Eleanor R. Asleson
Era: World War II
Military Branch: Army
Eleanor R. Asleson NAME………………………………………….Eleanor R Asleson AGE ON DEC. 7TH, 1941………………………35 RANK OR RATE ON DEC. 7TH 1941…………1st Lieutenant SHIP OR STATION ON DEC. 7TH, 1941………Schofield Barracks BATTLE STATION ON DEC 7, 1941………….Fort Douglas Station Hospital DESCRIPTION OF WHAT YOU REMEMBER OF THE ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR: First Lieutenant Eleanor R. Asleson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Asleson, new chief nurse of the Fort Douglas Station Hospital, is all praise for the medical corpsmen who worked with her December 7, 1941, at Pearl Harbor and the trying days that followed. Lieutenant Asleson, who had been stationed in the Hawaiian department since 1940, was eating breakfast and getting ready to go to bed after being on night duty as supervisor when the Japanese attacked. “We first realized it was an attack, not a maneuver, when the ambulances and litters started to come in” she said. Then came hard work under war conditions, making the rounds of the ramps in the dark and other duties for which the corps had been trained. Lieutenant Asleson was transferred to another station on the islands soon after the attack and was made acting chief nurse which became permanent with her promotion to first lieutenant May 31, 1942. She arrived back in this country May 29, 1943. After a leave she reported to Letterman General Hospital and then went to Vancouver Barracks before arriving at Fort Douglas September 19, 1943. She succeeded Lieutenant Burnett Campbell at Fort Douglas. A native of Ulen, Minnesota, Lieutenant Asleson took the oath in the Army Nurses Corps in 1931 at Moorehead and did tours of duty at Walter Reed General Hospital, Fitzsimmons General Hospital and Fort Snelling before going to Hawaii. "We were due to come back from the islands in the spring of 1942 but the Japanese fixed us up with an extended stay," she added.
