Emiline Ann Bourgeois went to nurses' school [Annotator's Note: Hotel Dieu School of Nursing in New Orleans, Louisiana] and training before the war. She went to the Philippines for two tours of duty. She retired in 1962. She came home to her older parents. She was happy to be home with them. She got tired of being inactive and went back to work. She was working in a hotel in New Orleans, and she saw the nurses in their uniforms. She thought they looked nice. She wanted to do something different, so she joined the Army Nurse Corps [Annotator's Note: 10 February 1945]. Nursing was enticing to her. She was free and had never married. Sometimes she would be assigned to the nursery. She liked being in the Philippines. She liked the Filipino people. She had a good social life. She was sent on a vacation to a resort to give her a rest. Another time she was sent up in the mountains for a vacation. It was nice because the Philippines were hot. She enjoyed working in the Philippines.

Emiline Ann Bourgeois [Annotator's Note: a US Army Nurse aboard the USAHS Blanche F. Sigman] treated young men and they were nice to her. They were easy to deal with. They were away from home and lonely. Some of them she heard from after she left the service. Some of them were from England and Scotland. She was in England when Queen Elizabeth II [Annotator's Note: Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, Queen of the United Kingdom] was crowned queen. She enjoyed treating the American soldiers. The hospital ship was pleasant. Sometimes they stopped and she would get a break on the shore. She visited one man she nursed in Scotland. The food was not the best. She enjoyed stopping at the different places. She remembers they sailed from the Philippines when they dropped the first atomic bomb [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapon dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, 6 August 1945]. She was glad the war was going to end. She made friends in the service. She had friends in Switzerland that she visited. She got a nice blue suit. After the war, it was nice to be home. She was afraid one of her parents would get sick or worse while she was away because they were elderly.

Emiline Ann Bourgeois was stationed at West Point [Annotator's Note: as an Army nurse at the hospital of the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, now Keller Army Community Hospital]. She was not too far from New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York] and got to see 27 plays. She saw Vivian Leigh [Annotator's Note: a British actress] in a play. She saw the "Hunchback" [Annotator's Note: The Hunchback of Notre Dame musical play; unable to identify year and writer] "Two for the Seesaw" [Annotator's Note: a play by William Gibson], "Five Finger Exercise" [Annotator's Note: a play by Peter Shaffer] and "Romeo and Juliet" [Annotator's Note: unable to identify year and writer]. She retired from West Point [Annotator's Note: in 1962]. She had to have an interview with the head of West Point before she left. She was nervous seeing him. She nursed the cadets that became ill. She would watch the cadets get into formation in the evenings. She made friends with a Filipino girl that helped the nurses [Annotator's Note: when she was stationed in the Philippines]. She stayed with the girl for a weekend. The plumbing was just a hole in the ground. Bourgeois' sister came to visit her at West Point and ended up staying for six months.

It is important to study World War 2. Being a nurse in the Army is a nice thing to do for Emiline Ann Bourgeois [Annotator's Note: in the US Army Nurse Corps]. They got to see interesting places. She would recommend it. She made friends with some ladies in Scotland when she visited there. One lady would send her scarves. In some places, they spoke French. She did not speak English until she went to school. When she went to school, they were not supposed to speak French [Annotator's Note: her native language]; they had to speak English. She recommends traveling because there is a lot to learn. She made friends in the Philippines. Her last Army friend recently passed away. She thinks the museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana] is important.