[Annotator's Note: There is a person in the background moving about the room throughout this clip.] Bette C. Horstman was born in December 1921, in Hibbing, Minnesota. At age six, she moved with her family to Chicago's [Annotator's Note: Chicago, Illinois] North Side where she grew up and attended school. Upon graduating from high school in 1938, Horstman attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. After the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941], Horstman knew she wanted to help in the war effort and decided to enroll in physical therapy school at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota in 1944. She was a part of the second emergency class which was an abbreviated curriculum consisting of six months at the Mayo Clinic and six months of training at a military facility. Horstman says she looked better in blue, so she tried to find work at a Naval hospital. She was denied due to her near-sightedness. She then signed up to join the Army. Of the 24 people in her class, only six were men. All 23 joined the Armed Forces following graduation. She was assigned to Harmon General Hospital in Longview, Texas. It was a revealing time in which she was first exposed to the racial caste system in the South at the time. Whenever she walked down a sidewalk and an African-American man passed her, he would step into the street. After two months in Longview, she was sent to Brooke General Hospital in San Antonio [Annotator's Note: San Antonio, Texas] for further medical training and a period of basic military training. She trained on an obstacle course and learned to shoot a rifle. When her training was finished, she was sent to Fort Lewis, Washington and was assigned to a barracks with other nurses. While at Fort Lewis she bowled a lot, a hobby she continues to pursue at age 99. She boarded a ship with no idea where she was going. After six days of seasickness, she arrived in Honolulu [Annotator's Note: Honolulu, Hawaii] where she boarded a plane to Johnson Island [Annotator's Note: Johnston Atoll, Hawaii]. She and the other women were greeted by a contingent of American G.I.s [Annotator's Note: government issue; also, a slang term for an American soldier] who had not seen a woman in six months. After a second stop on Guam [Annotator's Note: Guam, Mariana Islands], she finally arrived on Saipan [Annotator's Note: Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands] where she would remain for the next two years. She was assigned to a station hospital on Saipan where the nurses on staff knew nothing of physical therapy. This was typical of her experiences throughout her career. She was then transferred to a general hospital on the island where she treated Japanese POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war] and American G.I.s. The Japanese patients were remarkable and never complained of pain. They were her best patients. They wanted to get well. On the other hand, the American soldier had no incentive to get well as to do so meant a return to combat. When a rumor began to spread of the coming invasion of Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima, Japan], she says three men were treated for self-inflicted gunshot wounds. Horstman trained three medical corpsmen to assist her in her work and to help walk patients through the hospital ward. Her movements were very restricted and highly guarded while on Saipan; wherever she went she was escorted by two armed guards. MacArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] did not believe men and women should be mixed together. There were very few places she could go. She lived in a Quonset hut [Annotator's Note: prefabricated metal building]. It was scary when hurricanes went through. The womens' quarters were protected by eight foot wire fences which she thinks was unnecessary. She believes the Japanese had no interest in hurting women, and just wanted food from the kitchen. They did not have any social events or USO [Annotator's Note: United Services Organizations] performances. Horstman recalls the "suicide cliffs" where people often plummeted to their deaths and the "officer's beach" where she fell in love with the sand and went on dates with a musician from the officers' band. Many times, the armed guards swept the beach for Japanese mines. She enjoyed the weather on Saipan and tended to her own garden for fresh produce as the Army food was unappetizing. She befriended several engineers on the island who built equipment she needed for physical therapy sessions. Horstman took photos in Saipan to send to her mother, though they were mostly all confiscated because of censorship.

[Annotator's Note: There is a person in the background moving about the room throughout this clip.] Once the war had ended in Europe, Bette C. Horstman celebrated because she thought she would be returning home, but that did not happen. She volunteered to go to Japan to work as a physical therapist but was denied as she was the only physical therapist on Saipan [Annotator's Note: Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands]. This is her only regret from her time in the Army. She became ill and was transported to Oahu [Annotator's Note: Oahu, Hawaii] to recover. There, she took care of Italian POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war] suffering from malaria [Annotator's Note: mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite]. She assumed they were veterans of the North African campaign. [Annotator's Note: A telephone rings in the background at 0:17:52.000.] The Italian patients were difficult to treat because they did not want to heal. After six weeks in Hawaii, her replacement physical therapist arrived, and she was allowed to return to the United States. She was discharged from Camp Beale, California in 1947 with the rank of First Lieutenant. She would not trade her experience of World War 2 with anything else. Her experience made her think outside the box. She was married and worked with her husband at a resort he owned in Wisconsin until 1953 when she decided to go back to work in a hospital setting. Horstman helped establish three physical therapy departments at hospitals across Chicago [Annotator's Note: Chicago, Illinois]. She eventually went into private practice before retiring after 34 years.

[Annotator's Note: There is a person in the background moving about the room throughout this clip.] Bette C. Horstman knew nothing about the coming war in the late 1930s. She was an outdoorsy person who spent most of her time on her father's boat. On 7 December 1941, Horstman and her boyfriend were sitting in her sorority house when news of the attack [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] came over the radio.They were both extremely shocked and wanted to do something to help. He enlisted in the Army and was sent to training weeks later; she never saw him again. Horstman wanted to help but was burned out on education and could not put herself through medical school. After talking with people in many medical professions, she chose physical therapy because she wanted to help people directly. There was a scarcity of physical therapists at the time as the profession was fairly new. She became annoyed by the rationing and restrictions put in place during the war as it inhibited her independence. She was not very patriotic at the time. She had a used Ford [Annotator's Note: automobile made by Ford Motor Company] that her father gave her to drive. The Great Depression [Annotator's Note: The Great Depression, a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1945] did not impact her family. Her father was a co-founder of the Greyhound Bus Company and was well off. The first bus in the company was named Ms. Bette. Her father pushed her to go to college to learn a profession in case her future marriage did not work out. Her father was furious when she announced her decision to enter the military and threatened to cut her off financially, though her mother was much more accepting. She had a younger sister who was involved in drama. She remembers "Suicide Cliff" while she was overseas on Saipan [Annotator's Note: Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands]. It was also known as Officer's Beach. She dated an officer, and they would often go there. She remembers the fear of hurricanes and constant dampness she felt in her Quonset hut [Annotator's Note: prefabricated metal building]. They were instructed to place a light in their closets to cut down on the mildew. As a result of the mildew, she developed lifelong sinus issues. She also did not like that she could not bowl while she was on Saipan. Horstman was discharged from the Army in 1947 with the rank of First Lieutenant.

[Annotator's Note: There is a person in the background moving about the room throughout this clip.] Bette C. Horstman's most memorable experience of World War 2 was being seasick for six days on her overseas voyage. She served because she wanted to help the war effort and she knew she could help as a physical therapist. Her Army service made her into the person she is today. The Army gave her confidence to become successful and she became the first female physical therapist to go into private practice in the state of Illinois. Horstman is very proud of her service and encourages anyone to enlist. Joining the service means giving up a lot of independence. She believes that World War 2 means nothing to America today. Most people who served in World War 2 rarely spoke of their experience. Horstman volunteers for veterans today. She believes it's very important to have institutions like The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] and that we should continue to teach World War 2 to future generations. People have forgotten their history and have a short memory span. She is honored to contribute to this interview.