Marcella LeBeau, Nurse at D-Day and Battle of the Bulge (Full Interview)

welcome to veterans Chronicles I'm Greg caramba I'm honored to be joined today by US Army nurse veteran Marcelo Lobo who served at d-day as well as the Battle of the Bulge and elsewhere in Europe during World War two and ma'am it's a great honor to have you thank you for being here where were you born and raised I was born of promise South Dakota on the Cheyenne River Reservation and that's part of the Lakota Nation that's a shrine river Rasputia what was it like growing up there you know we grew up that promise south dakota was no longer exist and to me that was like heaven I lost my mother when I was about 10 years old my grandmother when I was 12 but we had an Irish father and there were five of us children left when my mother passed away and we had a wonderful life in spite of the fact that my we lost my mother we had a wonderful father who took good care of us he had a big garden so we had plenty of food we lived by the river were and he built us a log house a two-room raw house out of trees from the river and that was like it was wonderful for us my sister Dinah had the upstairs and we felt like Queens because it was our own all by ourselves my three brothers my father lived downstairs we had a kitchen and a bedroom and the whole outdoors was our living room so we didn't need a living room back then that was 1919 when I was born when you were born he just celebrated your 100th birthday I heard right correct Wow congratulations and happy birthday so at what point did you decide become a nurse even before you decided to join the army why did you want to be a nurse well I really cannot pinpoint that exactly but I think the fact that my mother was ill a lot of the time and we waited on her it has so happened that I happen to be the hospital at the same time that she was during the night she called to me and she I wanted a glass of water so I got the water for her and my mother was so kind so gentle and she appreciated that and I think it's the mere fact that I was able to help somebody miss satisfaction that I received from being able to help someone I think that kind of led me toward the nursing field and when did you join the army I joined the Army in about 1943 and were you already pretty well trained did they put you through more training I'm guessing they did but how did what did they do with you once you signed up I had my training at st. Mary's Hospital it appears South Dakota and we had dr. Riggs as our surgeon and we had wonderful surgeon surgical experience under dr. Riggs he spoke fluent Lakota and encouraged me to speak my own language but going back we were forbidden to speak her own language at the boarding school that I went to but he encouraged me to speak my language but of course at the nurses training there was no one to speak to that understood my language so did you experience any discrimination in the service when you first joined because it sounds like the doctor was very considerate of you in all the time that I was in the military I never once experienced discrimination never one that's amazing I think they accepted me for my ability as a church coders exactly how it should be so where did they send you first I tell you from the beginning we were in Pontiac Michigan my girlfriend and I were to go back even further when I was in the nurses training we had a patient patient his name was the Paul helm and he happened to know my mother and so he offered me a job when I finished my training when I when I finished my training I had a job waiting for me so I heard that job and there happened to be an opening for one more so my friend Marie went with me so we took this job at for Thompson at a little Hospital I believe it was at 25th 27 bit Hospital and we worked there for a while and there was a young doctor there and he used to say to us you girls are young you have an education why don't you go out and see the world and he kept at us like that so finally we look to nursing magazines and we found the job it was up in Pontiac Michigan and it paid a hundred and forty dollars a month and boarding room back then that was a lot of money so we accepted that we went to Pontiac Michigan to a General Hospital and every day on the radio there was a call for nurses in the military they needed nurses so we listened to that for a while and then we decided that yes we would join the army so Marie and I we went to the Red Cross filled out an application and Marie put my name down to go with I put her name down to go in she went to Colorado I went to California she went to the cific and i were to the airplane so when we got there we knew that the army was the boss we had no more right to that's the way it started okay and then we're well from Palm Springs California that was assigned to a psychiatric wards because they had an opening there we stayed there a few months and I'm not sure how long that was but the call was given that we should report to Boston Massachusetts forward for overseas through assignment so from Palm Springs California toward a general hospital I went to Boston Massachusetts and there we boarded the USS George Washington the 5,000 troops ship to go to Liverpool England and that was my assignment and where did you land we landed at Liverpool England I think it took us like 13 or 14 days and we landed in Liverpool England and then where did they send you then from there we went to Will's we'll think it was Llandudno wills we spent I think a couple of weeks there and just waiting and they tried to drill the nurses there in the time that we were waiting and they had a really black out there you had