Wherever You Need Me: The Anna Urdu Busby Story

by Anna Urda Busby

Anna Busby recounts her days as an Army nurse who witnessed the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. Includes a short history of the Army Nurse Corps and previously out-of-print White Cap Sketches detailing eyewitness accounts from the viewpoint of those who saved countless lives.

70 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2001

Reviews

[Mallory · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my great-grandaunt's story. I actually had the privilege of meeting her once when I was young. Also, she had a poem published in a small brown book titles "Best American Poems." Thank you to anyone who has taken the time to read this short but moving account!

[Eden · Rating 3 out of 5]

2022 bk 28. This is the story of a nurse. After training and working in a hospital setting, in 1939, Anna joined the Army Nursing Corp. She experienced life at various army bases eventually working her way through transfers to arrive in Honolulu to work at Triplett Army Hospital in early 1941. This book spends all too little of a time on the attack and the days following. She shares that she was on the sick list herself at the time, went back on duty and relieved others to tend to the woman while she took care of those previously hospitalized and that she spent most of the war working at the hospital or in nursing administration in Hawaii. There were not a lot of specifics, the author glossing over any medical practices/changes/work with patients before going on to the rest of her life. She does spent a lot of time on the founding of the nursing wing of the Pearl Harbors Survivors Association and its work for recognition and maintaining ties among the survivors. This book has attached a booklet of memories that she had published from other survivors appended to it - and I was surprised to find a nurse from less than 200 miles from my home in the collection.

[Lisa Klenke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heart warming reflections from a nurse who served in the Army Nurse Corp. Julie found this book for me while we were touring Pearl Harbor.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Acool perspective of a well-known historical event.

[Olivia Alley-Bjornestad · Rating 4 out of 5]

a quick and easy read. i enjoyed hearing the story of her life. the stories from other nurses on the day of infamy were painfully beautiful.

[Linda Morris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although the historical information was informative, the biographical material seemed incomplete.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Personal Diary of a WWII nurse following Pearl Harbor bombing. Bought this book at the Pearl Harbor Museum in Hawaii. Memorable recollections, non-fiction.

[Christy Weatherholtz-Morales · Rating 2 out of 5]

A 70 page short informative story about Anna and her nursing career. If you are looking for stories in regards to December 7th these can be found in the excerpts from White Cap Sketches (pg. 60).

[Victoria S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quick read. Feels like talking to your grandma. This generation was such a gift and I am so grateful for works like this that give us an additional glimpse of their lives and contributions.

[Barbra Lambert · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Wherever You Need Me” is a short 70-page personal and professional history of registered nurse Anna Urda Busby, a notable member of the United States Army Nurse Corps during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941.

Busby writes pertinent aspects of her personal life in an amiable manner which the reader will find insightful as well as delightful. She also intermittently graces the book with photos of events enhancing the laudability of her personal and professional history.

After the book’s succinct Introduction, Dedication, and Acknowledgement pages, Busby prefaces her chapters with a brief history of the Army Nurse Corps. She begins the history account with a quote from the distinguished General Douglas MacArthur.

His quote reads as follows:

“The Army nurse is the symbol to the soldier of help and relief in his hour of direst need. Through mud and mire, through the mark of campaign and battle, wherever the fight leads, she patiently - gallantly - seeks the wounded and distressed. Her comfort knows no parallel. In the heart of all fighting men, she is enshrined forever.” -General Douglas MacArthur, Dec 44

“Wherever the fight leads” is the phrase from General MacArthur’s quote that underscores exactly what Busby did during her nursing experiences after her graduation from the Hackensack Hospital and School of Nursing, because she was willing to go wherever she was sent to care for the needs of patients in regular hospitals, the war-wounded during the Japanese bombing in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941, and her nursing assignments thereafter.

This book was purchased for me as a birthday gift from my sister in October 2011 as she was visiting the state of Hawaii with her son, his wife, and two children. I found it to be an enjoyable, substantive read because of the charmingly simplistic conversational manner in which it was written; i.e., I felt as if I were sitting across from Nurse Busby listening to her, humbly and appreciatively, recount her personal and professional life.

I recommend reading “Wherever You Need Me” to everyone because of its simplistic, refreshing personal account of Busby’s personal life and her admirable commitment to her nursing profession, especially during one of the most tragic times in the history of our country in 1941.

©Barbra Lambert