This collection consists of letters written by Eula Gentzler to her parents in Topeka, Kansas, and official military correspondence as a U.S. Army nurse. Miss Gentzler referred to hospital ship activities, places she visited, and family references. Occasionally Eula expressed her thoughts on the war. Eula A. Gentzler was born November 10, 1910, in Belleville, Kansas. Her father Ernest T. Gentzler was a fireman for the Union Pacific Railroad. The family moved to Topeka when Eula was, approximately, thirteen years old. She graduated from Topeka High School and, later, the Asbury Hospital School of Nursing in Salina, Kansas, in 1937. She enlisted in the U. S. Army Nurse Corps in October, 1942. She was discharged in Octorber, 1945, but was recalled during the Korean conflict serving from 1951 to 1957. Miss Gentzler was sent to Europe in the fall of 1943. She was assigned to duty on the hospital ships Shamrock and Arcadia, working in surgery as well as the wards. Both carried approximately 800 patients. The ships carried injured servicemen from North Africa and Europe to the U. S., requiring six weeks to make a trip across, pick up a load of patients, and return. When in the war zone, they would get patients during battles and would then work extended shifts. Miss Gentzler recalled that during the battle at Enzio, they started surgery at 1 p.m. and operated until 5 a.m. the next morning. On another occasion, they picked up a load of British sailors whose mine sweeper had been bombed and the hospital crew worked all night until they ran out of supplies. Eula Gentzler died on April 13, 1992.
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