Grice's Blog

Who Am I? Age 30-40.

To carry his load without resting, not to be bothered by heat or cold and always be content. These three things we can learn from a donkey. Indian Proverb.

I turned 30 in July of 1962 and my brothers were all referring to me as their “Old maid sister”. Like I really cared what they thought. I knew exactly where I was headed. Nursing and my career were my first love and I needed a partner that understood my passion for the Navy and Nursing. I married in October of 1962 then returned to Camp Pendleton. Cuban Missile Crisis was in progress, so when we returned having a Honeymoon cut short due to orders to return to base ASAP, I went on Night Duty and my husband worked 15 hours or so. We didn’t see each other for 2 weeks.

In July of 1963 we both received orders to Marine Corps Supply Center, Barstow, CA.

I requested orders to that duty station and as Navy Nurses weren’t knocking one another down to get orders to Barstow the Navy detail officer gladly sent me on my way to Barstow. Promoted to LCdr. 1 October 1963.

I actually loved that duty station. Lots of hard work but lots of fun. One thing the Nurses did the day after the Marine Corps Birthday Ball was give a hang over party for everyone that wanted to attend. Each year the theme was different. One year the theme was put a tiger in your tank. All the nurses were dressed in plain shift style dresses fashioned out of material that resembled the skin of a tiger. I was the seamstress. We held the event in the patio area of the Nurses Quarters. It was set up like a sick bay. Diet kitchen, IV therapy that were IV bottles hanging from IV poles filled with various types of booze, such as Scotch, Gin, etc. IV tubing connected to the bottles with a shot glass to measure your amount of spirits. There was a post with signs and arrows directing you to each place, including the morgue. Crazy bunch we were. When ever I heard someone complain about a duty station it told me they don’t know how to look at the positive side of situations and likely were in need of an attitude adjustment.

In 1966 I had the privilege of being the first female officer to attend a Marine Corps Mess night. That was after I saw the General and stated the rules read “All Officers will attend”.

During the time in Barstow, my husband spent 13 months in Okinawa. Just another military adjustment.

My husband received orders to Camp LeJeune, NC in June of 1967. Again the Nurse Corps was kind enough to transfer me to the same duty station.  We traveled across country by automobile. Each of us had a poodle in the car with us. Gigi was with me and Fifi was with Marshall. We arrived about a week in advance prior to our check in date to look for and purchase a house. I got really lucky. The greatest house I could have ever imagined. When I walked through the front door, I said, I don’t need to see any more. Mrs. McArthur was shocked. She said, you don’t want to see the rest of my house. I said, No, I already know I want to buy it. The home had been featured in House Beautiful and Mrs. McArthur having seen it, she and her husband built this incredible house. Price in 1967. A real expense at $25,000.00. Many great parties were hosted in that fabulous house.

The day I reported to my duty station and was in the process of orientation, 2 helicopters collided over a shopping center in Jacksonville, NC. The small town outside of Camp LeJeune. That led to utter confusion and people scrambling like mad. There were Navy physicians on board that were there, visiting some of their friends. Everyone immediately turned to, ran to the ER and the OR to do what needed to be done.  The quarters on base, near the hospital, that had once been Nurses quarters, had large walk-in refrigerators. They were overflowing with deceased individuals from this terrible crash.

Obviously my so-called orientation was brought to a screeching halt and I was sent immediately to the family hospital to take charge of the Newborn Nursery. Told the orientation would continue at a different time. That never happened. That was fine with me. After so many years in the Navy, I hardly thought I needed a week of orientation. Just give me the basic facts in a couple of hours and I’m good to go and very capable of knowing what is expected of me.

