Professional Soldiers ® - Belgian Nurse Honored for Saving Lives of GIs in World War II

Hats off to you Ms Chiwy, and congratulations! I hope to perform as well as you did when my time comes.

Rest in peace, Renee Bernadette Emilie Lemaire. You're never forgotten.

Good thing Band of Brothers did not cover it exactly as in history. That would have been one tearjerker scene.

http://www.oorlogsmusea.nl/upload/4298110201194552.jpg
http://www.regjans.com/?page_id=639
http://morethanmedicine.blogspot.com...e-1944-by.html
A Time for Trumpets: The Untold Story of the Battle of the Bulge

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....rushing into the back yard to get a chute. She wanted the silk for a wedding dress. She invariably was beaten out by a soldier and always returned empty handed.

Quote:

....The next day, Christmas Eve, one of the soldiers gave a white silk parachute to the nurse, Renee Lemaire, who planned to take it home that night and eventually make it into a wedding dress.

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....I faced toward the aid station and Renee Lemaire was helping some wounded GI’s out of the building. She went back in the building and came out helping more wounded yelling, “Help, help, water, water.” The flames from the fire were intensifying. She was safe and sound out of the building but decide to go back in and help. Renee Lamaire never returned.

Quote:

......Prior himself carried Renne Lemaire's remains to her parents, encased in the silk folds of a white parachute, like the one she so treasured for her wedding dress

Quote:

......This girl, a registered nurse in the country of Belgium, volunteered her services at the aid station, 20th Armored Infantry Battalion in Bastogne, Belgium, 21 December, 1944. At this time the station was holding about 150 patients since the city was encircled by enemy forces and evacuation was impossible. Many of these patients were seriously injured and in great need of immediate nursing attention. This girl cheerfully accepted the herculean task and worked without adequate rest or food until the night of her untimely death on 24 December, 1944. She changed dressings, fed patients unable to feed themselves, gave out medications, bathed and made the patients more comfortable, and was of great assistance in the administration of plasma and other professional duties. Her very presence among those wounded men seemed to be an inspiration to those whose morale had declined from prolonged suffering. On the night of December 24 the building in which Renee Lemaire was working was scored with a direct hit by an enemy bomber. She, together with those whom she was caring for so diligently, were instantly killed.