HEALTH

WWII nurse Doris Howard, 101, returns to Palm Springs, where her career began 78 years ago

Ema Sasic
Palm Springs Desert Sun

It was June 1942 when Doris Howard stepped out into the desert for the first time. 

After serving three months at U.S. Army facility Camp Grant on the outskirts of Rockford, Illinois, the 22-year-old was one of the first nurses tasked with converting Palm Springs' star-studded, posh El Mirador Hotel into Torney General Hospital, a 1,600-bed hospital that would treat wounded soldiers until the end of the war in 1945. It also served Gen. George S. Patton's troops training in the desert for his North Africa Campaign.

Little did she know it would just be the start of her World War II journey, where she would see foreign countries, survive a kamikaze attack and even garner five medals for her service in the liberation of the Philippines and in the South Seas, including 16 battle stars.

But first, Howard had to get to the Palm Springs hospital.

Howard and her five compatriots arrived in the Coachella Valley by train. To their surprise, no one met them at the station — and there didn't appear to be a payphone in sight. 

"We took that place apart looking for that telephone," she said. One nurse, so frustrated looking for the phone, pushed a panel in the decorations of the wall, and to her surprise, it swung open and inside was a phone.  About half an hour later, the women heard soldiers singing songs, coming to pick them up.

On Friday, Howard — now 101 — arrived in Palm Springs to a bit more fanfare, and some war stories to tell. 

Doris Howard attends an event in her honor at Desert Regional Medical Center, May 14, 2021.  Doris and was with the first team of nurses brought in to convert the former El Mirador Hotel in Palm Springs into the Tourney General Hospital for the military during World War II.

Accompanied by her son, Bill, she visited Desert Regional Medical Center, where the old El Mirador Hotel was located. The medical center hosted a press conference with the two, where Howard recounted surviving a kamikaze attack and relived some of her memories from her time in Palm Springs. Several medical and city officials were in attendance, as well as local veterans, and the Palm Springs Air Museum feted her with a flyover of a C-47 SkyTrain, a veteran WWII aircraft from Europe.

"It feels wonderful," said Howard about being back in town after so long. "I loved Palm Springs then, and I love it now."

A lot has changed in the decades since Howard was in Palm Springs. There was only one drug store in town with an air conditioner, which she would frequent with her friends. There was pretty much "nothing going on during the summer" — no movies were showing, and no lights would practically be on. The town was also so small back then that it didn't take long to travel from one end to another.

"It's a whole new town," she said after she and her son had the opportunity to drive through some neighborhoods. "It's lovely to be here and to see it."

But some things never change, no matter what decade you may be in.

"We arrived here, and ... standing on the back of the caboose, and my friend kept saying, 'It's hot. Oh, it's so hot,'" Howard recalled. "I loved it. I was very happy with the gentle breezes and the sunshine." 

Doris Howard, center, is seated with other service members in this historical photo.

Memories from Palm Springs

Howard, a native of Kenosha, Wisconsin, always wanted to travel and see the world. She wanted to become an airline stewardess, but a requirement at the time was to be a registered nurse. 

She became a nurse and graduated from school in June 1941, and ended up working in a hospital in Wisconsin. When the United States entered World War II at the end of 1941, she signed up to serve a month after Pearl Harbor. First she was stationed at Camp Grant.

"I had my surgical ward and was receiving patients from surgery," she said. "It was a very nice service."

She decided to sign up for overseas duty. She was assigned to the hospital ship U.S.S. Comfort in 1942, but while the ship was being converted in San Pedro, Howard received new orders to go to Palm Springs. 

Howard arrived that summer with five other nurses.

"Everybody knew of Palm Springs and the movie stars," she said. But to her surprise, "it was very quiet when we arrived."

A vintage World War II era C47 Skytrain circles Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, May 14, 2021.

Howard first worked to get beds, sheets, blankets, medications and instruments stocked throughout the hospital. As more nurses arrived and the war picked up, she began working in the surgical ward.

She recalled that one night patients came in around 8 p.m. and "everyone was starving."

"There were so many of them, they just flooded the hospital. I got a lot of patients who were injured in the desert," she said. "For a while, you worked some 12 hours. As the nurses kept coming to Palm Springs, you would work eight hours." 

Howard was a nurse who never gave up on her patients. One civilian, "so severely injured" in a Greyhound bus accident, was placed under her care after an operation. Everyone around her said he would not make it through the night, but thanks to her work, he survived.

