We pretended all the time to be cheerful. You always smiled and said, “How are doing? You need something for pain? I got it!”
We never said to the wounded guys, “I’m too tired. I’m too cranky. I’m too hungry.” You pretended to be smiling and smiled all the time you’re working.
Smiling was important to these guys.
So we just played this big game with ourselves and all the soldiers and they were reassured by that smile. So we smiled. Smiling was important to these guys.
So that’s what we did. Smiled all the time. Who does that? Nobody does that. But I remember how important it was.
And to smell good… which was certainly a difficult thing to do because you sweat all the time. You know, good perfume from the PX was important.
Ann T.
Army Nurse