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Collection Veterans History Project Collection

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Veterans History Project Service Summary:

  • Service History Note: The veteran was a flight nurse who served on Normandy Beach.
  • War or Conflict: World War, 1939-1945
  • Branch of Service: Army
  • Unit of Service: 818th Squadron
  • Location of Service: England; Normandy, France
  • Highest Rank: First Lieutenant

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"We would cry, but no one would be angry enough or disgusted enough [to give it up]." (Audio interview, 20:27)

First Lieutenant Evelyn Kowalchuk’s mother so strongly opposed her daughter’s military service that she ripped up all of her applications to the various service branches. Sidestepping her mother and persevering, she was accepted by the Army Nurse Corps as a flight nurse. Stationed in England, she cared for patients as they were ferried by plane from the Normandy beaches. It was a particularly difficult position to be in as a nurse--providing a personal touch to patients during the short flight to England, and then never seeing them again after they reached the ground. While she and her fellow flight nurses were "bound together" by the horror of what they observed, they were also scarred: she was haunted by post-war nightmares, and more than one flight nurse she knew committed suicide after they returned home.

Evelyn Kowalchuk Collection
Interview / Recording

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About this Item

Title

  • Evelyn Kowalchuk Collection

Names

  • Roanoke Public Libraries
  • Maynor, Ashley
  • Kowalchuk, Evelyn
  • Clark, Brian

State of Birth

  • NJ

Home State

  • VA

Headings

  • -  Kowalchuk, Evelyn
  • -  World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal Narratives
  • -  United States. Army.

Repository

  • Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

Gender

  • Female

Status

  • Veteran

Service History

  • World War, 1939-1945

    • Service History Note: The veteran was a flight nurse who served on Normandy Beach.
    • Branch of Service: Army
    • Unit of Service: 818th Squadron
    • Location of Service: England; Normandy, France
    • Highest Rank: First Lieutenant
    • Dates of Service: 1941-1945
    • Entrance into Service: Enlisted
    • Military Status: Veteran

Materials

  • Computer File: DVD [1 item] -- Multiple types of electronic files (collected 04/14/2008)
  • Audio: DVD [0 item] -- Oral history interview (collected 04/14/2008)
  • Photograph: Photocopy of photographic print [1 item] -- Photograph (collected unknown)

Collection Number

  • AFC/2001/001/66174

Cite as

  • Evelyn Kowalchuk Collection (AFC/2001/001/66174), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

Online Format

  • audio
  • image

Additional Metadata Formats

IIIF Presentation Manifest

Wars & Conflicts

Service Branch

Location of Service

Battles & Campaigns

Service Unit

Gender

Highest Rank

Service Entrance

Discharge Status

Interviewee

Interviewer

Organization/Affiliation

Rights & Access

Using VHP Material in Publication or Exhibition

The Veterans History Project (VHP) at the Library of Congress collects, preserves and makes accessible the firsthand recollections of U.S. military veterans who served from World War I through more recent conflicts and peacekeeping missions, so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand what they saw, did and felt during their service. The Veterans History Project Collection includes oral histories along with documentary materials such as original letters, diaries, photographs, and memoirs.

Veterans and interviewers contribute these materials to the Library for scholarly and educational purposes, retaining any copyright they may hold. Therefore, permission must be obtained before using the interview or other materials in exhibition or publication. Researchers or others who would like to make further use of these materials should contact the Veterans History Project for assistance.

As a publicly supported institution, the Library generally does not own rights to material in its collections. Therefore, it does not charge permission fees for use of such material and cannot give or deny permission to publish or otherwise distribute material in its collections. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item from the Library’s collections and for securing any necessary permissions rests with persons desiring to use the item.

Please contact us with questions.

Obtaining Copies of VHP Materials

In order for VHP materials to be duplicated, we must receive written permission from the interviewee for you to obtain a copy of the recording unless the proposed use is limited to personal use, research, or other uses permissible by copyright law. If the interviewee is deceased, their next-of-kin may grant written permission.

Please contact VHP for assistance if you need to contact a veteran for permission to use their materials in exhibition or publication, or if you have received permission from the veteran and need access to high-resolution copies of VHP collection materials.

Citing VHP Materials

Please use the following formats when citing Veterans History Project materials (substituting the appropriate name and collection ID number).

Materials as a whole:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Manuscript material:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Memoirs (MS02), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Transcript (MS04), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Correspondence (MS01), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Recording:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Audio recording (SR01), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Video recording (MV01), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Photograph:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Photographs (PH01), photographer unknown, Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Photographs (PH03-PH14), Ralph Williams photographer, Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Computer file:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Computer file (CF01), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Artifact:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/xxxx), Artifact (AR01), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Roanoke Public Libraries, Ashley Maynor, Evelyn Kowalchuk, and Brian Clark. Evelyn Kowalchuk Collection. 1941. Personal Narrative. https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.66174/.

APA citation style:

Roanoke Public Libraries, Maynor, A., Kowalchuk, E. & Clark, B. (1941) Evelyn Kowalchuk Collection. [Personal Narrative] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.66174/.

MLA citation style:

Roanoke Public Libraries, et al. Evelyn Kowalchuk Collection. 1941. Personal Narrative. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.66174/>.