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C.B.I. Theater, Red Cross Worker, Frieda M.T. Peterson


kanemono
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Here is a grouping to Frieda M. T. Peterson who was born on Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina on March 9, 1914. She was brought up in Charleston, South Carolina, and attended Newberry Business College in Newberry, South Carolina. In 1944 Peterson joined the American Red Cross and was assigned to the 181st General Hospital, Karachi, India where she was a Hospital Secretary. With the lowest priority of all the theaters of World War II, the China-Burma-India Theater throughout the period 1942-44, lacked sufficient Medical Departments to support the thousands of Chinese troops with the hospitalization and medical supplies they required. Besides supporting the U.S. Army Air Forces and ground troops in the area, the U.S. Army Medical Department was called on to train and support Chinese divisions for the struggle against the Japanese in Burma and China. The Army Medical Department in the theater had two major handicaps, the low priority of the theater for supplies and personnel, and the isolation of the China side of the theater from the India side by the Japanese invasion of Burma. Between 1942 and 1946 fifty-nine hospitals were created in the China-Burma-India Theater. These hospitals ranged from small MASH units to General Hospitals with over 1000 beds. Peterson was assigned to work as a secretary at the 181st General Hospital, Karachi, India which was one of the largest General Hospitals in the China-Burma-India Theater. Karachi was the transport hub of the region. On November 19, 1945 Peterson sailed on the S.S. General W.A. Greely from the port of Calcutta, India, via Colombo, Ceylon arriving at the Port of New York City, New York on December 5, 1945. Frieda Peterson married Robert Caldwell Jones on February 21, 1948, in Spartanburg, South Carolina. She was employed in the Agronomy Division of the Soil Conservation Service in South Carolina.

 

I had a very difficult time finding information on Frieda Peterson. All of the WW2 Red Cross records are in the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. The records are in stacks of boxes. Each box is indexed with the information inside the box. However, the indexes do not reflect what is in each box. I had a researcher go through the boxes until he found Ms. Peterson. The information was, of course in the next to last box of thirty-six boxes. Ms. Peterson married Robert Caldwell Jones on February 21, 1948. Mr. Jones died in 1954. Frieda Peterson Jones must have re-married because I cannot find anything about her beyond 1954.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
cutiger83

Another great grouping that I missed! How on earth did I miss a grouping about someone from SC AND the CBI !!! :D

 

...Kat

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  • 5 years later...
Lisa Nanney
On 5/8/2016 at 9:41 PM, cutiger83 said:

Another great grouping that I missed! How on earth did I miss a grouping about someone from SC AND the CBI !!! :D

 

...Kat

This is my Aunt Freda although the picture is not a photo of her. I will submit a photo of her. I also have hand carved wooden animals that she purchased in Burma and a carved box as well

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Lisa,

Thank you so much for the photograph of Freda. The photograph I posted was with her file in College Park. The researcher told me the files seemed to have been dumped haphazardly into open boxes so the photograph must have been from another file. Thank you again for your help.

Dick

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Lisa Nanney
2 hours ago, kanemono said:

Lisa,

Thank you so much for the photograph of Freda. The photograph I posted was with her file in College Park. The researcher told me the files seemed to have been dumped haphazardly into open boxes so the photograph must have been from another file. Thank you again for your help.

Dick

I loved to see a post about her!! I will be looking for a photo of her in uniform   - and gather more info she did remarry and in the early 80s returned to Sullivan’s island and was married to a man named Frank Hand.  sadly she lost her battle to breast cancer in 1989 . I will be picking my sisters brain on more info this weekend 

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It will be wonderful to add to her history. These extraordinary people should never be forgotten.

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  • 2 years later...

Kanemono

 

I sent you a message, but the mailbox was full. Could you contact me? It is about Red Cross research. Thanks

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