Read Cherry Ames 04 Chief Nurse for Free Online Page A

F N U R S E
    plant, there were roads, electric lights strung on palm trees, running water for washing, and hanging on trees were Lister bags holding purified water for drinking.
    Cherry saw mesh hammocks suspended between palm trees in a grove where the Seabees slept, many hammocks but scattered for security, with foxholes dug directly underneath. They passed a column of infantrymen, who, despite the heat, wore heavy clothes and even gloves for protection against disease-bearing insects. The soldiers looked up in amazement and waved joyously when the jeeps full of girls passed.
    “Now try to get this picture clear in your minds,” Captain May called to them. The jeeps and trucks halted in a sand cay and formed a circle at his signal.
    “This island is roughly oval in shape. Your hospital will be in the center, for secrecy and for safety. To protect you and your hundreds of patients, there are, scattered over this island, an Infantry Division—that’s three Infantry regiments; one regiment of Artillery; and an Antiaircraft detachment. That’s mighty good protection.
    “Working with these riflemen and heavy gunners,” the Intelligence Officer continued, “are a Signal Corps company for communications; a Quartermaster company for supplies; and one platoon of Military Police.
    The Seabees, the workmen you saw on the beach, will be leaving soon, their work is almost finished. Colonel Pillsbee”—Cherry sighed at the name—“is in charge I S L A N D 1 4
    41
    of everybody and everything. And then there’s one other thing——”
    The Intelligence Officer hesitated and frowned. He held a whispered consultation with Major Pierce, seemingly doubtful about something. Finally, he turned to the medical people again.
    “I am going to entrust you with some confidential information. You will see and hear certain activities going on, especially at night. You might as well know what they are—so you won’t be tempted to write anything in your letters home about this. Let me warn you that this is a closely guarded operation.” Cherry and the other girls looked at one another.
    What was up?
    Captain May pointed to the northern tip of their island. “Up there you will see Army Air Forces men un-rolling steel mesh mats on the sand. Those are for plane runways. They are building a secret air base here. Short-range fighter planes will refuel here. Also, in order to supply our troops fighting up forward—and perhaps ourselves in case of emergency—Air Transport Command supply planes will land here at this halfway base.”
    “Air Transport Command!” Cherry breathed to Ann and Gwen, beside her in the jeep. “That’s where my brother Charlie is now!”
    She was so excited she hardly heard the rest of the Intelligence Officer’s remarks. Charlie might conceivably 42
    C H E R R Y A M E S , C H I E F N U R S E
    fly here! Cherry hoped hard that he would. And then she remembered the watchful enemy only thirty miles away, and she hoped just as hard that Charlie would not be flying into range of those enemy guns. It never occurred to her to be afraid for herself.
    When the unit returned to the center of camp late in the afternoon, Cherry thought every soldier on the island must have hiked over to greet them. Young, lanky, casual, thin shoulders bent under heavy rifles, dirty worn fatigues and caked mud on their heavy shoes, but wide smiles on their drawn, tired faces. As the nurses climbed down from the jeeps and trucks, the soldiers surged forward. The Army rule forbidding enlisted men and nurses, who are officers, to fraternize, was momentarily laid aside as the soldiers cried out:
    “Girls! Real live American girls! Gosh, are we glad to see you!”
    “You’re the first American women we’ve seen in two years! Any of you nurses from Red Oaks, Kansas?”
    “Girls from home! Nurses! And we thought Headquarters had picked us to be the Forgotten Men!”
    “This is almost as good as having my mother show up!”
    One of the