Starring Madeline Carroll in an original radio play entitled Eyes Married on Batan on the cavalcade of America sponsored by the DuPont Company, maker of better things for better living through chemistry. Batan, Corregidor. Today these names stand like banners of our defiance for the stature of American manhood was measured on Corregidor and found tall and unafraid. But American women too passed through that Philippine ordeal and it is their heroic story and a true story that cavalcade tells tonight. Lieutenant Dorothea Daly Engel, United States Army Nurse Corps has set down her experiences in an article written for the October American magazine under the title I Was Married in Battle. In a radio play written by Arthur Miller and based on Lieutenant Engel's own record of events, the DuPont Company presents Madeline Carroll as Lieutenant Dorothea Engel in I Was Married on Batan on the cavalcade of America. I know. I know what a man's chances were on Batan after the lines broke and yet he is a live somewhere on those islands. He did not die. I know. My name is Dorothea Daly Engel, First Lieutenant, United States Army Nurse Corps. I sailed to the Philippines on an army transport on June the 6th, 1941 with 20 other nurses. It was pleasant there near Clark Field. During the day we did our work, routine, plenty of supplies and not many patients. At night sometimes there was music and dancing. I remember music they played that night. I'll never forget that song. Say, lady, didn't you bring your shoes? My shoes? Why, sure I brought my... Why aren't you dancing? Well, I'm not very good at solo. Neither am I. I guess we'd better dance together then, huh? All right. I like girls medium to short, you know that? Why? Oh, so we can see eye to eye. Well, you're taller than I am anyway. Why are you looking at me like that? You know me? I'm trying to remember. Isn't that funny? I'm trying to remember too. Have you ever been in Hamelton, Missouri? Never heard of it. Ever been in New Orleans, Louisiana? Never heard of that. Worst thing you know, you're going to outwit me and then I'll be mad. You been out here long? Just landed a couple of days ago. What do you do here? You mean in the Philippines? Yes, there's no fighting. What do you do? You polish up the cannon, get sunburned. Peaceful, isn't it? Isn't it? Say, would you... could we go outside? There's a nice parlor out there. I really don't like to dance. Oh, is that what you've been doing? Oh, come on. Now, young lady, my name is Emmanuel Engel. They call me Boots, as you see, Lieutenant. Dorothea Daly. Good evening, Lieutenant. Good evening, Lieutenant. Usually I don't talk like this. How do you talk usually? Could I tell you something silly? You're a funny fellow. Sure, tell me something. Well, look at the moon, the stars. So quiet out on that big ocean. I wonder sometimes whether it's really quiet or whether we're all deaf. You just came here. How does it seem to you? Why? Do you think there'll be war? You know, Dorothea, you say war in such a peculiar way. How do I say it? Well, like a little girl. For the first time in my life, I don't care for war. Looking at you, the sound of the word makes me very cold inside. But you're a soldier. Always. I always want to be a soldier, but right now I just... Let's go inside. Sure, let's. Well? Please don't talk about war anymore tonight. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get you down. No, it's just that I suddenly feel in a terrible hurry, as though all of us should be running somewhere. Maybe it's just the moon. Yes, it's so terribly red. Come on, let's go inside. Oh, good morning, nurse. Morning, John. How's the foot this morning? Oh, nurse. When you onto my bed, I got no feet. I got no hands, no arms, no nothing. Just a heart palpitating. Smoking too much you are, young man. Let me see the foot. Here. Ain't it a beauty? When are we going to get married, lieutenant? Doctor, I have to look at this swelling. Oh, that's no fair. I made a date for Saturday night. Marrying me today, date with somebody else Saturday night. What do you want, pervert? I'm going to get you a reconnaissance duty. Good morning, doctor. Good morning, doctor. Will you look at this foot? It's swollen. Sure. How do you sleep, soldier? That's all I do around here. Then I get out. Ow! That hurt? What? No. Ow! That hurt? No, no, no. I just got hiccups. Well, you're not getting out of that bed for a week. Now just try to occupy yourself. Time can pass quickly enough. See you later. Okay, okay. Guy would think I had several different kinds of influenza or something. My! Look at all those planes. Now don't try and get off the bed. Oh, let me see them. Well, yeah, I love them. Well, all right. Just lean on the window here. They're so pretty coming out of the sun that way. Yeah. Wish they'd let me fly. I'm too old. One of these days. Hey, hey, where did they come from? They ain't ours. Get back in that bed. I tell you, they're not our planes, guys. Get all the patients out of here and under the building. Look at them. They're putting on their uniforms. They won't stay in that bed. Hey, hey, hey, listen, you men. You're going below the building. Yeah, I'm going back to my outfit. You can't shoot them. No cats in the hospital. All right, nurse. Weel the ones that can't walk. Get them out of the building. Hurry now. They'll be wounded in a minute. We got the invalids under the building and soon the wounded came from Clark Field and other places all day, all night. Again, the next day we worked cutting off bloodsucked sleeves, treating