Mary Esther Lesko Scott

[Jim O]

Nurse saw the worst of WWII
Scott danced with Dwight Eisenhower; resumed career after war
By MEG JONES
mjones@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Sept. 4, 2006

Mary Esther Lesko Scott landed in France soon after D-Day, danced with Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower in Paris and helped save the lives of countless soldiers - both Allied and German.

When she returned home to Independence, Wis., after World War II, she burned her Army nurse uniforms because, after 29 months overseas in Europe, she never wanted to see them again. She had endured bitter cold during the Battle of the Bulge and heat and bugs during the summer as her U.S. Army hospital unit followed the front lines through France, Belgium and Germany.

"She always said the Battle of the Bulge was in her backyard," said her daughter, Mary Beth Weyer.

Scott, 85, of Milwaukee, died of cancer Thursday at a Wauwatosa hospice.

Scott served in the 298th General Hospital Unit, which landed in Cherbourg, France, two days after D-Day. With a 50-pound pack on her back, she and other nurses rode a small landing craft ashore and were dropped off in water over their heads. They were helped to safety by a U.S. soldier and sent to the Cherbourg Marine Hospital, only to learn that Germans were still in the facility.

"They were brought into a lower level because the Germans were still upstairs. They were brought into the morgue, which they didn't know until the lights were turned on," said Weyer. "They're in this mass of bodies and body parts trying to be quiet."

Scott followed her older sister into nursing, graduating from the La Crosse St. Francis School of Nursing in May 1942 when she was 20. She immediately joined the Army and shipped out to England. After landing in France, the 298th Hospital Unit followed Allied troops as they moved through Europe and eventually settled in Liege, Belgium, where the nurses and doctors spent about a year ministering to both Allied wounded and German prisoners...

Full article: JS Online:Nurse saw the worst of WWII