This blog, unlike my previous ones, is an audio recording accompanied by photographs and news stories about Ila Armsbury. It’s narrated by me. Click on the icon at the lower left corner of the black block above to start and stop the audio/slideshow. The entire blog is 38:05 minutes in length.

Below is a guide to each photo or news story in the slideshow. The time stamp for each image proceeds each description so that you can go back and look more closely at images with or without the accompanying audio portion.

• 0:00 Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy — Andrews Sisters

• 2:00 Ila Armsbury, Student photo from the University of Kansas nursing program. I think this photo was taken about 6 months after she started at KU in the fall of 1934.

• 2:16 Ila, in her student nurse uniform and cap, standing on the front porch of someone’s home.

• 2:33 Ila, standing beside Bell Memorial Hospital, the teaching hospital on the campus of the University of Kansas School of Medicine in Kansas City, Kansas. She’s holding one of her patients, a young boy, wearing leg braces. The hospital treated many patients with polio.

• 2:49 In this photo Ila is standing beside her young patient, the same child seen in the photo above.

• 3:07 Ila in her cap and uniform for her graduation photo, June, 1937.

• 3:23 Official KU photo of the graduating class of nurses from KU in June, 1937. Click here for the full-sized image.

• 3:39 Gold Pins to 27 Nurses — newspaper story. Click here for the full-sized image.

• 3:55 Ila sitting beside her father, Ira Armsbury, on their front porch in Lincoln. This photo was taken at a graduation party held in Ila’s honor.

• 4:12 Ila and her mother, Florence Armsbury, standing on the porch of the Armsbury’s home in Lincoln after Ila’s graduation. Eloise, Ila’s younger sister, is standing behind them.

• 4:44 Ila, standing in the front yard of her parents’ home, wearing her nurses uniform and cape. Photo taken after graduation from KU, 1937. This is the uniform she wore when she was working in the Kansas City slums.

• 5:59 List of supplies that Ila had to carry in her medical bag when she worked in the Kansas City slums.

• 7:30 A homemade pin. The pin shows a stork in flight with two babies, in diapers, being carried in the stork’s beak. The caption on the pin reads, “When a Dr. needs a Nurse” Ila wore this when she worked in the Kansas City slums.

• 10:10 Newspaper story and photo from the September 30, 1940, issue of The Kansas City Star, showing nurses from the University of Kansas preparing to move equipment and supplies from their old facility into a new clinic. One photo shows Ila packing bandages and surgical supplies into large boxes for transport. The other photo shows two nurses adjusting an X-ray machine. Click here to see the full-sized version.

• 10:39 Newspaper story about Ila and her roommate, Marguerite Coffman, answering the call to serve in the American Red Cross nursing service. The Red Cross conducted this activity because of the fear of war in Europe coupled with the extremely low number of nurses in the military. Click here to see the full-sized version.

• 10:55 Newspaper story and photo of Ila and Marguerite Coffman, describing them as the first volunteer nurses from the Kansas City area to take the medical examination for final acceptance in the Army Nurse Corps. This photo appeared in the October 31, 1940 issue of the University of Kansas Student paper. Click here to see the full-sized version.

• 11:00 Document certifying that Ila Lorene Armsbury, with the approval of the Secretary of War, was assigned to active service as a reserve nurse in the Army Nurse Corps, December 9, 1940. Click here to see the full-sized version.

• 17:30 Photo showing some of the staff assigned to the 155th Station Hospital on September 20, 1941, before Ila was assigned to the 155th SH. The photo was taken at Camp Roberts, near San Miguel, California. Photo courtesy of https://www.med-dept.com

• 17:40 Photo of the USS West Point, the ship that Ila sailed on from California to Australia, and used to transport troops during World War II. In its earlier life it was a passenger ship.

• 19:10 Front page newspaper story In the Hobart Mercury on June 2, 1942, about a failed Japanese raid on Sydney Harbor. Three midget submarines were destroyed by Australian forces. This raid forced Ila’s ship to land at Brisbane instead of Sydney. Click here to see the full-sized version.