The newborn nursery was a disaster. Having been run by civilian’s for a long period of time, I could find nothing positive about the entire situation, other than the fact that in spite of some less than desirable practices, they had luckily not had any deaths. The premature nursery was so poorly managed that when I did cultures on the isolates, I found they were loaded with pseudomonas. Lacks of knowledge of how to properly clean the equipment. The lack of communication with the formula rep. was another issue. The civilian nurses insisted he was not doing his job, so when he made a visit, I chewed his behind for 5 solid minutes without drawing a breath. He nearly backed out the door and said, “Where the hell did you come from?” As it turned out he had left the Marine Corps having been a MC pilot, because his wife insisted he leave the MC. As I continued my research into the situation it turned out, it was not him that had failed to do his job, but the nurses that had failed to take inventory of the formula needs and then would call him for additional formula at 0200. Once I found out he was a former Marine, there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that he was not at fault. Formula was not the only issue. These civilian nurses would use the last baby shirt then call out the corpsmen on watch to bring baby shirts to them at 0300. Again a lack of not following the 7 P’s. Not one speck of concern for a corpsmen that had worked all day and was standing a night watch to attend to the wishes of those that were not capable of doing their jobs. I also objected to the fact they were putting chuk’s under the heads of the babies to catch the slobbering, so they didn’t have to change the sheet on the crib mattress. So, I instituted a disposable crib mattress cover that was form fitting and gave instructions, under no circumstances were they to put those items under the head of a baby. The backing on the chuk’s was plastic, and I explained if the baby pulled it over their face, it would cut off their oxygen and cause death. One day I was scheduled for a meeting and the people in the nursery did not think I would come on duty. Unfortunately for them the meeting was cancelled and I showed up to find they had defied my order. That was not a smooth day by any means. However they continued to defy me, until a night RN admitted to me she had picked up a baby that had indeed pulled the chuk over his face and when she picked the infant up, it was blue and not breathing. In time she was able to resuscitate the infant and death did not occur. I finally made my point, but only after nearly a loss of an infants life. The Marine baby formula rep. was so unhappy not any longer being in the Marine Corps, I convinced him to return to where he was happy. And being the PIA that I am I told him bluntly, if she doesn’t agree with what makes you happy, “Get rid of her”. And so as I reported all these findings to the Chief  Nurse, she asked my thoughts. I suggested with a delivery rate of 300 babies per month and a large Premature Nursery, it deserved the leadership of a Navy Nurse. In my opinion the civilians had done a pretty terrible job. She followed my suggestion and replaced me with a sharp young Lt.

The Chief Nurse wanted to move me on to another situation. Or so it seemed, as my next task was the Operating Room. As the supervisor of the OR was a friend of mine I was not effective in dealing with her attitude and her lack of leadership in that department. I expressed these concerns to the Chief Nurse and she understood and decided to move me on.

Oh my. The Emergency room. A department that had always been run only by physicians and corpsmen. I was about as popular as the Black Plague when I entered those sacred doors and announced  “Hey guys, this is my new assignment”. I am very well aware that you are less than pleased with this turn of events, but as a team, I think we can make it work. What they thought, I have no idea. I do know without a doubt they had only one goal. That was to get rid of me. They had already managed that prior to my assignment.

These hard core Navy Corpsmen that had returned from Vietnam, had no use for those such as Navy Nurses. The Navy Nurse that preceded me was admitted to the hospital.

Not a physical illness. They managed to put him (a male Navy Nurse) in the hospital in the psychiatric department. Nice job I had facing me.

Now as I have managed to get into page 3 of this story and have not even touched on all the interesting things at Camp LeJeune, I have decided perhaps I should divide Chapter IV into 2 parts. Will continue with the second part in a few days.

The difficulties in life are intended to make us better not bitter.       Anonymous.

Ages 20 to 30.

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander Time, for that’s the stuff life is made of..

Benjamin Franklin.

Senior year begins with a ceremony called striping. A black velvet stripe was put across the top of our nurse’s cap, which indicated we were seniors.  We still had a great deal to learn and a few heartaches to deal with.  At this point we had lost nearly half of the number of girls that started. They had either quit, or were bounced for one reason or another. The school was extremely hard on our class, as the class ahead of us had 5 students fail the State Board Examination.  That was not about to happen again. Indeed one head nurse even commented in her years working there, she had never seen any class be so disciplined as our class. She said they are downright hard on this entire class.

My Pediatric affiliation was scheduled during my Sr. year. That just about did me in. We were sent to Children’s Hospital for that period of learning and it was during the time when polio swept the Middle West. (1952-1953) Many young children in Iron lungs, chest respirators or what ever else was needed to support respirations This was such a heartbreaking experience. I went home and informed my Mother and Father I wanted to quit.. I didn’t think I could bear watching another child die. Again, my father came to my rescue. He encouraged me to stick it out and said when finished he thinks it will have turned out to be my favorite part of training. Now it was my turn to think he had lost his brains somewhere along the line. Well, he convinced me and he was right. What a thrill to see these critically ill youngsters taken out of the iron lung or some other type breathing apparatus and progress to riding a tricycle. As it happened one of my little patients had the same last name. One day he asked a nurse for Miss Andersen. His mother was a volunteer and went to see what he needed. I informed her that it was Miss Andersen he was asking for. Mom found me and told me the story, that it seems my son has a crush on you. I think he was about 7 years old.

