“You didn’t have time really to think about what had happened. It was really about what you could do to help them.” (Video Interview, 34:31)

Rose L. Sutherland Gibbs

Rose Gibbs [detail from video] War: Korean War, 1950-1953 Branch: Army Unit: Fitzsimons Army Hospital; Osaka Army Hospital; 279th General Hospital Service Location: Aurora, Colorado; Osaka, Japan; Korea; Fort Lee, Virginia; Texas Rank: Sergeant First Class Place of Birth: Blackstone, VA

Rose Gibbs was a 21-year-old telephone company operator in Richmond in 1949, when she decided to enlist in the Army and see more of the world than her native Virginia. A few years later, with medical laboratory training under her belt, she shipped out to Japan, where she worked in military hospitals that were receiving casualties from the Korean War. She also worked on the wards, dealing with patients suffering from frostbite and fevers as well as wounds. An encounter with a head nurse who was a patient in one of her hospitals still haunts her.