Helen Gagel [Annotator’s Note: born Helen Cosgrove] was born in 1915 in Sauk Centre, Minnesota. She had four brothers and one sister. Her father was a farmer; they had a few cows, chickens and pigs. She left Minnesota in the eighth grade for Pontiac, Michigan. They moved because her father got a job. She went to a Catholic school and graduated June 1933. She then went into nurses training in August. She had been inspired by Helen Keller [Annotator's Note: American author, activist and lecturer]. She took a three year course in a small class and it was not hard for her. She graduated and then worked as an RN [Annotator's Note: Registered Nurse] until she joined the Army. She was an OB [Annotator's Note: obstetrics] supervisor at Saint Joe's [Annotator's Note: Saint Joseph Mercy Hospital in Detroit, Michigan]. She did not know about what was going on overseas, but a friend got her to sign up with her for the Army. Her mother was not too happy with her doing this. She felt bad about it but knew she was a good person and would do alright. She went to church Sunday morning and when she returned to her ward, her patients were around the radio and some were crying. They had friends in Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Hawaii] and they had heard the news [Annotator's Note: of the Japanese surprise attack on 7 December 1941]. It did not strike Gagel that much, but the young guys were upset. The guys were in a tank division. Some of them were there for surgery for spinal problems. This was at the 49th General Hospital in DeRidder, Louisiana [Annotator's Note: Camp Polk, Vernon Parish]. Back then that town had separate water fountains for coloreds only and she had never known about any of that. She did not say anything to anybody other than her mother. It did not bother her.

Helen Gagel was sent to Texas to an Army Hospital at Fort Brooke, Texas. She was sent from there to Chickasha, Oklahoma. Another unit joined them there and they did physical training and gas attack training. She did use some of that training on landing barges. She took a train to Los Angeles [Annotator's Note: California] where she boarded a ship to Australia. Gagel did not have much to do once she enlisted in the Army. She just went straight to Camp Polk, Louisiana on a regular ward. It was a surgical ward. There, she helped with stitching, serving meals and taking blood samples. Each ward was a different category. Hers was for surgery for pilonidal cysts [Annotator's Note: abnormal pocket in the skin]. Young boys in the tanks would get them. Her future husband came into her ward with chigger [Annotator's Note: juvenile form of mite] bites and it caused him to be deaf in one ear. In the ward, he got trench foot [Annotator's Note: immersion foot syndrome; medical condition cause by prolonged exposure of the feet to damp, unsanitary, cold conditions]. He was there for quite a while and was then discharged and went home. She told him he was too young for her then. There were dances and different things going on. She grew up in Pontiac, Michigan and the South was not too different for her. She had been in a Catholic school and then went into nurses training. She worked in the maternity ward at St. Joe's [Annotator's Note: Saint Joseph Mercy Hospital Detroit, Michigan] and then signed up for the Army.

Helen Gagel did not keep up with what was going overseas while on duty in the United States. One of her brothers was not in the service. Her other brother was in the service as an RN [Annotator's Note: Registered Nurse] in Panama doing health inspections for ships passing through. Gagel left for Australia from Los Angeles [Annotator's Note: California]. It took a few weeks to get there. She only saw water and it was boring. All of the nurses had come from different parts of the United States to join the 49th General Hospital. They got to know each other after they formed the unit. Some of the nurses from the South did not do a lot of things for the male patients that nurses from the North did. She wore out her rosary and her parents were home praying. Her dad never said much but showed people he worked with his daughter's picture in the paper. On the boat, they had to wear their lifejacket all the time. There were three nurses in each stateroom. She was short so she got the top bunk. It is boring for her to even think of some of that stuff. They had a lot of rules and regulations to follow. There were troops [Annotator’s Note: male troops] on board too, but on a different level.

