SUBMITTED PHOTO
U.S. Army nurses, including Wanda Nordlie of Litchfield, front row far left, traveled the country and part of the world during World War II. Her nurse counterparts, mostly from Minnesota, include, front row, Dorothy “Julie” Juhlin,Vivian Bakken, and Florence Haapala, who was from Dassel; back row, Louise Olson (Nordlie’s good friend from Wisconsin, whom she met in nursing school), Dotty Leppa and Jeanine House.They wore dark green, wool pants, tan blouses and jackets.“Combat boots is what we lived in.They’re not pretty, to say the least. So, I bought some loafers at the PX (Post Exchange) — a tent where they sold things, like shoes and socks,” she said.
Serving others M & her country As a second lieutenant nurse in the U.S.Army, Wanda Nordlie spent part of her time caring for men at a Nazi concentration camp in Austria after the camp was liberated during World War II. BY JULIANA THILL • EDITOR
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ZEST | NOVEMBER 2014
ore than 60 years after Wanda Nordlie returned from her service as an Army nurse during World War II, she can recall the horrible conditions of the liberated Nazi concentration camp in Ebensee, Austria, where she cared for the malnourished prisoners. “It was a long time ago, but you never forget stuff like that,” said Nordlie, who’s 91 and lives with her husband, Don, in Litchfield. Nordlie, then in her early 20s, served with the 139th Evacuation Hospital. She was among 40 nurses, 40 doctors and 200 enlisted men, who cared for thousands of men who had been Nazi prisoners. The 139th Evacuation Hospital arrived about one week after the American troops liberated the camp