Mom's last assignment overseas was at the 27th General Hospital in Tokyo. It was during her time there that she was promoted to First Lieutenant.

Although Mom originally planned to be a teacher, her sister Ann convinced her to switch to nursing. She graduated from St. Catherine's School of Nursing in 1944 and decided, along with fellow graduate Kathy Meehn, to join the Army Nurse Corp. Unfortunately the two did not end up in the same location. Katy was sent to Alaska while Mom was sent to Guam.

While Mom was working at DeWitt General Hospital waiting to ship out to Guam, she received this note from her friend Lt. Lucille 'Katy' Kaltefleiter in Seattle.

Mom traveled to Camp Beale in Santa Anna, California for basic training. She had to perform a series of 'abandon ship' and 'man overboard' exercises in preparation for shipping out to Guam. This was especially challenging since she had never learned to swim!