Doris O. Melvin Oral History

Details

Who's responsible?: Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries (Repository)
How much has been digitized?: This collection has been digitized in its entirety.
Where can I find more information?: https://uncg.as.atlas-sys.com/repositories/2/resources/1015
What's in the full collection?: 30 January 2002 oral history transcript.
Full biography: Doris Onita Melvin (1918-?) of Sampson County, North Carolina, was a career nurse, serving in the Army Nurse Corps (ANC) from 1953 to 1975. Doris Onita Melvin was born in 1918 in Sampson County, North Carolina. She graduated from Grover High School in 1934 and went on to three years of nursing school at McCain Hospital in Hoke County, North Carolina. After completing the program, she was hired as a nurse at the hospital. Melvin enlisted in the Army Nurse Corps (ANC) in 1953. She went through basic training at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and was stationed at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. She was later transferred to Fort Myers, Florida, and then sent to serve at a base hospital in Germany. Upon returning to the United States, she was stationed at Womack Army Medical Center, Fort Bragg, North Carolina. She served in Japan in 1968 during the Vietnam War and was again stationed at Fort Bragg upon her return to the States. Melvin retired from the ANC in 1975 as a lieutenant colonel.
Topics: Women's History
Military
Branch of service: Army -- Army Nurse Corps
Air Force
Conflict: Post World War II, Korea (1947-1963)
Vietnam Era (1964-1974)
Subject headings: Korean War, 1950-1953
Vietnam War, 1961-1975
United States. Army--Women
United States. Air Force
Contributing Institution: Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries

: Oral history interview with Doris Melvin; Primarily documents Doris Onita Melvin's career with the Army Nurse Corps (ANC) during the Korean and Vietnam wars, as well as her relationship with friend Cecelia Ingram. Melvin details her early nurse training at McCain Hospital in Hoke County, North Carolina. She discusses her reasoning for joining the ANC over the WAC (Women's Army Corps) and her basic training at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. She mentions her time at Fort Belvoir, Virginia; Fort Myers, Florida; and Fort Bragg, North Carolina; as well as her time stationed abroad in Germany and Japan. Other service topics include barracks life; ANC work ethics; military segregation and desegregation; and the WAC song "Duty". " Personal topics include: Life during the Depression; experiences with Jim Crow segregation; the role of women in contemporary service; her heroes during her service; benefits of her service; her relationship with Cecelia Ingram; and Ingram's husband, also a veteran.

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Doris O. Melvin Oral History

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