Moving right along I completed my training in early October 1953 followed by writing my state examination boards to qualify me for the title of RN.

I quickly visited a recruiting office to get started with the process of being accepted into the Navy Nurse Corps. Following a lengthy waiting period  of nearly a year, I received  orders  for orientation and permanent duty station following orientation as a direct Presidential appointment to the rank of Ensign NC USNR. One of my classmates and I headed for New York in September of 1954 for 6 weeks of orientation and learning how to become a Naval Officer.  One of our instructors was a Marine Corps drill instructor.  I was glad I was already skilled at knowing how to march as well as being a fairly good swimmer.  I do however occasionally ask dumb questions. I asked a Commander Nurse instructor if a war broke out, would I still be able to get out of the Navy at the end of 2 years. Hum-m-m. She looked at me and said “Miss Andersen, if there was a war, would you want to get out”.

Lesson learned. Think before you ask a stupid question.

Completing orientation I experienced my first flight from. NY to Norfolk, Va., my first duty station.  I had been told it was a terrible place to be stationed, however as the men out numbered the women 35 to 1, I could find absolutely nothing wrong with that situation.  While there, I was assigned to so much night duty one of the corpsmen asked me if I was on night duty again or still.  The detail officer informed me they had to assign nurses to night duty that could be trusted. My answer to that was “So, you have to be a bad nurse to get good duty hours”. She said, Miss Andersen, you wouldn’t do something like that would you? I told her I might consider it, but she was right. You should take what is dealt out to you and recognize the reason. In this case the reason was I could be trusted to make good judgment calls in difficult situations. I loved the Navy and within a year was asking to be transferred to Regular Navy. That didn’t fly, as I was told when they looked at me, they heard wedding bells. Well said I, glad you can hear them as I certainly haven’t heard any wedding bells. Promoted to Ltjg. 19 November 1955.

In June of 1956 I received PCS orders to Sasebo, Japan. I eagerly looked forward to a new adventure. One year in Sasebo, followed by a year in Yokosuka, Japan. While at Yokosuka I managed to fracture my 5^th metatarsal dancing stocking footed doing the Mexican Hat Dance in a Japanese nightclub. My Chief Nurse informed me I should get dressed in the uniform of the day and go to sick call. Sure thing Cdr. Lindner, as I hopped around on one leg.

As I was considering my situation Cdr. Gordon Brown MC came to my rescue. Apparently my date Lt. Bill Friel, had informed the ships doctor regarding my situation. I did manage to get in uniform (ward whites) and Gordon carried me to the Orthopedic Department. I was blessed with a walking cast. But of course, duty requirements must march on. Mostly I worked in the New Born nursery. I had fallen in love with one of the premature babies. Her name was Mary Frances Bussy. The pediatrician waited until I had the day off to discharge her to home. Sniff, sniff.  Occasionally also in Labor and Delivery. Promoted to Lt. (03) on 1 March 1958.

In August of 1958 I headed for duty at Naval Hospital Oakland, CA but first went on leave to be the soloist for my brothers wedding.

While stationed at Naval Hospital Oakland, one task given to me was military escort duty back to Nebraska in the middle of January. On my return trip by rail, I met Rene Blum the Director of Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Certainly an exciting experience including free tickets (great seats) to Swan Lake and Gaite Parisienne.  A very exciting experience.

Duties included Medical wards, Chest ward and a short period of time on the NP wards.

It didn’t take long for me to figure out working in psychiatry was not my choice of nursing, not to mention Med-Surg Supervisors were shaking their heads and making the remark to me “What a waste of talent”.  Besides the NP supervisor thought my attitude was non-therapeutic. I displayed anger when an acutely psychotic patient grabbed me and tried to kiss me. I thought my attitude was totally appropriate. Oh well, I had previously asked to return to the Medical wards and was asked  “Miss Andersen, can’t you adjust?”

Perhaps I wasn’t able to adjust, as I didn’t think being attacked by a patient on the locked ward was exactly an appropriate thing to have to contend with under any circumstances.

In July 1960 I was transferred to USMC Base, Camp Pendleton.

I loved my duties at Naval Hospital, Camp Pendleton.  Charge nurse on a busy General Medical Ward with a terrific Medical Officer Lt. Carl Leigh, who thought so much of my capabilities, he requested I assist him to establish a Medical Intensive Care Unit.. I had an outstanding Sr. Corpsmen, which made my task less hectic. The ward capacity was 16 and we were generally full.

