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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M RY MILL HOWE IM M R H 22 200-t hi tar and gave th m to somebody. Everybody kis ed everybody el . P pl w r absolutely hysterical. We were so happy so pleased. We didn t think it would ev r happen, you know? What else can I tell you about it? We came home in a group and settled at Camp Stoneman in California again. We had a lot of trouble on the way because of seasickness. Some of the boys were seasick for the whole two weeks it took us on the ocean. We were housed in a little closet that had three bunks, which were wired to the wall, screwed up to the wall. During the night, after a particularly stormy night, the top bunk came loose and the girl was thrown to the ground. She was put in the sick bay of one of the hospital ships for a few days, but she had no broken bones. She was badly bruised. BEC: So, when you came back, you were on a ship that was also carrying sick and wounded? MAR: We had a few, but not very many. But they, the ship, had their own boys. They had people in, what they called, sickbay, that would take care of them. When they'd be short of help, we would volunteer to go up and help sometimes, as needed. We took amazingly good care of our Gis, I thought. Nothing was denied them. We had not much in the way of rehabilitation. There weren't any appliances or you know, not much in the way of physical therapy for the people. BEC: When did you come back? MAR: We came back at the beginning of 1946. My husband (Wilfred W. Sims) and I had been engaged before we went over, but I sent the ring back, later, through some friends who came to visit me. I went back to the hospital, the University of Wisconsin Hospital where I'd worked previously. Some friends came by and they had seen him in 12