Back in Time

World War I nurse, Lena (Warrington) (See) Miller

Previously published in the April 11, 1985, issue of the Osceola Sentinel Tribune, with assistance from Patty Strong, of the Iowa Legionnaire:

“A place for women in the United States military was not heard of prior to the first World War. However, several thousand women served on the front lines in the United States and Europe in military hospitals.

Lena Warrington was born in Guthrie Center, graduating from high school in 1913 and Mercy Hospital Nurses Training in 1916. She served her country by joining the military through the American Red Cross in 1918 at the age of 24. She served with the Army Nurse Corp. She and several of her friends spent over a year and a half caring for ailing soldiers in France. In March 1918, Lena set off for Jefferson Barracks, a training camp near St. Louis, where soldiers would be put on trains to go off to battle.

The worst event of the war for Lena took place six months before she set foot on foreign soil. It was the 1918 flu epidemic that raged across the country claiming thousands of lives. She remarked people died faster than they could get the beds made up. Lena saw about 12 men die each night from the flu, with aspirin the only thing available to treat the suffering.

In December, after the Armistice was signed, Lena boarded a ship headed for France. After a stormy 10-day ride, the ship landed in Brest, where she spent a month and another month in Metz before transferring to Savenay on the west coast of France, staying there until her departure home in July, 1919.

Lena didn’t witness much of the blood and gore of the war at the Savenay Hospital. Serious injuries were sent elsewhere. The main ailments were colds and fatigue of Army life.

The nurses worked one of two 12-hour shifts with a typical day starting at 6 a.m. Before breakfast, Lena would slip on her long navy-blue dress and brown boots that laced up the front. Lena worked for about $65 a month, compared to $30 a month starting wages for an enlisted man at the time.

Lena had fun on her nights off, which came about once a week. She and her other friends attended USO shows with the officers. They weren’t supposed to associate with the officers but did. Nothing was said as long as they behaved themselves.

A highlight of Lena’s stint overseas was the time she and a gentlemen friend were walking after dinner on New Year’s Eve 1918 and decided to sit and wait for midnight to arrive. After they got up, they realized they had been sitting on a keg of dynamite. Lena and three other nurses were on vacation touring France and had the opportunity to swim in the Mediterranean Sea, play the casinos in Monte Carlo and see the Mona Lisa painting in Paris.

She moved to Osceola in 1921, working for Dr. Sells and then Dr. Harken, married, raised two daughters and stayed active in organizations until her death at age 95.”