burns, shrapnel wounds, fractures. And I went through it as if it were a dream because every time they brought another man in, I was there to see if it was boots. And I knew then that I had to find him working there among the dying and the wounded. It seemed so obvious to me, so natural that he must be searching for me too somewhere. Attention, please. Attention, please. All patients and the staff will be evacuated at once. We're going to Manila. Proceed with evacuation. Say, say, nurse. Yes? Coming here, will you? Are you feeling badly again? No, I'm all right. Say, did I hear them call you Dorothy? Yes, my name. Dorothy Adelie? How did you know? You know a lieutenant named Engel? Yes. Do you know Boots? Say, the lieutenant, you have a lot to know where you are, Lieutenant. Did he say that? Well, I guess that's what he meant. Where is he? Is he hurt? The last I saw of him, he was all right. We might catch him at Manila. Manila? Thank you so much. We are going to Manila. That's where we are going. When we arrived in Manila, I went to all the barracks I knew of. He was not there. I looked into every truck that passed, every car. There was only one place left, the officer's club. I headed that way. And walking through Manila, it suddenly seemed so strange that I should be searching in the middle of a war for a man I hardly knew. And yet I was so sure that had he been killed, I would mourn him the rest of my life. Every time I turned a corner, I wanted to halt and wait, afraid that in a moment he would pass where I had just been. I ran toward the officer's club. I ran along the streets as though I could catch him before the war did. Everything was moving so fast, so terribly, terribly fast. Is Lieutenant Engel here, please? Everybody's gone over to Batan, including me in a minute. Batan? But Batan is the last, the last ditch. We're not that far gone, are we? We're losing Manila, Lieutenant. If I were you, I'd stay close to my outfit every minute now. A girl like you oughtn't to lose her way with a jab so close. I hurried back to my headquarters. Now it seemed so silly and unreal, like a dream where you grasp the thing and it evaporates in your hands time after time. And I saw now what before was not so clear. The war, the war had caught us. It was upon us like a great dense fog. And to get through it into the clear, we would have to fight. That we would never really find each other until we had won this war and won it forever. Saratheia, where have you been? Get up on the truck. Sally, I've just learned that he's in Batan. The whole arm is moving there. That's just where we're going now. We are? Thank God. Do you realize what it means? Batan is the last stop. After this, there's no room for retreating. We came here to work, not weep. What are you going to do? Work. Nurse, we'll have to keep moving these boys to keep them out of the sun. Just keep moving them under the trees. Yes, doctor. I've been doing that. And be sure to give Dickinson and Drake their injections now. Yes, doctor. And change the dressing on those four over there. And when you're through, how's that? Doctor, I... What? Mr. Mary. Can I be sent up to the front lines? How much closer to the front do you think you can get? Where's the field artillery? The Fort McKinley men? Some of them are fighting at Mar-a-Veiles, I think. Could I... I beg your pardon, doctor. Tell me where... Saratheia. Hello, lieutenant. Better get those injections going. Right away, doctor. You were looking for me? All over the Philippines. All over the world. Wait, I've got to work. Stay next to me. Help me move these men. Sure. Are you hurt at all, Boots? Me? Never. Boots, you... You'd better wait near the tent. I... I'm all shaky. I... I can't look at you and work. Please. I've got so much to say to you, Saratheia. Oh, Boots, I think I might have cried. Go. Please don't make me look at you. All right. All right, but hurry. Listen. Isn't it nice when those guns quiet down for a minute? Let's sit here, huh? Yes. The jungle's always so alive at night. Look at that monkey. I wonder if he knows he's in a war. He taught it. Hey, Japs. Look at him go. Too bad the Japs don't run away like that. Don't they? Saratheia, we're losing this war. No, not for long. We'll get back at them. Sure, but not this week. Not next. Maybe not for five years. What are you saying? I'm saying that time isn't waiting for us. We're two little stones hurtling over Niagara Falls. When I think of tomorrow, all I see is a whirlpool. Saratheia, we're being licked right now. This minute. We'll never hold the Philippines. Boots, don't say that. We're Americans. We're a piece of the United States. How can we lose? We can't. Little girl, we've been living on our fat. These Japs are out for murder. They strike when we're sleeping. They don't wait till we wake up. They're knocking the daylights out of us. So what do you want to say? I'm going back to the front tomorrow night. Oh. Do you love me, darthia? I have to know that. You know that. I... If there was time, I'd call at your house with a box of candy, wearing my Sunday suit. There'd be a couple of months of movies and dancing by the lake. And pretty soon we'd both be so used to the idea, it wouldn't be so hard to ask you. I'm used to the idea, Boots. I was used to it the first minute I saw you. If somebody had told me last year that I could say these things to a man after knowing him so little, I would have blushed. But blushing's like a luxury now. Now I guess there's only time for the truth. And we'd better say it quickly. Would