Former Army, Navy nurses remember roles in country's wars.
by S.M. Smoller
Peabody Weekly News, Sept. 17, 1998
PEABODY - The remembrances gushed out with an intensity that came from knowing that their
comrades really understood what it was like serving in a tent hospital in Iran, on air transports
evacuating Iwo Jima and treating casualties in Guadalcanal.
Three Peabody women veterans of World War II gathered at the Gideon Foster House on
Washington Street in August to film a public service announcement for the Women's Armed
Services registry of the Peabody Historical Society. Produced by Ken Fine and Camille Bartlett,
the announcement will air on Cablevision Public Access, Channel 17.
As the women discovered the Society's military room, which features uniforms similar to
those they wore in the mid-1940's, it ws easy to visualize Mary (Leahy) Hudnall of Dale Street
outfitted in the snappy Eisenhower-style green uniform worn by the Navy's first flist
nurses. Lena Styles of Pine Street and Mary McCarthy of Peabody reminisced about the brownstriped work dress they wore as Army nurses.
Hudnall, who has lived in West Peabody for forty years, was recognized last month for
distinction at the battle of Iwo Jima, by the Iwo Jima Survivor's Association, Inc. At the group's
annual meeting in Conneticut, Hudnall was surprised with a plaque reading, "for her outstanding
service to her country and for the competent, compassionate care she administered to the combat
wounded, under adverse conditions in the battle for Iwo Jima...She examined and treated the
seriously wounded men and helped to plce them aboard the plane for evacuation to a base
hospital. Her care of the men during the flight enabled them to survive the trip."
She was among the first class of Navy nurses to receive training for air evacuation of
battlefield wounded. In addition to daily runs to Iwo Jima, she saw service in Okinawa and
Guam. She had never flowen before being selected for the Navy flight nurse program.
They jokingly called each other "fright nurses" but to wounded Marines they were "angels,"
an overseas military newspaper clipping reported. The female officers, who were addressed as
"sir", were required to be in their quarters by 10 p.m. on nights they were not working. One of
the reasons Hudnall retired from the military was because she got married, which made her
ineligible.
McCarthy fondly recalled memories of living in tents in North Africa and visiting Marseilles,
France. "It's important and very nice that military woemn are being recognized because we
volunteered to got and it was a bad experience, although there was a great deal of satisfaction
because most of the soldiers we had were away from home for the first time."
Lena (Gelott) Styles, who served on Guadalcanal, said, "We were kids. We knew no fear."
While there she unkowingly witnessed the event that took the llife of another Peabody
veteran, Ralph Kiley - one of the brothers for whom the Kiley School was named in January,
1945. Kiley was on board the heavily armed USS Serpens when it exploded. It wasn't until she
returned home that Styles realized that Kiley was on board.
Remarking on the importance of the registry, Styles said, "I thing it's about time we were
recognized. We served our country as well as the the men."
The registry of local women who served in the armed services was created for the Society in
march under the direction of Ann Zaorski Birkner. "It's a part of Peabody's history that is
basically unrecorded," she said.
To date, there are 45 women veterans enrolled in the registry, which is open to any Peabody
woman veteran who was born in Peabody, live or is now living in Peabody and attended school
in Peabody.
The registry was reated in coordination with last year's dedication of the Women In Military
Service for America Memorial Foundation. The memorial was dedicated at Arlington National
Cemetery in October, 1997.