Kathleen Lynch Simpson Collection

Oral history interview with Kathleen Lynch Simpson
Primarily documents Kathleen Lynch Simpson's adolescence and her service with the United States Army Nurse Corps. Simpson recounts her father's military service and her desire to be a nurse from an early age. She discusses the support she received from her mother for joining the U.S. Army Nurse Corps and the enthusiasm she felt while being trained as an army nurse. Simpson describes the various duties she was tasked with at her many duty stations and assignments, including her deployment to Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War and the hardship of leaving her husband and two children in the United States. She discusses her mentors, her position at the Pentagon during the September 11, 2001 attack, and her retirement from military service while working at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Personal topics include learning to set priorities, her concern about being in the army and being a mother at the same time, the sexual discrimination she felt at times, and the global perspective she feels the military gave her.