Saying Good Bye To Men and Women Who Worked With You At Camp Greene, Jan. 4, 1919

From The Caduceus, news of the Base Hospital at Camp Greene, Charlotte, N.C., Jan. 4, 1919. Camp Greene was named for Revolutionary War hero General Nathaniel Greene.

Good Bye

After the war shiftings have started at the base hospital in the discharge of half a hundred men of the detachment; in the transfer of 34 nurses to the General Hospital No. 19 and in the discharge of several officers who are leaving us one at a time.

It is like the breaking of the golden threads of friendship at the closing of the school year, in hallowed days of yore. You remember the little tugging at the heart strings; the tender and cheering good byes. You recall how we talked about trials then and how time has thrown a gleaming halo about all the happy days when we as school children studied and worked and romped with our play-mates. Some of our brightest moments now are spent in conning over the long lost joys of school days and thinking on the wanderings and fortunes of John, and Kate and Old Man Riggs.

It is because we have known the parting from friends in former days and because we realize that time and miles have so soon removed the faces which held the smiles that cheered us most that we feel a mellowness at the parting of these hospital friends of ours. We have all been friends here together. Already the trials which marked the early days of the hospital are fading out into clouds of glory. We know that soon the names of those about us now and of those who are leaving will be thought over and spoken in the gentlest way.

The officers have been our friends, have been those to whom we looked up to because of their superior knowledge in the field in which we labored. We send our heart felt hopes for success in service as they go from the wards back to their offices and to the continued care of their fellows.

The enlisted men who have gone are mostly from the line of those who first came to the hospital and who helped to establish the first wards. They have well earned the honorable discharges which they cherish as records of honor. For every one we extend our warmest wishes for years of peaceful plenty.

The nurses who leave us now are from units which made up our pioneer nursing staff and also from bands which came only a few weeks ago. They were all in the service of the testing days when our wards were filled with influenza patients. They have every one shown the tireless courage and infinite kindness which will always make us reverence the sisters in mercy.

With one accord we impart, in our “Good byes” to the departing nurses, the trust that their efforts in their new field of work may call out as genuine a feeling of gratitude for labor nobly done as we will always cherish in the memory of their efforts at Camp Greene.