Helen Gagel arrived in Australia and thought the people there were very friendly but she did not think too much about them. A lot of the nurses made friends with the people. They were settled outside of Brisbane in a tent camp. They then went to Milne Bay, New Guinea. There was no hospital in Brisbane. She thought New Guinea was unusual. [Annotator's Note: Gagel laughs.] She thought it was a fun area. They had a clubhouse and nothing to do. She had KP [Annotator's Note: Kitchen Police or Kitchen Patrol] duty for her unit for a while. She remembers peeling potatoes. Her OR [Annotator's Note: Operating Room] doctor introduced her as his number one nurse to a local. The local said she could not be number one because she was too short. The doctor was funny. She picked up some Tagalog [Annotator's Note: Tagalog is the language spoken in the Philippines] in the Philippines. [Annotator's Note: Gagel tries to think of a story and says it is awful that she cannot.] Her friend who had joined the Army with her stayed at Camp Polk [Annotator's Note: now Fort Polk in Louisiana]. She remembers getting out of New Guinea the most. She went to Biak [Annotator's Note: West New Guinea] next. The Japanese were still flying Charlie [Annotator's Note: Washing Machine Charlie or Bedcheck Charlie; solitary nocturnal aircraft] at nighttime. That was when she first started to get scared. After that, they went to Manila [Annotator's Note: Philippines]. They flew over while they were still fighting. They then went by truck back to Manila while they were still fighting. She just kept praying. [Annotator's Note: Gagel laughs.]

Helen Gagel flew to New Guinea and then went by boat to Biak [Annotator's Note: West New Guinea]. They took a plane to the other side of Manila [Annotator's Note: Philippines] while they were still shooting. She thought they were welcoming them. The plane had no seats so they sat on the floor. She did not know they were shooting at them. They then went by truck into Manila. All she had to worry about was getting back. The Filipino people were very hard to understand but they were good people. A little boy liked to follow them around and she told him he was like her little cousin. He remembered that and said "hi cousin" the next time he saw her. She felt very sorry for the people. She went into Santo Tomas [Annotator's Note: Santo Tomas Internment Camp, or, Manila Internment Camp, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines] to do some work. The nurses had been evacuated from there. She went to the armory and somebody took a picture of them going in. It was all cots with male patients with priests waiting on them. There was still fighting in the city. She often wonders how they made out. One of the nurses who was still there started to hide, so Gagel went with her. Gagel was only on the first floor. She followed a nurse to get away from the shooting. The Americans had sharp shooters up above shooting into the city. Gagel did not stay there. An elderly man was outside on a corner. She found out he was a Catholic priest named Cosgrave, her name was Cosgrove then. He was evacuated out and put in a safe place in Manila. She heard that he was walking later and got shot in the leg but he lived. There were no hospitals set up in Manila; everyone was sent out to Clark Field [Annotator's Note: now Clark Air Base, Luzon, Philippines].

Helen Gagel was 20 years old when she was in the Philippines. She thinks the nurses get a bad name. Some of her nurses had strong ties with some of the G.I.s [Annotator’s Note: slang term for American soldiers]. Two of them got pregnant. There was a lot of stuff going that was not in her category. There was a schoolhouse in the Philippines and there was a doctor from Pontiac [Annotator's Note: Pontiac, Michigan, Gagel's hometown] and Gagel knew him. She was sent to check on some Filipino patients. One of them was asleep and he had a worm crawling out of his mouth. That made her feel bad, but there was nothing she could do. The sanitary conditions were terrible. She was working on the racetrack and most of the patients there had malaria. One of the best jobs was to give them quinine pills. Going home was Gagel's best time in the Philippines. She was there when the war ended but she did not know about it. They had no radio or newspaper. Her Captain did not seem to be too bright about anything either. She does not recall if she knew of the atomic bombs being dropped [Annotator's Note: Nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan on 6 and 9 August 1945]. As the war wound down, they were just laying around, being fed and taken care of. They did not get any news bulletins about what was going on. There was no talk of an invasion of Japan. They got no news.

