 dedicated to the strength of the nation. proudly we hail the starring Nancy Kelly and dedicated the United States Army and United States Air Force presentation and now here is your host the well-known Hollywood showman C.P. McGregor thank you very much ladies and gentlemen and greetings from Hollywood welcome to your theater of stars where all your own motion picture favorites join us in plays we know you'll enjoy our star is the Broadway and Hollywood actress Nancy Kelly and the title of our highly dramatic story is dedicated this is the Saga of a nurse whose life is dedicated to her country to the cause of freedom we'll have the curtain for act one in just a moment but first here is Wendell Niles with an important message here is a new career opportunity for young physicians United States Air Force is accepting applications from professionally qualified physicians to serve with the Air Force Medical Service qualified applicants will be commissioned in the U.S. Air Force up to the grade of Lieutenant Colonel depending upon professional and educational experience and will have an opportunity to broaden their professional experience as officers on active duty for further details right to the surgeon general United States Air Force Washington 25 D.C. now once again at the microphone our host C.P. McGregor the curtain rises on act one of dedicated starring Nancy Kelly as Mary Haudley the town of Garden Grove Iowa in the year 1909 that blessed event occurred in the household of the Haudley's they were so happy because it was a baby girl her name was carefully chosen from the family Bible she was christened after the beloved mother of mercy with the beautiful yet humble name of Mary so Mary grew as all young things do learned the boundaries and capitals of all the 48 states committed to memory the multiplication tables and finally entered high school Mary was a thoughtful pensive girl not given to the rowdyism of adolescents at all but in this she had a boon and faithful companion he was the boy who inevitably lives next door and his name was Paul Stafford one bright afternoon when the sun was sifting flecks of gold down through the leaves of the elm trees Paul and Mary were sauntering their way home from school swinging their books from their book straps Paul do you ever think very much about tomorrow? yes especially when old lady Cooper hands me out and overdose the homework and treat I don't mean that kind of tomorrow what are the kind of tomorrow is there? I mean the future the future is a heck of a long way up but it's not so very far off Paul we'll both be seniors next year and when we graduate then what? I don't know the marks I'll probably get but the only way I'll ever graduate is to have old Grove high burned down don't be silly you get the best marks in the class have you figured out what you're going to be Paul? well Papa wants me to be a civil engineer but personally I like things more mechanical like making stuff and fooling around with engines you know what about you Mary have you still got that bugging year about being a nurse? naturally gosh you've been talking about being a nurse ever since you were knee high to a skeeter what do you see in it being around sick people all the time? oh I think it's wonderful doing things for other people helping them to I don't know to maybe feel a little better it's it's romantic romantic? holy mackerel that's a goofy idea of being romantic oh I don't mean that kind of romantic silly not like Romeo and Juliet I mean like oh more like Florence Nightingale Paul was more right than he knew which I certainly found out after I ended nursing school at the Washington Boulevard hospital in Chicago being a student nurse is a lot of drudgery and hard work it was taking orders and doing a lot of things it weren't very pleasant or very easy but then finally came that wonderful day in 1931 when I stood erect and proud in the cape of my profession and listened to the solemn music of the Pilgrims Chorus and something rose up in my throat to almost choke me and I well I wanted to cry more than ever before in my life this was my beginning this was the commencement of the little girl from Garden Grove Iowa Mary Holdley R.A you will repeat after me I solemnly pledge myself before God and in the presence of this assembly to pass my life I solemnly pledge myself before God and in the presence of this assembly to pass my life in purity and practice my profession faithfully I would abstain as I repeated that nurse's oath there came crowding into my mind a flood of fear and an engulfing feeling of inadequacy I was faced with an almost paralyzing question was I capable of accepting the tremendous responsibility to which I'd had in those words dedicated my life so for seven and a half years I scrubbed for surgeons I did floor duty OB work I took whatever calls to which I was assigned and I watched the passing parade of birth and life and death and then one day a day that was perhaps to become the most important of my life I received a call from the chief physician of the famed river forest hospital won't you sit down Miss Holdley? thank you Dr. Fielding Miss Holdley have you ever considered specializing? well no sir that is not exactly how would you like to turn your hand to something completely different than anything else you've ever done before? what would that be Dr. Fielding? polio polio? yes Miss Holdley polio is one of the most vicious diseases that confronts the medical profession we have quite a famous case here one that spends somewhat publicized as the boiler kid you may have heard of him his name is Fred Snyte Jr. oh yes yes I have heard of him Fred was stricken with polio in 1936 Miss Holdley and has been confined to an iron lung ever since he needs a good nurse would you like to try to be that nurse Miss Holdley? oh but Doctor how am I qualified? in more ways than you can possibly imagine my dear girl do you think that if you weren't we would have sent for you? you're very kind to say that Doctor then you will accept with all my heart and soul and and I'll do the very best I know how the very best I know that Miss Holdley I know that