Camp Lee, Virginia.

12:36

One of the many things I love to ponder

12:39

as I sit with our World War two veterans is

12:41

how much our population has grown since

12:44

the time of the stories they're sharing, and

12:46

how much they've had to adapt to this changing

12:49

world. In the

12:52

U S population was just under one forty

12:54

million. Today it's over

12:56

twice that much. Cities that had

12:59

become industrial giants would fall

13:01

to international trade. Suburban

13:04

sprawl set nails into factory

13:06

town coffins, malls

13:08

would replace corner stores, medical centers,

13:11

the local doctor, computers, nearly

13:13

everything. This

13:15

would take time, though these veterans

13:18

would be a part of the change, and

13:20

when World War Two ended, the women

13:23

who had worked in the factories and fields

13:25

and hospitals would each have to

13:27

find her part in it. After

13:31

her discharge, Nurse Cambeck would

13:33

earn a Bachelors of Science and Nursing Education

13:36

and then a Master's of Science and Administration

13:38

in nursing education. Then,

13:40

at thirty three years old in nineteen fifty

13:43

four, she would take a new kind

13:45

of order entirely. I

13:54

was in the army for three years. I

13:58

was accustomed to making do what

14:01

I had to do, and what I had

14:03

to do at that time was to get a job, and

14:06

I found one. It was a transitory

14:08

position, walking the field, working

14:12

in homes people that were jobless,

14:14

taking care of patients who were homeless,

14:17

or people who needed food. We

14:21

had a job making sandwiches for the

14:23

jobless. There were a lot of stores that were

14:26

selling bread sheep down by the riverside.

14:28

Our home was near the riverside. I collected

14:31

a lot of bread. I got the bread

14:33

at a cheap rate, and I parked my car

14:35

close to the edge of the river. When

14:38

I was coming home after shopping

14:40

around in those shops down there, asked

14:43

a man who was walking by. I said, would you

14:45

get my car down there? So

14:48

he walked down and I had all that bread

14:50

that I purchased. He said, my you're going

14:52

to have a big feast with all that bridge

14:55

or carrying. I said, oh, no, we're making

14:57

sandwiches for the jobless. He's

15:00

don't ask for the poor. Well here and he gave

15:02

me fifty dollars. He said, that's for the poor.

15:07

But I did a lot of home nursing. And

15:10

one of the nurses that was doing

15:12

home nursing the upper edge of rank

15:14

and there was some wild

15:17

people up there who had lived there

15:19

for years and years, and

15:21

it would easily rob anybody of any

15:24

money they had. And this nurse was doing

15:26

house nursing up there, and they told

15:29

her that she would have to keep a gunman

15:31

walk along with her to protect her. So

15:34

she quit her job because she said,

15:36

I'm not going to work with a gunman. They

15:40

never bothered me in the house

15:42

that I occupied up there to serve the

15:44

people, because they knew that if they

15:47

did anything to me, the people

15:49

would all have to go down to the hospital

15:51

to get treated, whereas now they could just

15:54

run to my office and get something

15:56

to take care of their problem. So

15:58

I was safe up there. H I

16:06

didn't know much about religion because we didn't

16:09

have any real religious training at home,

16:11

except to know that you have to go to Mass on

16:13

Sundays and they have to not eat meat on Fridays.

16:16

Nevertheless, I really was a

16:18

religious person. When

16:20

I was sixteen, the sisters in rank

16:23

And, where I was born, wanted me to join

16:25

their convent, but their mother house was

16:27

on Staten Island, and

16:30

I thought, if I go to Staten Island, I will

16:32

become so homesick, I'll come home and I'll

16:34

never join any convent again. I

16:37

tried to keep to my religious ideals,

16:40

and I tried to read articles that

16:43

would keep my faith alive, and listening

16:45

to these articles made me feel

16:47

that I need more religious

16:50

training. A

16:53

chaplain had a Mass near the Officers

16:56

Club, and I went

16:58

to Mass on Sundays and on Holy

17:00

Days down to Chapel. Then,

17:03

when I left the Army, my

17:05

mother had fallen and fractured her

17:07

hip. My youngest brother was

17:10

very sick. So when these two people

17:12

died, then I joined the Sisters

17:14

of Divine Providence. When

17:18

I came to this convent, I always felt

17:21

they needed somebody. Their need

17:23

came before my need. They

17:25

never sent me to become a partition.

17:28

They have me sleeping on the second floor

17:31

in a department where everyone else

17:33

goes to work except myself. They

17:36

all had a job, either in the convent or

17:38

some of them worked outside, either

17:40

in the post office or something. I

17:42

just knew the ones who worked around the house.

17:45

Some of them took care of the cleaning, some

17:47

took care of helping get patients

17:50

in and out of the bathtubs. One

17:52

sister had charge of the laundry in our

17:54

big laundry that we had, and she would

17:56

come up and I recognized her. Another

17:58

one had charge of the young sisters.

18:01

She was always aware of me, but

18:04

she never participated too much

18:06

with me. I just was aware that they

18:08

were there, and I never conversed with them.