In New Guinea, Helen Gagel lived in a tent with a cot. In the Philippines, she had a tent until she was over at the racetrack and they got a building. At one time, she could smoke and the people in the United States were sending the cigarettes overseas. They had plenty of soap. Gagel had hardly anything to do with the Filipinos. Back in Louisiana, she had the black girls that did the extra work; in the Philippines they did the lower work. They did not hear about much about the liberation of the Philippines while there. When they got into Santo Tomas [Annotator’s Note: Santo Tomas Internment Camp, Manila], they heard a lot about the Walled City [Annotator's Note: Intramuros district of Manila; Battle of Manila, February to March 1945] where they would herd people into churches and just shoot them. They had a lot of stuff like that. She is not sorry that she signed up to go but she thinks there are lot of things we could have done. She did not hardly even think about the Japanese. She only got close contact to them in Manila later. She did not have anything to do and there were some Japanese prisoners by her unit. She had to inoculate them. They were so skinny she thought she would go right through their bones. She did not like that job. They left from Manila when the war ended. She does not remember what port she left from. Some left by air, but she went by boat. They played a lot of cards on boat and she does not think they had to wear lifejackets on the way back.

Helen Gagel got off the boat and went by train to be signed off [Annotator’s Note: discharged]. She took another train to Pontiac [Annotator's Note: Pontiac, Michigan]. Her mother knew she was coming but not when. She took a cab there. Her mother just about fell over with surprise. There was no fanfare but there were a lot of tears. It was probably worse on them for her to be away. She was discharged before arriving home as a First Lieutenant. Two friends stayed in and became Majors. She did not want any more of it. Bob [Annotator's Note: Gagel's husband, Robert Gagel] met up with Gagel's nurse friend and the next thing she knew he showed up in Pontiac. Gagel was awarded the Bronze Star [Annotator's Note: Bronze Star Medal]. She did not understand it because she did not sign up to be in a combat zone. Jim [Annotator's Note: her brother] was in much more danger than that and he got a Purple Heart [Annotator's Note: the Purple Heart Medal is a US military decoration awarded to those wounded or killed in action against an armed enemy on or after 5 April 1917] and a Bronze Star. That she could see. Receiving the award passed right over her and she did not think much about it. She realized afterwards that not everybody got one. It does not mean too much to her really. The guys that are over there where Jim went to fight, they deserve stuff like that. She did not want to go to school on the G.I. Bill. Her sister got married in February 1946 and she and her husband got married in June 1946. She used to say, "Overseas in '43, back alive in '45."

Helen Gagel had no lasting effects from the war. Her most memorable experience was when she was going into actual war. They were leaving Tacloban [Annotator's Note: Philippines] and as they flew over Manila, they were being shot at. She did not know where they were going to land and that got to her. After landing, she got on a truck and went into the city. When they got to Santo Tomas [Annotator's Note: Santo Tomas Internment Camp, Manila], the soldiers had a blister bag of water and they washed their face, hands, and underwear. Gagel served because her friend wanted her to go with her and Gagel was bored with OB [Annotator's Note: obstetrics] delivery. After Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Japanese attack, Hawaii], they were glad they had signed up. She is proud she got to go. [Annotator's Note: Gagel tries to think of the general's name who had to get out of the boat a couple of times to get his picture taken. The interviewer says "MacArthur", but she says no.] He is the one that got us nurses going. He put their Bronze Star [Annotator's Note: Bronze Star Medal] on them. She does not think it is such a big deal. She is proud she could do it and she did not cry about it afterwards. She thinks it was hard on her mom and dad. Gagel feels that The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana] is a good thing and should be teaching about the war to future generations. She is proud to be a veteran. At one time when she lived in Pontiac [Annotator’s Note: Pontiac, Michigan], there were five veterans in the house. Her, her brothers, husband, and father-in-law who served in the Spanish American War [Annotator's Note: 1898]. During another war, she flew the flag out every day. The Spanish American War veteran had only been 14 when he served as a bugler and lived with them until he was 90. He had a good sense of humor. World War 2 made Gagel more appreciative of what she had at home, especially after seeing what other people went through, even the Japanese. She did not have anything against them. She felt sorry for them.