it's the only thing you could do because that's the kind of a nurse you are and so for two and a half years I worked with Fred Snyte Jr. the boiler kid Freddy and I became great friends he used to call me an old wet blanket when I wouldn't let him have so many visitors and he taught me what it means to smile when the pain swirls down like a fog Freddy taught me what it's like to be totally crippled and to live or exist surrounded by a round iron boiler and working with Freddy was a tragically wonderful experience I remember one particular night when I was off duty I was in my room at the nurses quarters when suddenly I was told that I had a caller in the reception room did you wish to see me? hello Mary good to see you oh no oh no it couldn't be it really isn't is it? sure is in the flesh and twice as natural Paul Stafford and look at you look at you what are you a general or something? oh no no just a lowly lieutenant oh but you look wonderful Paul perfectly wonderful and what are these things over your pocket? right you are Mary I'm in the Army Air Force wings you're a pilot I'm passing through Chicago on my way to a new base and well I had to look you up your mother told me where you were she's fine well sit down Paul let's talk we've got so many things to say all right you are you know I was thinking are you off duty Mary? well my train doesn't leave until five something in the morning why don't we go out and splurge a little some nice place for dinner maybe dancing do you like that? oh I'd love it Paul okay go put on your Easter bonnet and your Sunday go to meet and dress we'll hire ourselves then all right Paul I'll just be a few minutes there's some magazines there on the table there's a person's quarterly from the year one you know Mary you've grown up to be a very pretty girl thank you sir you don't gangle anymore not nearly so gawky as you used to be oh and may I return the compliment lieutenant by saying that you've grown up to be a very handsome young man whatever happened to your freckles and your buck teeth and that corn shock hair of yours it used to fall in your eyes all the time nothing I still got them I just grew around them and so now you're a pilot up flying with the birds yeah my papa always told me it's my wagon to a star this is the best way I know of doing it how's your work going Mary? is it as romantic as you used to think it would be? Florence Nightingale or Lanter or something romantic Paul? no no I don't think it's very romantic but it's wonderfully interesting even more than that oh it's something deep down inside that I just can't quite explain even to myself well what about this case you are now Fred and Snipe he's become pretty famous isn't he? read about him in the paper oh well I think famous is hardly the word Paul but he's wonderful very wonderful hey wait a minute the way you say that Mary I well just how wonderful not that way lieutenant Freddy's wonderful in a way that few people could ever understand he's taught me a great deal Paul not only about polio but about oh about goodness and faith and real strength of character Mary well I know this isn't the time or the place to talk about such things but for me time is of the essence I wonder well in fact I've been wondering ever since we were kids in high school if maybe someday you'd be my very special nurse take care of me well of course Paul any time you get sick you just let me know oh I'm sick now really it's nothing fatal I hope well I think it's been known to be it's my heart your heart sitting here looking at you it goes boom boom boom I get all loosey spots before my eyes I seem to hear birds singing oh maybe you should take something for it maybe it's just a vitamin deficiency well seriously Mary when I finish this tour of duty may I come back and ask you a very important question I'll have some money saved up by then might even be a captain who knows what do you say Mary of course you can Paul are you any idea what the answer might be no not the vaguest I never know what an answer is going to be until I know what the question is first but but I'll wait till you come back Paul and in the meantime I'll struggle along being very very curious but I was never to hear Paul ask me that important question because Paul never did finish his tour of duty and wasn't given a chance the day that Paul left for his new station was a Sunday one of the most tragic Sundays in our history perhaps you remember it was December the 7th 1941 and Pearl Harbor had been bombed the following morning another victim of polio stood before the nation's greatest assembly and declared war a few months following I returned home to Garden Grove for a short visit while I was there Paul's father showed me a telegram which he just received it began in the usual way the army regretfully informs you for you know the rest of us then and there that I made up my mind to dedicate the rest of my life wholly and completely to nursing and to fight with all my strength against another vicious enemy another wanton bomber of open cities acute anterior poliomyelitis it was briefly from our story dedicated starring Nancy Kelly to bring you an important message from our government registered nurses here's a special message for you United States Air Force is offering you an opportunity for security and advancement in your chosen profession to qualify you must be between the ages of 21 and 45 married or single and must be a graduate of a school of nursing acceptable to the surgeon general United States Air Force you will be commissioned in a grade up to major depending upon your educational qualifications and the number of years of professional experience after receiving your reserve commission you may apply for extended active duty for periods ranging from one to three years you may serve in one of the military medical installations in this country or abroad you also have an opportunity to apply for training as a flight nurse and receive full pay and allowances while attending school for full information inquire at your nearest Air Force base right to the surgeon general U.S. Air Force Washington 25 D.C. the curtain rises