To Second Lieutenant Alice J. Robbe of Strum, the name and place of Pearl Harbor has a special significance. Lieutenant Robbe, a nurse in the Army Nurse Corps, was stationed there when the Japanese attacked. These are her words, with only a few omissions:

"In December 1941, I was on night duty with a 7 pm to 7 am shift on a  septic surgical and medical ward at the hospital. On December 7, 1941, I had finished my shift and then went to breakfast. After breakfast, I began to read when I heard an explosion that was very unusual for a Sunday. At  first, we thought it was maneuvers and nothing to worry about. Other explosions occurred and, when we went to the window, we saw airplanes coming  over the harbor. They were dark green with the rising sun emblem on them and they were strafing and dropping bombs. I knew then that it was war. Some planes flew over Wheeler Field and Schofield Barracks. Others circled the hospital and nurses quarters several times.

All nurses off-duty were required to report for duty. When I reported, I was told that about sixty Japanese ships and some with planes aboard were anchored forty or fifty miles from Hawaii and that we could expect a landing. I was also told that all the planes at the base were destroyed and that over one hundred ships were damaged or sunk. Rumors ran rampant. We were given gas masks and helmets. Soldiers escorted us to wards. The wards were full of patients with flesh wounds. Some had bled a great deal and needed careful watching, which was difficult because we were operating under orders of a complete blackout. Windows of the wards were covered with blankets. We used flashlights for illumination, but we had to cover them with paper taken from the covering on cotton rolls. In the back ward, minor surgery was done and patients were sutured and re-sutured. Because there was no power, all water had to be boiled. Fortunately, we had an ample supply of linens and other supplies.

I was assigned as a night supervisor to the Japanese hospital and also to the officers ward. There was open hostility at the time, and this was frightening because of the rumors circulating regarding other aggression. Maintaining a sense of humor helped to reduce the tensions. By December, the Japanese patients were evacuated and my work became more routine. After December, I had different assignments and duties and, in the spring of 1943, I was rotated to the mainland."

Lieutenant Robbe was, as far as she knew, the only nurse from Wisconsin at Pearl Harbor on that most fateful day. She entered the army in 1932 and retired 28 years later, in 1960, as a Lieutenant Colonel.