Author with area ties writes book about nurses in WWII

An author with Medford ties is releasing a new book about the experience of nurses working on the frontlines of World War II.

Em Klick, writing under the name M.E. Gustafson, currently lives in the Boston area and her book “Saving the Front” follows the lives of two nurses and their experiences during World War II including stories about:

• The terrifying task of disembarking from a military transport ship. Timed in between the giant swells, military personnel carried all their luggage and equipment down a solitary ladder to the barges that will carry them to land

• Rendering medical care by lamplight. With limited medical supplies and medicine, every resource available was used.

• What life was like living under the path of mortar shells, the threat of sniper fire, and air raids.

The main protagonists of the historical fiction are based on the author’s grandmothers Faith (Brahmer) Schmidt and Dorothy Oedbauer Klick.

Schmidt was born in the town of Greenwood and after her education joined the U.S. Army serving as a nurse during WWII. She then returned to Medford and worked as a surgery supervisor nurse for Memorial Health Center for 55 years until retirement in 1972. She was married to Charles “Hummy” Schmidt and was active in the family business “Schmidt The Clothes Man.”

Klick has been interested in writing since she was a student in middle and high school. The idea for this book was sparked from learning about her grandmothers’ life experiences after their passing.

Growing up, she said she knew very little of the details about her grandmothers’ experiences as WWII nurses. It was only after they both passed away that she started to learn more about their lives during the war. The book started out of complete curiosity, an attempt to fill in the blanks. She was curious about what they went through during the war from leaving from Ft. Riley in Kansas, to the trip across the Atlantic ocean. She used the characters to also show what it was like serving at a hospital caring for wounded in England versus close to the front in mainland Europe and North Africa.

Klick’s mother, Cathy Schmidt Klick, grew up in Medford and notes that military stories were always a presence in their home. “She grew up hearing stories about the military because both my parents were in the Army and my husband’s parents were as well,” Cathy said. “My husband and I also had siblings in the military. Mom was an Army nurse, as was my mother- in-law, stationed in England and France. My Dad spent time in France and northern Africa before being wounded. After refusing to return home, he was given the duty of managing a chateau in France used for R& R for officers during the war. My two sisters own a horse ranch in Eau Claire, called Trinity Equestrian Center, that does equine-assisted psychotherapy for veterans with PTSD. So we feel a special connection to those serving in the various branches.”

Klick is donating 25% of the proceeds from the book to charities that support military veterans and their families.

Klick, who is currently in the process of revising and polishing the book in advance of April release date, said it also touches on the difference between the European Theater and the often more brutal Pacific Theater. “As brutal as the Nazies and Italians were, the Japanese were worse,” she said, noting that the Japanese military did not follow the Geneva Convention when it came to hospitals and the injured.

Klick’s publisher currently has a pre-sale campaign going for the book prior to its initial release. Details about the campaign are available through the publisher’s web site at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ saving-the-front-by-m-e-gustafson#/