to weave her way into buildings because they had it all curtain'd off and because of the blackout in London was I guess that area was being bombed by the Germans the West buns and if you use a flashlight you had to direct it down you couldn't tell you had a director down weeks so that the light would not be seen by your elders their pilots the pilots knew Wow so when and when did you get there what what year what what time of the year it was so you know that I got to look at my records that's okay they sent you to North Africa is that correct they did not send you North Africa okay so you got there obviously was it a number of months before d-day or well longer we were we were like a couple of weeks at Joe wills and then they sent us to a little minister England at Leo one string then we had a barracks type Hospital and we prepared for duty and so we were preparing for d-day and for the fact that I was a psychiatric nurse in the United States they assigned me again to the psychiatric wards and so we were seeing patients there in the psych wards and they were soldiers who couldn't see some couldn't hear and so they gave them sodium amytal narcosis and then they could see but they could hear and know I stayed there for a while but that wasn't my preference I wanted to be in this surgical board so I asked to be transferred to the surgical ward and they gave me that assignment so I became a surgical nurse then so what did they have you doing as they were about to embark on Operation Overlord oh we were preparing your ward getting all ready and we had time our hands waiting during the time that we were waiting there are times when you look up in the sky and you could see the sky absolutely filled with silver planes as far as you could see every direction what a beautiful sight and so what our and these were Americans and I suspect that they were bombing getting ready for Dede and I'm just saying because I believe that it's probably would help I think you're right and during that time we had a chance to hear the north what a beautiful concert upon a field out in the open and there were she is that they dressed up like The Andrews Sisters the three Andrews Sisters they had on skirts with their area mates and their jackets just like The Andrews Sisters and they went through the gyrations of Andrews Sisters songs don't sit under the apple tree in the moon fun and then we heard he he was missing and I don't think they ever found him I was right after that right after them Marcella let's take a quick break we'll be right back with more of your story and when we come back it'll be time to talk about d-day we'll be right back on Veterans Chronicles welcome back to veterans Chronicles I'm Greg Caramba I'm honored to be joined today by Marcelo Lobo she served as a US Army nurse in the European theater in World War two and we left off just before the launch of Operation Overlord so where were you as the invasion began I was in luminous jinglin at the 76 General Hospital and we were preparing our hospital for Denis that we were visited around and no income while we were waiting and we haven't gonna be at Kidderminster when we got the call to return back to our station so we went back to the hospital at 2:30 on the seventh who received our first convoy of patients from Dede and permitted then they kept on coming most of the were sent back to the United States evacuated back to the United States and then when I was safe in August about the 13th 14th of August when he took us to Southampton and there ways we waited on the beach for the ship and we crossed the English Channel on the USS I'm sorry wrong way on the douche land it was a judgeship so we boarded the Dutch ship to cross the English Channel and it so happened that I had a toothache and so I went to the dentist on board and he said your teeth are perfect there's nothing wrong with your teeth and so I thought what they must think I'm go pretty because that happened to some of the soldiers but I had pain and I couldn't lie down to sleep so I set up to sleep on the three days that it took us to cross the channel and I guess the channel wasn't that wide except the weather interference so it took us three days and during that time my setup to sleep because of the pain so when we landed we had to climb down a rope ladder into a landing barge the landing march took us ashore and the landing marks that I was on dropped the let front down on land so we walked ashore we didn't have to get wet but some of them I guess had to wait is short so we were at Utah Beach relented at Utah Beach near Kerr 10 and we camped there at Kerr 10 for a while but the first thing for me was to tell the dentist's again and he took me to a dental clinic that was set up in a tent and they did a root canal on my front tooth the pain had localized to my front tooth and so I had a root canal done there it was set up they had all the instruments and everything just like modern anywhere Wow so that was perfect so that out and I went back several times for a check-up because we spent several weeks there in the composter and at the end they said I was a good patient and they wanted to give me a steak dinner was just a little far out it was and it didn't hurt to eat it at that yeah it's always good talk about the setting up the hospital in the in the past year well we actually didn't set a possible there we camped there for several weeks and waiting waiting and they'd warned us about walking out because of landmines and to be careful you know where we walked and we were able to see the pillboxes that were set up there the German pillboxes and the German tank that had been knocked out and I have