on act 2 of dedicated starring Nancy Kelly as Mary Haudley those were bleak and terrible days following the treachery of Pearl Harbor and for ten long and weary months Fred Snyd and I followed together the bitter headlines the fall of Corregidor but then the desperate retreat from the Philippines and the tragedy of Little Midway with its pitifully small but valiant garrison I often thought of my sister nurses out there helping in their way to fight back the invaders who were fanatically bent upon our total annihilation but I had a job to do and my job was Frederick Snyd Jr. one morning in the mirror attached to his iron lung I noticed Freddie's eyes following me about the room on his pale drawn face there was an expression that made me wonder what was going on inside that patient wise mind of his and then as I was bending over to adjust his pillow he suddenly said Mary yes Freddie war is a rotten thing isn't it you should know Freddie you've been fighting one for a long time I'm not talking about me I'm talking about the one we're fighting all over two oceans Mary you'd like to be in it wouldn't you I've seen it in your eyes and I don't blame you all your nurse friends have left haven't they and you're stuck here with me Freddie B. Snyd don't you ever dare say that again stuck with you indeed you look very good in uniform Mary oh poo those guys out there need you Mary they need you a lot more than I do go to them we've got to win this war Mary before we can win the battle of polio oh but Freddie the losing you as my nurse means a great deal to me but that's why I want you to go you're the only thing that can sacrifice that I can give Freddie I what's going on you crying or have you got a call neither one darn you and so I went in October of 1942 I was commissioned second lieutenant in the Army Nurses Corps and never did anyone wear bars more proudly than I all war experiences and more or less alike some of the more adventurous than others and some of the more hazardous I was assigned to a medical air evacuation squadron whose mission it was to receive the incoming wounded from the combat fears and to provide them with medical care during transit to the great service hospitals in the United States but there finally came as you remember that wonderful day they called it the E day and a few weary months later VJ day I was sitting in my quarters talking to Captain Fenwick another flight nurse a buddy of mine Jeepers Mary I feel like a blown out tire now that it's all finished oh but it isn't finished Joe not really there's a lot of mopping up to do in the hospital I'm afraid it's going to be a long long time before we can say position secure I suppose what are you going to do Mary I'm going to stay in the service if they'll let me oh you're glutton for punishment but maybe that's why you're the kind of nurse you are Mary oh you really take it seriously don't you Captain Holdley well serious things should be taken seriously shouldn't they and anyway Joan I feel that the Air Force Medical Service can give a nurse something she well but she just can't find anywhere else no ma'am Joan I'm staying in and I'm still going to make polio my job if I can the Air Force Nurse Corps took a favorable view of my desire to stay in the service and I was assigned to the United States Air Force School of Aviation Medicine at Randolph Air Force Base and a lot of water went under the bridge somehow or other mostly luck I think I became chief nurse one day orders came in from a war department to evacuate a patient from Mexico City the wife of a government official stricken with polio myelitis and so with but sketchy information as to her condition we took off across the Rio Grande and Air Force C-47 there were three of us Colonel Don Flickinger Flight Surgeon Master Sergeant Russell Johnson Aeromedical Technician and myself when we arrived at the Mexico City Hospital we found the mission ahead extremely precarious we didn't get here any too soon Captain Holdley I don't know about our chances we'll make it Colonel we'll make it somehow Captain look at the head collar in this year-long rubber's all rotten and cracked it's losing pressure that's why it's not helping you to breathe look quick Sergeant go out somewhere and get an automobile tire too now don't ask me where a bag borrow or steal it if you have to forget it and I'm the double yes ma'am I'm on my way Colonel she's turning blue can you help me get her out of this respirator I'll give her artificial respiration until the sergeant gets back and we can get the iron lung fixed we'll have to work faster we won't have any patient to work with at all it was a desperate job trying to give our patient life-saving oxygen by the Schaefer method in order to keep her pulse flickering while Sergeant Johnson refashioned a rubber gasket out of an old inner tube and repaired the leaking head collar of the dilapidated and outmoded iron lung but somehow the job was accomplished and the young wife was returned to the pulsing rhythm of the miracle machine Colonel do you think we can move her Captain Holdley get her back to Tucson I don't know Colonel I'm afraid it would be fatal to move her now she's very weak and her mental attitude is anything but good she's so terribly frightened yes I know hang it we've got to get her into the Tucson hospital within the next few days or else there won't be any or else Colonel flick and you there mustn't be maybe somehow I can ease up her mental tension sufficiently to get her ready to fly let me keep working with you let you Captain Holdley great Scott girl with your knowledge of polio you're the only one who can give us any chance at all and I realized that that chance is about as slim as leading a camel through the eye of a needle the next few days were a series of nightmares night and day we worked around the clock fighting battling with every ounce of strength and knowledge that we had and finally on the sixth morning our patient opened her eyes and for the first time smiled it was a wan feeble smile but it was nevertheless a smile I would have yelled Geronimo had I not been afraid of frightening her back into a coma