Monday, January 5, 1942 IN THE NEWS: Arabella Fuller, Local Nurse, Cited for Bravery at Pearl Harbor
Miss Arabella Fuller, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C.E. Fuller, living near Pringle, has been cited by the government for bravery under fire during the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7 it has been learned here. Details of Miss Fuller”™s heroism are not fully known but it is understood she risked here life along with soldiers to aid the wounded and dying as shells from Japanese bombers rained all around. Miss Fuller who has received a second lieutenant”™s commission in the Army”™s Nursing service, was awarded a medical corps insignia pin and bar. Miss Fuller sent the pin to her parents at Pringle. She is a graduate of the Sister”™s hospital at Hot Springs, receiving her diploma in 1939. She was a nurse at the state sanatorium for 16 months and resigned from there in Mach 1941, going to Springville and Santa Barbara, California where she nursed in hospitals.
On November 15 she sailed for Honolulu and was at the Leahi home, as a Red Cross Reserve, taking special work. Since the bombing of Pearl Harbor she has been transferred to Tripler General Hospital at Fort Shafter on the island of Oahu where Pearl Harbor is located. Mrs. Fuller said her daughter did not have time to write until four days after the bombing and wrote that she was well and liked her work fine and for her parents not to worry. Imagine my surprise when I went on duty at Tripler Hospital to find one of my patients was Captain Swain, formerly of Custer. I was also surprised to meet Juel P. Heihn, who was an enrollee at Lightning Creek and later enlisted in the Marines. I ran into him before Christmas and we surely had a nice visit. He left soon after going out to sea.” Miss Fuller wanted to be remembered to all of her many friend at Pringle and Custer.