a picture in my book of one German tank and during that time that you let us go to st. Maarten Michele and we've got to visit there and see the chapel above Martin Michelle and there was a French lady that put on a banquet for us and it was in an old building it wasn't a fancy type building but she set up this banquet in this little little building and she sank that French national anthem for the first time since the German occupation and she cried so that was a big treat so we spent time there in the coal pasture waiting for the next assignment then they took us up into Paris France and the hospital Bouchon French hospital had been overtaken by the Germans and so I have a picture of the hospital with the German flag hanging outside and then I believe when the Americans took it over it was a hundred naturel hospital and that's what we knew and so we were there temporarily assigned and we weren't there just temporarily and there was one evening when the middle school downtown and we're going to see it Follies entertainment right in dinner there's one night and then they another time they allowed us to see the Eiffel Tower so we had pictures taken there but you couldn't go beyond the first level that their Eiffel Tower because of the war in the buzz bomb describe the buzz bombs what's it like to be near them when they're coming down there I can't tell you how large they were but they're quite probably as probably as long as this room I would guess and they're large around probably I don't know I'm not good at guessing but it was a large mom and there were two kinds there v1 and v2 but I'm not that familiar and I can't explain them that well but I'm getting ahead of an extreme sure shall I go ahead please we had bus pumps night and day in Liege Belgium and the patients had the sky divided into three areas in the middle area was they called blessed by Molly so when they hollered was by Malley you were supposed to take cover and the other two I can't remember what what they named them but they came off and every few minutes that one time a patient said they were four in the sky at one time and they made a lot of noise I could go on and tell you on January 8th I'm getting it my story on January 8th 1945 a bus bomb hit our hospital and it hits in the area where the military police were getting ready for bid they killed 25 of our men I didn't know them personally but I would see them stand guard here and there at the hospital one was a little shirt happy-go-lucky guy a wave and smile I didn't even know his name but I had worked night duty on the shock board that night and I was getting off going back to my tent and the nurse was coming she was crying she said don't go there she said it's awful her limbs all over she said they'll need you tonight go back get some sleep they'll need you tonight so I listened to her when I went to my tent and slept I'm so glad that under so bad years later we had reunions in Des Moines Iowa and one time the administrative officer came and he said it was his duty to identify those men it was so awful he said that he had to leave and go off by himself he cried he vomited and he went back but there was one that he could not identify so they had to report him missing in action and then another time at our reunion someone wrote in I have the letter he said that about fifty feet away from the bus bomb site they found the end and on that hand was a ring and that was his friend's ring so he knew that that was his prints ring his friends and he made a plaque to that 25 min and we never knew what happened to that plank when we left gage the many years later my sister and I that my sister my daughter Kathy and I we went to Paris France and I wanted to find that plaque if there was a way that I could find it so we landed in Paris we took a train up to Liege Belgium that an information counter I would explain to this man what I was looking for and he didn't know anything about it but there was a man that came up for my right and he said lady because of you we're free thank you and he left those not our ladies sitting there on the other side she got up she said well I'll take you anyplace you want to go and she had to call the University where she worked to get away so she took us through her home offered us the use of her bathroom lunch she showed me the room where mother had recently passed away who cancer and she took us to the Henry Chapelle Cemetery there they had a huge log in that log they had to list the 25 minutes so I was able to see that and I met Ferdinand assenting he was a superintendent there he said when you go home he said if you send me pictures of the area where he were I'll try to identify the place where your hospital was and I'll see what I can do so I did that I said it's a picture plaque and in the area where we were and he identified the place and they had built up a transportation company there and by then and when they heard the story they reconstructed the plaque and they fixed an area outside their transportation company in honor of these men and later much later at our reunion one of the members visited over Nash with his family and he came back to report and he was so emotional he could hardly tell us about the transportation company and what they had done and reconstructing the plaque all of that they did the reason you were in Liege was to help deal with casualties from the Battle of the Bulge correct I'm sorry you were dealing with casualties from the Battle of the Bulge while you were at liege yes yes describe what that was like well we didn't know what was going on as far as the war war was learnt we heard that the Germans had overtaken the Americans