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Yolanda "F
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How and where you meet people who are going of the Bulge, our hospital was only four miles away.
to be significant in your life sometimes goes beyond During some of the battles, like the Battle of the Bulge, 1:
your ability to imagine. When Yolanda Frisch was we would receive 2,000 to 3,000 casualties each day."
growing up in Ashtabula, Ohio, she never would have During that first year of war, Yolanda served as
dreamed that the rnan she would one day marry she the "triage" nurse.
would meet halfway around the world in the middle of "Being a triage nurse meant that you helped ,;
a World War. But that is what happened. decide who received what treatment, if any, or who had
Yolanda, who had attended nursing school in to go back into the line. That duty was almost over -
Cleveland, Ohio, was working as a nurse in a hospital whelming. I finally asked to be relieved and was given
in Charleston, West Virginia when the war started. another job. My tent mates helped me hold it together
"I was a ward nurse in the hospital and had during that time."
grown tired of being a private duty nurse. I decided I The nurses were sometimes allowed leave, which
would like to serve as an Army nurse. My brother -in- Yolanda used once to go to Paris.
law, who was a doctor at the hospital. asked me to stay "While I was in the Army and in Part§, I wa able
on a little longer, so I didn't join the Army Nurse Corps to meet a lot of the journalists who were reporting on
until July 15, 1943." the war, to include John Daly. One night while in Paris
Yolanda received a commission and was I was asked to dinner by a journalist. During the
assigned to a military hospital in Cambridge, Ohio. evening, we ran into an old friend of his that he had
"When I joined the Army, I was told I would not served with in Spain before the war. That friend was
leave the U. S., as I had poor eyesight and flat feet. Ernest Hemingway. I knew Hemingway was a
They soon had me doing the same thing I was doing as renowned and respected writer, but after that night. 1
i. a civilian nurse, so I volunteered for overseas duty. I considered him to be a little uncouth."
was sent to New Jersey for training to participate as a • The war ended for Yolanda in Germany, stationed
nurse in an evacuation hospital. I was then sent to across the Elbe River from the Russians.
Fleetwood, England, where I became a member of the Our group of nurses were invited by the
100th Evacuation Hospital. We were taught to march, Russians, along with some of our commanders, to
carry packs and how to set up our tents. We were attend a party across the river. We had a wonderful din -
assigned four nurses to a tent. My tent mates were to ner and the best caviar I ever had, before or since.
become so important to me in my life and in my time When the Russians party, the champagne and vodka
in the war." flow, but I made sure I could row my own boat back if
After the D -Day invasion, Yolanda and the 100th I had to.
Evacuation Hospital were to follow the soldiers into "After the war ended, the ARmy started sending
France to treat those who had been wounded . the men home, but all of the nurses wee left, for some
"The night before we were to leave, all the nurs- unknown reason. The finally collected about. 3,000 of
es were invited to attend a party with some pilots. We us in the South of France and arranged for us to go
were picked up and delivered to the party site in the home on a commercial ship. After we boarded ship and
back of a truck. When we got there, I wasn't too sure I headed home, we found out that we also had to pay for
wanted to get out of the truck, but I did. Most of the our own food on the way back. You talk about some
guys had already started partying before we got there, mad, upset women."
and I was soon cornered by a glider pilot who seemed Yolanda was discharged from the Army in 1946
determined to not let me stop dancing or leave my as a captain. Because of Edward's persistent letter
side. I noticed one of the guys who seemed real nice campaign, Yolanda went to see him while he was
looking at me, so 1 waved him over. When he walked enrolled at Marquette getting his engineering degree.
over, I said I would love to dance with him and finally, While there, Edward proposed and Yolanda accepted.
with his help, managed to extricate myself from the They were married in 1947, and the rest is history.
glider pilot. That nice young man was Edward "1 often think back on the war and to my tent
Kozlowski. We spent the next four hours visiting and mates and the times and talks we shared. All of us
. dancing. Before we left, he made me promise to write thought at one time or another, 'what are we doing
to him. here.' Without having each other to talk to, I don't think
We wrote to each other for the remainder of the we would have made it. We didn't have a psychiatrist,
war, but I tried to write as a friend. He didn't. He want- we only had each other. I'm the last one left now and 1
ed to be more than a friend. We corresponded that way sure do miss them."
for the next 18 months while I was following Patton's Yolanda and Edward Kozlowski's names can be found
Army in France, Belgium, Holland and finally on the Brazos Valley Veterans Memorial. For more
Germany." information, to make a contribution, or if you know a :'w
Yolanda and her fellow nurses of the 100th World War II veteran whose story needs to be told,
Evacuation were always near the front lines. contact the BVVM at www.veterans- memorial.org, or
"When the German offensive halted at the Battle Bill Youngkin at 979 - 260 -7030.
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