you marry me? We'd have to be right away. Not tonight. We could go to the chaplain. No. Give me one night to dream of it. And let it slowly fill my mind, like the smell of flowers, the way I always thought it would be. Oh, but darling, the japs fly low. Soon they'll know there are wounded here. They'll dive on a chute, maybe tonight, maybe before tomorrow ever comes. D'arthia. Give me this night, Emmanuel. At least for these few hours let me walk toward you slowly. Let me have this one last night, so that our marriage won't seem like, like a sudden clasting in the dark. Tomorrow, Boots. All right then. Tomorrow, if tomorrow comes. You are listening to Madeleine Carroll in I Was Married on Batan, the true story of Lieutenant D'arthia Engel on the cavalcade of America, sponsored by DuPont. As our play continues, the chaplain and the bridegroom are waiting outside the tent where D'arthia is dressing for her wedding. Now look at you. Do you mean to tell me you're going to your wedding in that shirt while that's scandalous? Well, my gown hasn't arrived from Paris yet. What'll I do, call the whole thing off? Oh, say, I've got a clean, cocky shirt. Almost no wrinkles in it. Oh, this one'll do. Or will it? Why is it so quiet in the morning? You know, when they forget to bomb us for an hour, my nerves go to pieces. Get out that shirt, Betty. I can just see the papers tomorrow. The bride wore a white satin gown trimmed with hand grenades. Admiral Tojo promised to come and pour the lead, but was unavoidably detained. Let's hope. Here, put this on, D'arthia. Oh, thanks, Betty. Do I look very awful? Don't say in these cocky overalls. The wonder is he'll be able to tell you from the rest of the army. The chavon's waiting right outside, D'arthia. I'll be right there. Okay. You better hurry, though. There'll probably be planes coming over soon. All right. I'll be out in a minute. Is he going back to the front right away? I guess so. I... Yes. Now, don't cry. For Pete's sake, you'll get him all upset. I won't cry. All right. Open the tent flap, there you are, my lady. Now, out you go. Oh, boots. Back up, Lieutenant. Well, I'll be over in a minute. Oh, my hand boots. Folks, there's a bombardment starting, so we'll have to hurry. Are you both ready? Yes, Father. I'm ready, Father. Good. Emmanuel, will thou take D'arthia here present for thy lawful wife according to the rites of our holy mother of the church? I will. D'arthia, will thou... D'arthia, will thou take Emmanuel here present for thy lawful husband according to the rites of our holy mother of the church? For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do us part. Till death do us part. I now join you in marriage. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. Boots! Boots! Here I am. Take it easy, Mrs. Boots. Hey, catch your breath. I thought you'd go before I could get away. Well, I've only got about one minute. I heard our lines are breaking. They say that... Lady, lady, you don't seem to realize Lieutenant Engel is moving up to the front. Good news from now on. Oh, Boots, be careful, won't you? Don't... don't catch cold. Listen, whatever happens, no matter what you hear about me, only believe one thing. Yes, Boots. I'm coming back to you. Wherever you are in all the world, I'll find you again. That's all you're going to believe. You promise? I promise. Now, tell me to go. All the best, Lieutenant. We're off. Tell me, Dorothea. Say it. Go. Go and beat them. Knock them out of the sky. Push them back into the sea. Goodbye. Goodbye, Boots. Beat them. Beat them. Hey, Dorothea, what are you standing here for? I've been looking all over for you. We've got to pack. Pack? No, I... Come on, will you? We're leaving Batan tonight. They're shipping us across the Bay to Corregidor. Then we've lost Batan. For a while, I guess. I can't leave him here, Sally. How will I find him again with an ocean between us? We've got work, Dorothea. There's no time to talk like this. Time. We must count our lives in seconds, he said. I guess now our time has run out. Attention. All nurses are now to go to the elevator. You'll be taken to the surface of the rock. The boats are already up there, unloading the wounded men from the town. We're under a full-scale air attack right now. When you reach the surface, go about your work. Take cover only if the planes come directly over. Otherwise, do your duty. Dorothea, get behind here. Get your head down. You all right? Yes. Come on, let's get them off that boat. No! That soldier's waving at us down there. Sally, he's waving. No, no, he's much taller than Boots. Easier than that. Nurse, help me with this boy. He'll be all right. It's just the shoulder. There, put him down there. That's better. Better get these arrows out. Right. There we are. Better hurry with these men. Captain, did you know a Lieutenant Engel Artillery? No, no, I never heard the name. All right, easy with it, fellow. Easy, boy. We worked all night taking them off the boat, and always I looked toward the Batan shore where so many men were waiting to cross the bay for Corregidor. And suddenly from out of the jungle offshore, a mass of men came running, our men, and they dived into the bay and swam. I tried, I, I tried to make out the faces in the water and on the beach. And we kept working as some faces disappeared in the waters of the bay, and others fell on the beach and did not move anymore. And then for a while it was quiet. The boat tied to the rock was empty, and the beach was still with no one moving there anymore. Night fell quickly as it does there, and I stood waiting on that rock watching the hills beyond the Batan shore. And whenever the branches of a tree swayed, my heart leaped. The time that always moved so fast for us on these islands moved now faster still, and a motorboat came. And I remember climbing down into it with some others. I remember sailing southward through the mouth of the bay. I remember the hills falling away into the sea, and Batan lost on the horizon. And then I was flying upward in a plane toward home. I know, I know what his chances were, but wherever I am in all the world, I will return one day to Corregidor and find him there. I will. I promised, and I will. Thank you, Madeleine Carroll. Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Carroll has a special message later in the program, which all of you will want to hear. Meanwhile, we have a story to tell, a story of chemistry in the war. The propeller shaft of an ocean-going vessel is packed with a square braided cord, and this braided packing, the highest grade, has only been made of long, fibrid flax. But most of America's flax for this purpose has been imported from other countries, and today in wartime, when we need more of it than ever before, we can't get the necessary long-line flax. So it's important news that DuPont rayon technicians can now supply American industry with a rayon for packing that is equivalent or better than flax. The new DuPont rayon is called rayon tow. It got its name from the fact that after being extruded through the spread, it is towed away from the spinneret in untwisted endless lengths by deaf mechanical fingers. And this is one of the reasons why this man-made material has made flax yield its place for packing. Where originally the fibers of wool or flax or hemp are all tangled, the thousands of fibers of DuPont chemical tow are in line, parallel. Here's how rayon tow replaces flax. A few months ago, manufacturers supplying wartime industry became alarmed over the shortage of flax for pump hang. Industry must have pumps and accumulators and shafts traveling through fluids, water, brine, cold oil, and so on. Pumps must have packing. Where was the packing to come from with no high-grade long-line flax available? The DuPont rayon technicians turned their attention to the problem. Quality flax had long fibers, and a DuPont rayon tow called type 126 had long fibers. In fact, they could be made a mile long if needed. Experiment packings were made up. Manufacturers under wartime pressure gladly volunteered to test them. In six months, a number of tests were made that would normally have taken years. One old line manufacturer of packings tells us, quote, we have even gone so far as to have rayon tow packing tried on low-pressure steam and in circulating pumps. It is our contention and experience that rayon made up properly shows nowhere of equipment and stands up in service the equal or better of flax packing. And when we say flax, we mean long line, end of quote. Other tests show that in an accumulator stamping out metal parts, rayon packing under 35 pounds pressure lasted two months, where the very best flax lasted two weeks. In a steel mill, rayon tow has reduced packing consumption 20%. So important is this packing to America's wartime effort that we take this means of suggesting that any manufacturer of packing, any engineer or user of packing in our cavalcade audience who may be facing a serious shortage, write it once to the DuPont Rayon Division, Wilmington, Delaware. Here is a success story typical of industrial chemistry, a natural material replaced by a man-made product available in almost unlimited quantity and better than the original material it displaces so that after the war, rayon packing will be generally accepted throughout industry as one of DuPont's better things for better living through chemistry. Scores of the interesting and exciting contributions of chemical science to the war effort are described in a special issue of the DuPont magazine just being sent to customers and friends of the DuPont Company. To our cavalcade listeners who would like an exciting behind the scenes glimpse of chemistry at war, the DuPont Company will be happy to send a copy of this DuPont magazine free of charge. Just write to radio section, DuPont Company, Wilmington, Delaware. And now the star of our play, Miss Madeline Carroll. Thank you. A play is usually finished with its last line, but not our play of tonight. The story of American nurses will go on through this night and all the days of war that await us. The immediate need for trained and experienced nurses who will serve with either the Army or Navy is acute. If you are a graduate registered nurse, single and under 40, won't you enroll for service with the armed forces and inscribe your name on this roll of honor? Your Red Cross chapter can give you details. In the name of those heroines of Corregidor, offer your services now. Thank you. Next week, ladies and gentlemen, Orson Welles returns in a special event on cavalcade. He appears in a new kind of program celebrating the birthday of the new world, a program inspired by Samuel Elliott Morrison's current bestseller, Admiral of the Ocean Sea. Next week, Orson Welles and Admiral of the Ocean Sea. On tonight's program, the part of Lieutenant Emmanuel Engel was played by Kenneth Delmar. The orchestra and musical score were under the supervision of Don Voorhees. This is Clayton Collier sending best wishes from DuPont. This program is coming to you from New York. This is the National Broadcasting Company.