18:10

Too much. That leaves

18:13

me a lot of time for prayer. Jesus. Sitting

18:18

at a table with a group of nuns who

18:21

had different pursuits. They

18:23

would discuss their pursuits and I

18:25

just sat and listened. I

18:27

very seldom enjoyed or participated

18:30

in their conversations. Our

18:33

food, I thought it was acceptable. When

18:36

I came to the corner and I saw the cabbage

18:38

on the menu, I snorted. I

18:40

thought, oh, I'll never eat that. Oh they're

18:42

serving that again, and I can't stand it. And

18:45

I tasted it once and it was really good,

18:48

and after that I was a Cabby's lover.

18:51

I never have feeling that we were being cheated

18:53

out of any food. I always saw our guy. It was

18:55

satisfactory. I was allowed

18:57

to eat anything I wanted. I

19:08

always felt that children needed

19:11

special attention because they're

19:13

eventually going to become as old

19:15

as I am, and they'll have needs. If

19:18

we meet their needs properly, they'll

19:20

grow up the right way. And if we don't

19:23

meet their needs, they'll grow up to be criminals

19:25

or some other undesirable trait.

19:29

There was a period of time when I was interested

19:31

in the schools. I tried to treat

19:34

the children that are coming to contact

19:36

with in a way that would make me look

19:38

favorable in their eyes, rather than to be

19:41

hostile, because sometimes the nuns

19:43

are very cruel to children and they develop

19:46

a hatred of anything religious. So

19:49

I tried to be as pleasant as I

19:51

could. I got a bag of candy weighing

19:53

about a hundred pounds, and I could

19:55

share it easily with these children sometimes

19:58

to get their favor. In

20:01

infants, the baby doesn't respond

20:03

to anything excepting being fed. As

20:06

they grow older, they still want to

20:08

be fed properly. If

20:11

you hand a piece of candy to a toddler,

20:13

they accepted willingly, and the older

20:15

they get, the more they respond. I

20:18

think that being kind in any way

20:21

makes children different. The

20:23

kinder you are to people, the

20:26

more likely you're able to get

20:28

their undivided attention. If

20:31

we slought them off real casually,

20:34

they'll respond in the same manner.

20:36

They won't panny attention. But if

20:38

you're kind to them and treat

20:40

them kindly, I think they will

20:42

respond by following you more

20:44

closely. As

20:51

a nun sister, Melanie taught children

20:54

and taught nursing and worked as a

20:56

nurse practitioner all around

20:58

Pennsylvania and to Maryland and for

21:01

a few years in Puerto Rico. She

21:03

retired from nursing in returning

21:07

to making sandwiches for the homeless as one

21:09

of the Peanut, Butter and Jelly Brigade of

21:11

Sisters working with Operation Safety

21:13

Net outside of Pittsburgh. She

21:15

became an early proponent of recycling. She

21:18

celebrated her jubilee that's sixty

21:20

five years with the Order in two thousand

21:22

nineteen. Today she

21:25

most often meditates on forgiveness and

21:27

kindness and leave

21:31

a place better than you found it and

21:33

everything I did I pointed to that in

21:36

my work because of our

21:38

poverty, I had to struggle

21:40

to maintain my own personality,

21:43

in my character, and I think that

21:45

struggle keeps on going. I try to please

21:48

people as much as possible. If

21:50

I find things that needed to be changed

21:53

and changed to the best of my ability,

21:55

and if I couldn't do anything, I prayed over

21:57

it. If I ever get

22:00

depressed, I could read my letters

22:02

that the people that employed me had

22:05

given me for all the jobs that I had

22:07

after I graduated from nursing. They

22:10

were so wonderful, what a wonderful

22:12

nurse she is. Every letter was so upbeat

22:15

that I said, if I ever feel depressed, I'll just

22:17

read all those letters from the Chief of Staffs

22:20

and I can raise my spirits

22:23

with those letters. I

22:25

can't imagine anything else I'd rather

22:27

do. You

22:33

can find more about Sister Melanie Cambec

22:35

and the women of World War Two at her page

22:37

at Service podcast dot org. There's

22:40

also a form on our main page where you can

22:42

send a message to Sister Melanie or any

22:44

of the veterans we featured the season. We

22:47

watched a few incredible interviews of other

22:49

women who served during World War Two who

22:51

have since passed away, and we'll be

22:53

sharing some more from them on our Instagram

22:55

and Facebook pages. Were at Service

22:58

Podcast So join us are

23:00

if curious. In

23:02

our final episode this season, authors

23:04

Mike Cole and Anastasia marks Decel

23:06

say, though help us pull together how combat

23:09

and cuisine most changed during World

23:11

War Two, affecting the lives of

23:13

service members and civilians going

23:15

forward until then. Services

23:18

a production from My Heart Radio, where our

23:20

supervising producer is Gabrielle Collins

23:22

and our executive producer Christopher hascotas

23:25

Avery Keatley was our on site engineer

23:27

for this episode and we'd like to thank Sister

23:29

Roseanne and Susan Ron from the Sisters

23:31

of Divine Providence for their help coordinating

23:33

this episode. Thanks for listening, and

23:36

thank you to those serving and those who have

23:38

served.