no good morning how do you feel I don't know I know I don't feel like I did I can see by that pretty smile on your face how's the pain better either it's better I'm getting used to it you think you're ready now to take an airplane ride I don't know do you think I should the doctor thinks you should do you of course I do they hurt very much to move me I've never been in an airplane before oh it'll be just like riding in a feather bed or even better like traveling in a fluffy cloud and then when we get you to the Tucson hospital we'll put you into an iron lung that'll be ever so much more comfortable and you know you'll start to get well again thank you nurse nurse I don't even know your name it's Mary Hoadley just Mary to you Mary that's a wonderful name for a person like you Mary sister of mercy well Colonel second you we're ready to go oh well done Captain Hoadley you've done a wonderful job and now you'd better get some rest young lady or we'll have another patient on our hands and frankly ones enough oh don't you worry about me Colonel when we get back to base I'm gonna go to bed and not get up for 10 years oh I'm gonna sleep and sleep and sleep and then I'm gonna turn over and sleep some more the sleep of the just mission accomplished oh it's a nice phrase that and oh by the way Captain when I make my report to the general there'll be a few things I'll have to say about you and all of them good commendation to Captain Mary Hoadley Air Force Nurse Corps chief nurse US Air Force School of Aviation Medicine Randolph Air Force Base Texas Captain Hoadley did overcome numerous obstacles and difficulties to successfully prepare mentally and physically the patient for air evacuation and it provides superior nursing care without which the mission could not have been accomplished this service reflects highest credit to Captain Hoadley and serves as an outstanding example to all flight nurses of complete devotion to duty signed Brigadier General Otis O'Benson Chief and that's the story of how the little high school girl from Garden Grove Iowa who dreamed of one day becoming a nurse became a nurse it's been a long road and sometimes not a very easy one there have been smiles and there have been tears and there has been pride and sometimes despair but the Air Force to me now is home the Air Force Medical Service is an instrument of peace as well as of war and one which will never cease fighting to preserve our nation's health and our nation's welfare in polio our enemy is invisible and sometimes our weapons are futile against its onslaught and we have to retrench but this much I do know will never retreat the Air Force nurse Corps will never never give up the fight the curtain falls on the final act of dedicated our star Nancy Kelly will return for a curtain call after this timely message from Wendell Niles College trained young man here is your opportunity to become an aviation executive you receive the finest aviation training in the world from the United States Air Force if you can qualify and are selected for aviation cadet pilot or navigator training to qualify you must be single between the ages of 20 and 26 and one half and have at least two years of college when you successfully complete one year of training you win your wings and a reserve commission in the U.S. Air Force outstanding graduates receive regular commissions immediately all others have excellent opportunities to earn regular commissions while on active duty for complete details visit your nearest Air Force base or U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force recruiting station right away and remember only the best can be aviation cadets and I'll back to our star Nancy Kelly and your host C.P. McGregor Nancy I can say in all sincerity that it's good to have you back in Hollywood again oh thank you C.P. but you know as soon as I finish doing light up the sky out here I'm going to do another Broadway play this fall well I really can't blame you after your New York success in the big knife with John Garfield another hit right now would be an order is this the play Eddie Dowling is directing that's right it's called take it to nowhere by aren't goosey and it's well I hope that it is a grand story I wish you lots of success thank you now if you don't mind my changing the subject to her properly there's something else I want to mention oh in connection with your recent tour of veterans hospitals for the Hollywood coordinating committee oh I'm glad you brought that up C.P. you know as many people in pictures as possibly can during the year try to give as much time as they can to these tours because I think and we all think that they're very important and my trip was an unforgettable experience in fact I've asked Irving Landy to put me down for another tour just as soon as it can be arranged you know a lot of your friends in those hospitals are hearing this broadcast so just for the record I want them to know that the surgeon general said you did a remarkable job oh well that's very good to hear but I really love doing it and now C.P. I'm anxious to know what you plan for your listeners next week next week Nancy and ladies and gentlemen we're going to bring that perennial motion picture teenager Mona Freeman to our microphone but in a very grown-up part as a young and beautiful school teacher the story is called the teacher had a principal when Mona starts carrying the torch against certain contract restrictions you can rest assured that her school principal wishes he had another teacher well I'll be listening and thanks for having me over again goodbye C.P. goodbye Nancy please let it be with us next week ladies and gentlemen when Mona Freeman joins us to star in the comedy romance the teacher had a principal till next week then this is C.P. McGregor saying thanks for listening and cheerio from Hollywood Nancy Kelly appeared to the courtesy of the Hollywood coordinator Nanny Cavetti which arranged for the appearance of all stars in this program the script was by James W. Bastion with the music of Eddie Dunstan this program was transcribed in Hollywood for a piece of his time Wendell Niles speaking