While I was stationed at Camp Pendleton, I met a Marine that would later become my husband.

As this takes me up to age 30, time out until Chapter 1V.

“The bamboo for prosperity,” a Japanese friend explained to me, “the pine for long life, the plum for courage---"

“Why the plum for courage?” I asked, picturing courage as a great oak.

“Yes, yes,” answered my Japanese friend. “The plum for courage, because the plum puts forth blossoms while the snow is still on the ground.”

                                                                             Anne Morrow Lindbergh

 Age 10 to 20.

You will find as you look back upon your life, that the moments that stand out are the moments when you have done things for others. Henry Drummond

While living and working on this Nebraska Dairy farm, I attended a one-room school, which happened to be right across the highway from our farm. That’s right, one room for all 8 grades and one teacher for all grades. I still remember her name and it happens that one of my classmates from Nurses Training is her sister. Marilyn told me last year while I was in Omaha for my College of Nursing Alumni functions that Elaine is still teaching.  I just whipped out my calculator and figured out she is 83 years old. Talk about being dedicated to doing things for others. I take my hat off to that special lady.

I graduated from the 8^th grade at age 13 and entered high school the following year.  No longer just across the highway but still I walked to school.  It was about a mile. Remember it is often cold and snowing in Nebraska.

While in high school, I sang in the Church Choir, as well as participating in Operetta performances staged by the high school.  I also found time to be a cheerleader and still remember my favorite cheer. “ S U C C E S S   That’s the way you spell success. Beat _______ name of  other team.

Now that I had the idea that I was becoming a young lady I informed my father I wanted to graduate from the barn at age 16. Being the wise man he was, he sold the milk cows and started raising beef cattle. Hum! Just a different job, but I was good at rounding up cattle with my Indian pony and cattle dog to drive the cattle to the yards, where we would either brand them and return to the fields, or cut them from the herd to send to the stock yards.. Never could master that darn laureate to be able to rope and tie down the cattle. Tomboy? Probably. 

I don’t remember why but my father sold the Dairy Farm and we moved to Iowa. A farm in the Corn Belt, right on highway 66. That  is where I completed high school, having participated as a baton twirler with the marching band, singing in church, both in the choir and solo. Singing in school with the Glee Club and other musical events, such as entering the Iowa State music contest as a high Soprano. The musical number I chose was “Italian Street Song” by Victor Herbert. I do not remember where I placed but I’m pretty sure I came in 2^nd place. My lilting soprano voice was a gift from God.  No voice lessons except of course from the high school music teacher.

My job as a farm girl had been pretty much reduced in compared to Nebraska, except for the summer. I always took a job to de-tassel corn   Much seed corn is raised in Iowa and the female rows of corn had to have the tassels pulled. We were paid $1.00 an hour. A job I continued to do, even on my vacations while in Nurses Training.

When I graduated from High School in 1950 I left the rural area of Glidden, Iowa and headed for Omaha.  I got a job at Mutual Benefit of Omaha as a typist.

In August I had been directed to assist some gals with filing. While in that department the girls were all talking about their boy friends that had just left for Korea. As I listened to them a light went on in my head. I suddenly knew without question that I wanted to be a nurse and I wanted to be a military nurse. I was so excited about my new idea; I could hardly wait to get off work to investigate schools of Nursing in Omaha. Much to my dismay, every school had started classes except one. Yikes!  This was on a Monday or Tuesday and I took my pre-entrance exam the following Saturday. I could not wait to find out if I had been accepted and still give 2 weeks notice to resign from my job, so I put in my resignation with the idea, there wasn’t a chance I would not be accepted. I was determined this was my destiny.

My parents thought I had dropped my brains somewhere along the way but went along with my wishes. I entered Training at Nebraska Methodist school of Nursing in September 1950 to begin yet another new task. And indeed a task it was. We were required to carry 21 college credit hours the first semester. Oh well, as social life was extinct what else did I have to do but study. We lived in Nurses Quarters and were allowed to stay out in the evening to the late hour of 2030 providing your grades were acceptable. If not you were in quarters at 1900 under supervised study in the library.  Some of our classes were taken at the University of Omaha (now University of Nebraska at Omaha). Chemistry was extremely difficult for me so I did have the opportunity to have supervised study periods.  On Friday and Saturday nights we were granted permission to stay out until 2230 and have one over night per month, providing we could prove we spent the night under adult supervision. I was indeed glad my parents had left Iowa and moved to Omaha. Be assured we had no opportunity to do anything without permission.

