Mary Camilla Howe Sims, Midvale, Utah: an interview by Becky B. Lloyd, March 22, 2004: Saving the legacy tape no. 650

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MARY AMILLA HOW IM R H 22 2004 governm nt had hired. They were cheap labor and they at nly rice. aturally, th y didn 't speak English. We were put on what was called unattached servic . In other words, we were sent to a station hospital, which was smaller. I helped out there when they were busy. BEC: About what year was this? MAR: I entered in 1943, in October. This was in the following year. We went overseas in March (1944). Oh, while I was on detached service, I talked with one of the hospital ward boys one day. My mother had written to me from home that the priest who married her and my father was in New Guinea. I wrote her back that New Guinea was a large area and there were thousands of people there then. The boy said something about their chaplain's name being Micklehatten. This priest was a cousin of my mother's and his name was Micklehatten, so I went to see him. He said yes, he knew me. We talked for a while. He had rather "flat" effect. He was a very quiet person. He said, "You resemble your mother a great deal," which other people had told me. But I think I was in shock afterwards. It was such a surprise because it was the other part of the world, you know. You don't expect to meet somebody who had known your parents. My parents were the first people he had married after he was ordained. Finally, our hospital was finished. The 54th General was the largest overseas Army hospital that our government had. We had every service. We had, in fact, extra people who were plastic surgeons and we had psychiatrists. We had dentists. We had Red Cross girls, besides the nurses and a physical therapist and an occupational therapist and a full compliment of Gis. I forget how many people were involved with the entire hospital. The hospital opened after the invasion of the Philippines. We were very busy. The casualties were brought to us by 4