Charge Nurse Lieutenant Carolyn Price looked over the counter of the nurses’ station. “Penicillin rounds, gentlemen!” she hollered.[1]

The soldiers nicknamed her “Pricie.”

While giving Phil his penicillin shot—via a six-inch-long needle deep into his buttocks—Pricie looked at Murph and said, “Gentlemen, let me formally introduce you two boys to each other. Second Lieutenant Murphy, 1st Lieutenant Larimore has a Silver Star, a Bronze Star, and a Purple Heart.”

While giving Murph his shot, she said, “First Lieutenant Larimore, 2nd Lieutenant Murph here has outdone you. Besides the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and Purple Heart, he also holds the DSC and a second Silver Star. You boys will each get another Purple Heart to add to your impressive collections while you’re here. Around here they throw them on the beds like candy.”

For the rest of their recovery, Phil, Audie, and the other men in the officers’ ward continued to receive superb medical care.

Phil passed the hours shooting the bull, playing cards, reading books and magazines, or reading and writing mail.

During the night shift, he would wake up only to see Murph—who had insomnia—limping to the nurse’s office to talk to Pricie.[2]

After a few minutes, she would chase him back to bed.[3]

~~~~~ 

[1] Larimore, At First Light, 171.

[2] Lieutenant Carolyn Price was Audie’s first big romance. He proposed marriage to her three times while he and dad were recovering at the Field Hospital. For some reason, perhaps the fact that she was four years older than him, she turned down his marriage proposals. She married C. Andrew Ryan on February 23, 1946. After returning to the States, Carolyn ran into Major Leon Ginsberg, the doctor who had cared for Murph and Phil. He told her, “Well Pricie, I see our boy made the cover of Life magazine. I healed him and you held his hand and neither one of us got our names in Life!”

[3] Larimore, Ibid, 171.

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