We signed in an out of Nurses Quarters and if you were late, your privileges were taken away for a specified period of time. At the end of 6 months, if you managed to survive all the regulations, we graduated from our probationary period and received our caps at a capping ceremony. I might add that through out our training we were required to attend Chapel every single day regardless of which shift you were assigned to.

Following our capping ceremony we were then assigned a work status taking care of patients under supervision in addition to the hours of class work. The second semester classes were held in classrooms in Nurses Quarters. It mattered not what your work schedule was. You did show up in class. No excuses were acceptable. My class started out with 42 students. When we graduated there were just 21 of us left and an extra student that had transferred from another school of nursing. They were tough and if you didn’t toe the mark or walk the straight line, you were history.

The second year marked the beginning of affiliations, such as Douglas County hospital for contagious diseases, Operating Room, Obstetrics, Special Diet Kitchen and the State Mental Hospital in Hastings, Nebraska for psych training. The beginning of my Sr. year brings me to age 20. So time out until the next chapter.

In parting I will say, give to the world the best you have and the best will come back to you.

Chapter III coming up after I meet the requirement of a specified number of replies.

I expect to pass through this life but once. If, therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow-being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again. William Penn

Who am I?  I have already been who I wanted to be. That however does not mean that I stop learning or not make every attempt to help my fellow-being along the path to success. That is my goal during this learning endeavor.

Chapter I (Birth through age 10)

I was born in Omaha, Nebraska on 10 July 1932 at 1030. The first 5 years were reasonably uneventful.

Going to school was a challenge. We lived in North Omaha, up at the top of a very steep hill. One winter day, I stood at the top of the hill covered with ice and wondered how I was going to get to the bottom. My lunch pail gave me the answer. As I set down it slid all the way to the bottom. So I sat down and I slid to the bottom. Stood up, brushed off the ice and snow and continued my journey. Getting back to the top of the hill following school had not yet entered my mind. The sun solved my problem. The ice had melted.

My father was an Omaha Policeman during the depression. About 1935 or so, he started a trucking business that hauled Kraft Cheese from Omaha to Chicago. When WWII broke out on 7 December 1941, it was impossible to hire truck drivers and the government had frozen trucking rates. Thus he sold the trucking business and moved the family to a Dairy Farm in Bennington, Nebraska.  At age 10 I began a new life. That of a farm girl that included milking 100 cows each day before and after school. I was learning what hard work was all about as in addition to being a milk maiden which included knowing what and how much to feed each cow according to the amount of milk she produced and cleaning the barn to maintain a spotless enviornment, as we sold Grade A milk to the Army Air Base in Lincoln, NE.  I also learned how to bail hay, walk the cornfields to look for and pull cockleburs, and any other job my father could dream up to keep us busy. At this tender age, I learned how to sit with the mother pig while she gave birth to the tiny piglets. It was my job to rub them clean with straw, place them in a basket and take them to our house to get them warm so they could begin their new lives.

To end chapter I, I will comment that Great oportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones surround us daily.

Hope you stay tuned for Chapter II.

As a new learner I might stumble. However it is my opinion that the only difference between a stumbling block and stepping stones is how you step on them.

My orientation was perhaps somewhat different, as it was partly devoted to an educational process for the new Executive Officer and the Resource Officer. I am always delighted to share my time and learning process with anyone else. That is what life is all about. Sharing and learning with and from each other.

Orientation was held at my home, complete with coffee and some goodies. I must admit I felt a little confused when it was over, but never let it be said that I will not make every attempt to figure it out and hopefully be a resource to someone else that might feel somewhat confused. I have been through many learning situations during my life time and in most cases one feels just a little confused at first. I say, that should never deter you. Lace up your boots and march on. I have always felt every situation should always be met head on with a determination to make sure you come out of it a winner and that your ultimate goal is to help others.

You will learn more about me as I start my "paper back". Let me assure you it will be more like a novel with about 3 or 4 additional volumes. My goal is to let you know the issues I have dealt with and what I did to eventually become successful. Some of it will be funny and sometimes you will say. "I don't believe it". Be assured every word written will be factual. So hope you stay tuned for the life and tribulations and successes of this new learner.

Hugs for all.

Carol A. Grice

Oh yes and LCdr. NC USN (Ret) I'm very proud of that and most proud of the fact that I served my country and loved every minute of it.