Pat (Balise) Douglas
At the neuro-ortho surgical ward at Travis Air Force Base Hospital, CA, 1965.
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Click HERE to listen to full interview, Interviewed by Hannah Zahn on 6/28/2019. |
Patricia Balise Douglas is a native of Hatfield, MA. She enlisted in the U.S. Air Force at age 22, and served for two years as a psych nurse at Sheppard Air Force Base, TX.
Pat re-enlisted with the U.S. Nurse Corps in 1963, at the start of the Vietnam War, and was stationed on the ortho/neuro-surgical ward at Travis Air Force Base, CA, for three years. She met and married her husband, “Tex” Douglas, while at Travis.
Pat left the Air Force with the rank of Captain (she was not allowed to stay in once pregnant), but continued working as a nurse for the Veterans Administration, then the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Leeds, MA. She retired in 1992, after serving 31 years with the federal government. She has been a member of the Retired Military Air Force Nurse Society for 55 years and the Hatfield American Legion Post 344 for 46 years.
Images courtesy of Pat Douglas and Hatfield Historical Museum.
