Manuevers??  We heard the word many times, and yet we did not have much idea what it was.  A trip?  A picnic?  A camping trip?  We later found out it was the taking of our complete hospital out into the wilds of Tennessee  and setting it up and working with real patients from the various Divisions that were practising their war problems previous to going into real warfare.  We set up and tore down our hospital on the average of once a week - once we did get a break and stayed in the same area for two weeks.  The hospital locations were at Shelbyville, Castalian Springs, Beech Grove, Cooksville, Baxter, Murfreesboro and then returned to Shelbyville where we were winterized.  We had the privilege of servicing several divisions- the 10th, 35th, 78th and the 14th Armored.  Those divisions went to make up the "Red" and the "Blue" armys and the umpires.  We felt pretty important when we wore the red or the blue armbands of the side that we were woking under during the different phases.  During these maneuvers we were working through the Second Army and cared for 2,783 patients,

There were no differences between the various set-ups except the last phase of Shelbyville where we had a lot medical cases due to the cold, rainy weather; some VD and accident cases made up the major part of out surgery.  The nursing was certainly different from any that we had ever encountered in civilian life as we were handicapped by the lack of equipment, or so we thought.  Later we learned to get along without many of the things that had seemed so important then.  In many instances, it was necessary to resort to our own ingenuity to make improvisions of equipment that was really essential.         

Maneuvers proved to be a good training period and we took up various types of training such as wearing the mosquito nets during malaria periods and gas masks for simulated gas attacks.

At Shelbyville during the last stage we lived in winterized tents and the hospital was set up in two large garages, the medical section in one and the surgical section in the other.  This really seemed luxurious in comparison to the tents we had been initiated to.

A week before Christmas - our first Christmas in the Army - the news came that the unit was to be divided into halves, and one half sent to Cooksville while the other would stay at Shelbeyville.  At Cooksville they lived in mud and more mud due to the frequent rains which was apparently far worse than anything that we had encountered up to that time.  Did we say "MUD"?  We have since discovered that no one who has not been in either France or Belgium has even the remotest idea of what mud really is.

Christmas Day was rathr quiet and many of us had a teeny-weeny touch of homesickness although no one wanted to admit it.  The hospital was open and some of the nurses were on night duty so it just didn't seem like a holiday - they did little to put us in the festive mood.  The Red Cross Chapter at Shelbyville helped a great deal by coming out and giving each patient  a gift.  This gesture was much appreciated and their thoughtfullness will not soon be forgotten.

On New Year's Eve we had our first dance - imagine having a real dance!  It was a gala affair and we were beginning to believe that the Army was not such a bad place after all.