During her free time, Howard would swim in the El Mirador Hotel pool. She would also go horseback riding, go on bike rides and explore nearby canyons.

At night, when it was still hot, she would take her mattress out on the balcony of her El Mirador Hotel room and watch the stars with her friend. She also felt her first earthquake while in Palm Springs, which definitely "startled" the Wisconsin native.

The highest temperature that summer was 116 degrees, she said, but she "loved every moment" of it.

Doris Howard and her son Bill Howard look over old photographs from the 1940's.  Doris and her fellow nurses were the first team brought in to convert the former El Mirador Hotel into the Tourney General Hospital for the military.  Doris revisited Palm Springs, May 14, 2021.

'It was a lot of danger'

After a year in Palm Springs, Howard again requested overseas duty. While the U.S.S. Comfort completed its retrofitting, she was sent to Camp Stoneman in the Bay Area.

Finally, Howard received orders to report to San Pedro and serve on the U.S.S. Comfort. She was invited to take the trial run of the ship, which she said she was "thrilled to death." Within the next week, the hospital ship set sail toward Brisbane, Australia. 

"I did see Australia, Sydney, Townsville, and they were very, very nice to us. Always happy to see us," Howard said. "I went to the Pacific. I did see across the equator many, many times bringing patients home."

Doris Howard and her son Bill Howard watch as a World War II-era C47 Skytrain circles Desert Regional Medical Center. Doris Howard was with the first team brought in to convert the El Mirador Hotel into the Tourney General Hospital for the military. She revisited Palm Springs, May 14, 2021.

Soon after, Howard experienced the war much closer than ever before. On April 28, 1945, the U.S.S. Comfort, with more than 500 patients on board from Okinawa, was struck by a kamikaze aircraft about 50 miles offshore from Okinawa.

Howard was working a 12-hour shift when the attack happened. The gasoline in the kamikaze plane caught fire, ignited a massive explosion and threw the 90-pound nurse "off her feet and into the bulkhead, where she cracked her head and soon discovered she lost her hearing," said Palm Springs Councilmember Grace Garner, who gave remarks before Howard spoke.

The attack killed six nurses, four surgeons and seven patients. Many other personnel were injured.

 "We lost six doctors, and I had no ward officer after that. I never saw another doctor, everyone was busy right where they were," Howard said. "We were just very shorthanded after that."

Despite her injuries, Howard continued her duties as best she could. She is considered 90% service-connected disabled by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.

"It was a lot of danger and we knew it, but you didn't think about it," Howard said. "You were too busy with what you had to do and that's what you concentrated on."

Doris Howard watches as a World War II era C47 Skytrain circles Desert Regional Medical Center on May 14, 2021.

Years after service

After the attack, the ship sailed for Guam for repairs before heading to Hawaii to drop off severely wounded soldiers and then to San Pedro. 

"That's when Dinah Shore, Bob Hope and everybody would come up there to welcome the troops home," she said. "It was really very nice. It made the troops very happy."

Howard garnered five medals for her service in the liberation of the Philippines and in the South Seas, including 16 battle stars.

Returning back to civilian life, Howard said she couldn't work in a hospital because of a back injury, so she worked as an office nurse for two doctors in San Francisco.

She did try to apply for a job with United Airlines as a stewardess, but when she heard the flights would be to places she had already been to in the United States, she decided to pass on the job.

Howard later raised a family in San Jose. Today she lives in Reno, Nevada, with her son.

Noel Arvizu with American Legion Post 519 presents Doris Howard with a medal on May 14, 2021. She was with the first team brought in to convert the former El Mirador Hotel into the Tourney General Hospital for the military in 1942.

Back in town

Her return to Palm Springs included a tour of the Desert Regional Medical Center, where she met with nurses.

On Friday, she received a photobook, flowers and balloons from guests at the press conference, all to honor her years of service. The room where Howard was speaking with full of pictures of the old El Mirador Hotel.

Howard said it's been "overwhelming" back in town compared to her "quiet life in Reno," but she's looking forward to the rest of her stay.

Hearing Howard's story brought back many memories for Fred Warzecha, a retired Marine. He was involved in the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 and Vietnam in 1965 and 1966. 

"Anybody who has spent any time in the military, whether it's four years, 10 years, 20 years, or even 30 years, you never really leave that part of your life behind. It's always with you," he said. "Something will trigger a memory. And nine times out of 10 the memories are good."

Friday was full of good memories, he said.

Ema Sasic covers health in the Coachella Valley. Reach her at ema.sasic@desertsun.com or on Twitter @ema_sasic.