that's above the law never hazard for the Port of Antwerp and we were in between so our hospital would be deal would be taking over and so they told us being packed and ready to be evacuated on a moment's notice and so that was all we knew but with I guess later we heard that that the Germans had couldn like I can't tell you the figure of the army that they they overtook the Americans but they had overtaken the Americans and we're headed for the Port of Antwerp but we knew that we were closed because they would night it light up the night sky like thee and we could hear the boat trucks who hour after hour down the streets of Liege one time it looked like the fire one the river was unfair the Liege River Elaine the river that went through the edge yes it looked like was on fire and we could feel the concussion of the acting on the ground there was so strong so and I guess the analyst of those who had to stay with the patients who couldn't be moved and we never did see that list did you have a lot of patients dealing with frostbite and other things related to the cold as well or was it mostly war injuries well my ward was a number one the first ward in the hospital there was a surgical ward so other words took care of the patient that you asked about and I guess there was one ward that was filled with soldiers with foot rot there later yeah but they had foot problems and some poor amputees and so they had a full ward of those and that was my ward so I can't report on them how advanced could you get in the surgery where you were we when was number one that first ward in the hospital and we had two of Central patients to and from surgery all the time and we had a lot of blood transfusions IVs and recovery that vital signs and so we were busy all the time sometimes I'd get patients that would steal overnight and my ward and back to the United States so they were just moving fast those wartime and things were fast moving they'd come in angled one night I got a crystal war and my board just overnight with that look I can't forget that look the skin stretched over his bones and that vacant stare and then what wouldn't talk I can't let the minute my memory it was just overnight there it was another time that they brought in no soldier I know the six-inch legs on the stretcher they laid him down by my desk in the front door he heard my name where someone and he happened to be from home from the schools that I went to and his name was Willie and there was Willie laying my ward just overnight on his way back what are the odds of that I'm sorry I said what are the odds of that I know it was a long town and we had pushed German prisoners of war that worked in our throughout our hospital I guess there was a captor life and we weren't supposed to talk to them but occasionally they would help take the patient to and from surgery and we had those high litters it was wintertime so we covered them with top you know cookies Mulford well well they went to to and from surgery my doctor was dr. Thompson and he was a surgeon so he was in surgery most of the time and would come and make his wrongs then go back and I had Sergeant Willie and private private coffee and one nurse that helped me was maple peterson myself and we were just so busy just giving blood transfusions IVs and penicillin penicillin was new within and they had a penicillin team we just had to turn in the name of someone who was to receive them film and they would have come around every four hours how long did she stay in the edge did you stay there even after the battle was done we were there almost here to the day so even through the end of the war then right right and when did you come home then five or six and what did you do when you came home well I went to stay with my sister for a while she happened to be taking a nurses training under the nurse Cadet Corps she wanted to be a nurse and going to the surface like I did she was taking her nurses training in Chicago so I stayed with her for a while and did you continue on as a nurse oh yes I was on something for a while worked here and there individually I went back to Rapid City and was there temporarily and you know there were signs in the bars as you walk down the streets no Indians or dogs alone how did that make you feel I mean you've done all this for your country the military treated you great and then you go back home I never experienced any discrimination all and the service they accepted me for what I was able to do and when I come back to South Dakota my state installed this sign and that law was that anything that had that had alcohol and we couldn't buy like even vanilla extract with alcohol or rubbing alcohol I went to a drugstore at home to buy some rubbing alcohol and the lady the dignified lady in the city of mObridge she said we don't have any so I went back to the grocery store where I traded who knew this man he said well that's strange he said that their drugstore so he went over there and he bought me two bottles so she lied to me of course she did and I said they had a law in South Dakota you know where the Indians couldn't buy anything with alcohol and but that law was changed I believe in 1950 something and I said you can change the law but you can't change the hearts of man speaking of laws I know that Congress is considering a bill that you are very interested in what would it do I think you're talking about remove the steam yes the one that Congress is currently just considering you know I've been involved in the Wounded Knee Massacre for number of years and back home I say that there's a pervasive sadness that exists on our reservation because of Wounded Knee and unresolved