• 19:25 One of a variety of booklets given to arriving American troops to teach them about the country to which they had been sent. This particular booklet was designed and written by the Australian – American Co-operation Movement, but no publication date is given. Some of the topics covered in this booklet included: money, Australian slang and expressions, food and drink, a map of the country in comparison to the U. S. A., the branches of the Australian military, eucalypts (gum trees), aboriginal peoples, taxis, animals and birds, and the meaning of Anzac among other topics.

• 19:45 The booklet titled “Australia our Neighbor ‘down under,'” was one of many pamphlets prepared by the American Historical Association in October, 1944 for the G. I. Roundtable. “The G. I. pamphlet series was prepared under the direction of the Army’s Division of Information and Education between 1943 and 1945 ‘to increase the effectiveness of the soldiers and officers as fighters during the war and as citizens after the war.’ The accent in the pamphlets is on what the postwar world would look like, and reassuring servicemen that they would have a place in postwar America.” https://www.warandmediastudies.org/?p=43384 (accessed October 15, 2020) The other booklet, “Souvenir of the Land of the Southern Cross” was published by the United States Army Forces in Australia. It was designed to be a true souvenir with photos and explanations about various monuments, museums, parks, churches, and government buildings.

• 20:00 Newspaper clipping dated August 25, 1942, from the Lincoln Sentinel Republican with information about Australia provided by a letter Ila had sent to her folks, Florence and Ira Armsbury. Click here to see the full-sized version.

• 21:19 Photo showing men from the Australian Civil Constructional Corps building Camp Cable, home of the U. S. Army’s 32nd Infantry Division and the 155th Station Hospital in Queensland, Australia.

• 21:30 Map of Camp Cable and Logan Village, near Brisbane, Australia, World War II, courtesy of Peter Dunn, http://ozatwar.com (accessed November, 2008). Click here to see the full-sized version.

• 22:00 Drawing of 155th Station Hospital at Camp Cable, courtesy of Peter Dunn. Click here to see the full-sized version.

• 22:07 Postcard showing an open air chapel, similar to the chapel at Camp Cable.

• 22:12 Ila and her red two-piece swim suit. She wrote in the accompanying letter that if Florence was upset by the photo, Ila wouldn’t wear a two-piece again. I don’t know what Florence’s decision was or whether Ila ever wore a two-piece swimsuit after the war.

• 22:16 Ila standing beside the car she drove while she was in Australia.

• 22:20 Ila in her convertible in Australia.

• 22:26 Ila in front of the hut she shared with another nurse while they were at Camp Cable.

• 23:30 Newspaper story, January 28, 1944, from the Lincoln Sentinel Republican. The story contains a poem written by one of Ila’s patients and given to her by him. She mailed it back to her parents in Lincoln and they shared it with the Lincoln paper. Click here to see the full-size version

• 24:36 Vintage postcard of the Protestant Chapel at Winter General Hospital in Topeka, Kansas.

• 26:00 Vintage postcard of the Recreation Room at Winter General Hospital in Topeka, Kansas.

• 27:00 Vintage postcard of the Post Exchange at Winter General Hospital in Topeka, Kansas.

• 33:45 Newspaper story and photo from the November 13, 1997 issue of the Lincoln Sentinel Republican of Ila and another Lincoln County, Kansas, woman who attended the dedication ceremony of the Women’s Memorial at the entrance of Arlington National Cemetery. Click here to see the full-sized version.

• 35:30 When the Lights Go On Again All Over the World — Vaughn Monroe and his Orchestra

• 37:00 Audio/Slideshow credits  

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Audio download and photo synchronization by Angela J. Ford, marketing and computer expert at: https://www.angelajfordmarketing.com

Digital recording and download by Luke Wallace, owner and sound engineer at: http://www.redcatrecording.com

Text and photo downloads by Cindy Entriken at: http://www.cindyentriken.com