Transcript
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Narrator / Cassie Depechel (0:08)
A listener note. Against the Odds uses dramatizations that are based on true events. Some elements, including dialogue, may be invented, but everything is based on research. US Navy nurse Mary Rose Harrington shovels a huge forkful of salted beef into her mouth. It's noon on December 10, 1941. She's been working nonstop for two days, and she's ravenous. She's sitting in the common room of her dormitory on the Cavite Naval Base in the Philippines outside Manila. Her squad of 11 other nurses is eating around the table with her. Usually, lunchtime is lively here, full of chit chat, but today there's not much light talk. Three days ago, Japanese warplanes attacked the Pearl Harbor Naval Base in Hawaii, killing and wounding thousands of sailors. This act of war stunned Harrington and her fellow nurses. Since then, they've been working frantically to transfer patients from the bases hospital, just in case the Japanese bomb Cavite Next, any talk at lunch today focuses on the coming war. Harrington has strong opinions. Japan caught us off guard with that sneak attack, but we'll pummel them in a fair fight. The other nurses nod in agreement. Suddenly, an air raid siren sounds. The whole table groans. This is the third siren already today, and none have amounted to anything. But rules are rules. They have to head down to the dirty crawl space beneath their building and shelter. There, Harrington refuses to miss a meal for another false alarm. She stands up, plate in hand. The other women follow her lead. Within a minute, they're in the crawl space, an unlit cavity with a dirt floor. It's full of spiderwebs and lizards darting about. The ceiling is so low they can barely move around. The nurses sit cross legged on the dirt and continue eating. Some pretend they're having a picnic and joke about passing the corn on the cob. It's some welcome levity after days of stress. But a minute later, Harrington hears the drone of approaching planes. A pair of cooks standing near the door of the shelter yell that the Japanese are here. The nurses stop eating and exchange worried glances. Before long, they hear the boom of artillery shells from the base's defense units. This is real. After another minute, a bomb drops so close that the building above them shakes. Several nurses cry out and drop their plates. Dust falls from the ceiling. Several more bombs follow. Harrington pulls out a rosary from beneath her shirt and starts working the beads. A few nurses cover their heads with their arms. Another nurse, the CYN Dorothy, still scoffs at this. No use trying to protect yourself. If a bomb hits this building, we're goners. Harrington scowls. Dorothy might be right, but why say it out loud? The next hour is the longest of Harrington's life. The whole earth shakes each time a bomb slams down. Her ears ring and there's a pungent odor in the air. Smoke, burning rubber and gunpowder from the bombs. All she can do is pray as hard as she can. After three rosaries, the all clear siren finally sounds. Harrington and the other nurses hesitantly emerge from the crawl space. Outside, they're greeted by devastation. People scream in pain from every direction. Two buildings have been reduced to rubble. Bomb craters, some of them still smoking, pockmark the road. The base itself seems ringed by fire as flames engulf structures and vehicles in the distance. Manila is burning, too. Behind her, Harrington's boss, chief nurse Laura Cobb, barks out orders. Everyone report to the hospital immediately. We're about to see a flood of patients. The nurses break into a run. Harrington has never felt so afraid. She's treated plenty of injuries before, but never any war wounds. There's a deeper element to her fear as well. For the past few days, she's been telling everyone that the mighty American military will rout Japan. But seeing the destruction around her now, she realizes that maybe Japan won't be such a pushover after all. And if that's the case, she could find herself far from home, plunged into the middle of a terrible war.