grief and Wounded Knee they massacred about 250 to 300 Native Americans women children men women and children and they gave 20 medals of Honor to the 7th Calvary for bravery bravery that has affected of the people on our reservation we have descendants there and I at one time I was asked to meet the Secretary to the Wounded Knee survivors Association and I'm not a descendant but at the time I was serving on the Tribal Council and the president Burdell blue arm asked me if I would be there secretary so I was I was glad to help in any way I could and so at one point my son Richard and I went to Glasgow Scotland were they edible whether they had a ghost at shirt that was taken from Wounded Knee after the massacre and so to make a long story short we went for the first time in 1995 the Mario Gonzalez the attorney he told the story and he told it like no one else could tell that he was an attorney and he was a descendant of Dewey Byrd who was so there was a man that was adamantly opposed to the return of the go shirt so nothing happened in 1995 but in 1998 my son Richard and I we went over I wrote my story at the hearing we had to wait five days for the city to meet and to vote on it when they voted they voted in favor of letting in the Corps should come back so we were we couldn't just pick it up and bring it home they had to go through all the wrong through the laws and all their procedures and and besides that they wanted to come back to true our reservation bring the co shirt themselves so John Lynch mark O'Neil Liz Cameron and nor John Finch's wife they came they got a sparseness st. Paul Minneapolis when they got there the authorities realized that there was a eagle feather on the bush shirt so they wouldn't let them leave there with the go shirt and a friend of ours Allen Duke was coming from what would Woodstock Georgia and so he picked it up for us and brought it to ecobee so had our ceremonies there we've had begged wakes the offer to come who had a ceremony Nikko beauty and well at the gravesite and then we went to pure we had to sign a contract that we would keep it in the climate-controlled place until we had a place of our own so we contracted with the pure purchase center to hold it for us and that's where it is yet today but to go on [Music] lately some folks back home they started they wanted to request that the medals of honor be revoked and if the bill is called remove the stain and the number is three four six seven and it's making its way now and initially we met with deafheaven and two men one a Republican and one hundred met Brad and so they initiated they signed on to the bill and it's moving ahead right now but we don't I don't know where it is right today okay it's no House Resolution three four six seven marcella were just about out of time but I want to ask you one more question and it goes back to your service in World War two what does it mean to you that you made such a big difference in the lives of these men who had been injured in a variety of ways whether it's at Normandy or at the Battle of the Bulge or anywhere else that you treated soldiers from the fact that you helped them recover and return to their lives you know who was one of the great sellers purposes of my life I could tell you a story I was working on the shock board my tour of duty my duty and a nurse asked me to go see this Native American he had lost both legs above the knee and they thought he was suicidal and they knew that he might try to commit suicide they were afraid to let him shave with a razor blade so I went to see him his name was Eugene rubadoux from rosebud South Dakota I visited with him I offered to write letters for him and he didn't want to write home and I was afraid to ask him how he received his injuries I didn't have heart to ask him but I went to visit him as often as I could then one day he was gone I went back to equal butte finally I worked at the local Indian Health Service Hospital I went to many conferences and I would ask people from Rose but do you know Eugene rubadoux it took me four years to find him and finally one day there was a young lady came did a workshop and left she called the next morning and she said ask who my name identified myself and she said do you know Eugene rubadoux and I said yes now I got all choked up she said he's my father and there were two of us my brother and I he got a divorce and he left he said Yankton you remarry as a family gave me his phone number his address I waited a couple of days and I called him I said do you remember the nurse that stood at your bedside in Danish Belgium he said I'll never did you ever see him we invited him my blog to the post 308 blade like celery at home I told them about it in the dance away as well they offered to help me so we invited him to equip you to honor him we had a dinner for him in the gathering the veterans he walked to the podium with the name of a king and thanked us and then I learned that he was a role model and he was invited back many times to the VA to talk to other amputees you could encourage them the incredible story what just one life that you helped to change in a major way Marcelo thank you so much for your time today and thank you thank you thank you for your service to our country US Army nurse Marcela Lobo veteran of World War two served at d-day and Liege and attending the 2019 American Veterans Center conference here in Washington I'm Greg Columbus this is Veterans Chronicles you

Channel: American Veterans Center

Views: 119,302

Keywords: AVC, American Veterans Center

Id: th5D7_K_ZKI

Length: 42min 43sec (2563 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 20 2020