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  #11  
Old 1st April 2019, 21:05
Frank Olynyk Frank Olynyk is offline
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Re: Alice Prescini - C-47 - 41-18603 - DNB 2 Feb 1945

My copy of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency death list (probably ten years old, from DPMO) shows her name as Alice E Pescini. Googling that name didn't seem to help.

I would doubt that she was a nurse. The Army probably would not want civilians around the wounded; a civilian would not be operating under the same oath as an Army nurse. I suspect she might have been a canteen worker, or possibly a Red Cross intermediary with either the International Red Cross in Switzerland or the Red Cross back in the USA.

Enjoy!

Frank.
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  #12  
Old 1st April 2019, 22:48
RSwank RSwank is offline
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Re: Alice Prescini - C-47 - 41-18603 - DNB 2 Feb 1945

Ancestry.com shows one person in the " US Rosters of World War II Dead" named Alice E Pescini. They interpret the various number codes to mean a Civilian Male?? and buried at a cemetery in Italy. As Frank points out below there may be problems with some of the codes.

Also Ancestry.com only yields this one entry with that name. There are no U.S. census records found for that name for example.

Last edited by RSwank; 2nd April 2019 at 19:50.
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  #13  
Old 1st April 2019, 23:57
Frank Olynyk Frank Olynyk is offline
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Re: Alice Prescini - C-47 - 41-18603 - DNB 2 Feb 1945

My copy of the WW2 Death File does not have a field for Sex Code; it has fields for Race Code and Religion Code. For whatever strange, if not stupid reasons, the Race Code allows an entry of FEMALE, and there is exactly one entry in the 318477 records noted as FEMALE. So I am not surprised to see Alice E Pescini flagged as Male. Bad database design.

Enjoy!

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  #14  
Old 2nd April 2019, 00:09
edwest2 edwest2 is online now
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Re: Alice Prescini - C-47 - 41-18603 - DNB 2 Feb 1945

It is obvious to me that this person was an American Red Cross volunteer who was sent to where she was needed.


"The following ARC workers joined the 6th General Hospital for the larger part of its overseas assignment. They included; Josephine Barbour, Evelyn Maley, Karolyn Krakowski, Doris Deck, Carolyn Evans, Kay Johnson. 3 new Red Cross workers joined the command in 1945; Joan Newkirk, Eileen Fenton, and Helen Trolan. By mid-August, there were no ARC members assigned to the Hospital (all transferred, or returned to the US)."
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  #15  
Old 2nd April 2019, 09:03
Leendert Leendert is offline
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Re: Alice Prescini - C-47 - 41-18603 - DNB 2 Feb 1945

Thanks all. The name Alice Pescini is more likely indeed (also in Italy today, when you google it...).
On accident-report.com her name is given as such as well, I noticed.

Unfortunately no other details so far.

Regards,

Leendert
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  #16  
Old 2nd April 2019, 10:47
Laurent Rizzotti Laurent Rizzotti is offline
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Re: Alice Prescini - C-47 - 41-18603 - DNB 2 Feb 1945

Nothing on this particular woman, but I would like to react on Frank's comment:
"I would doubt that she was a nurse. The Army probably would not want civilians around the wounded; a civilian would not be operating under the same oath as an Army nurse. I suspect she might have been a canteen worker, or possibly a Red Cross intermediary with either the International Red Cross in Switzerland or the Red Cross back in the USA."

American Red Cross personnel certainly included nurses and ambulance drivers. They "served" as voluntary medical personel on most WWII fronts, and assisted other Allied armies (like the French army in 1940 or the British army in North Africa in 1941-1942). How they could cooperate with the US military medical units is not known to me, but they certainly work in French military war hospitals in 1940 as extra personnel. And I also know that French civilian nurses (and other help personnel) work in US military hospitals in France in 1944-45. So it seems to me that it was necessary to enlist and take an armed force' oath to work with US wounded in WWII. If it was supposed to be, it was not well enforced at least in some French hospitals.
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  #17  
Old 2nd April 2019, 10:53
Frank Olynyk Frank Olynyk is offline
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Re: Alice Prescini - C-47 - 41-18603 - DNB 2 Feb 1945

A check of my DPMO loss file shows that all 23 deceased were initially buried in FOLLONICA CEMETERY. Post-war, all but one are now buried in a National Cemetery (in the US or Florence, Italy), or in a private cemetery in the US. With one exception. Alice Pescini. She is noted as buried in Italy (as noted earlier), according to instructions from next of kin. This suggests to me that she was in fact an Italian citizen, which would explain why she cannot be found in the US census records. Anyone care to search the Italian census records, if they are online?

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  #18  
Old 2nd April 2019, 12:34
Stig Jarlevik Stig Jarlevik is offline
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Re: Alice Prescini - C-47 - 41-18603 - DNB 2 Feb 1945

All

I have a suspicion this woman might have been an interpreter.
Frank seems to nail her as an Italian citizen and it is obvious she worked for the Allies in some kind of capacity.
Her first name is not Italian while her family name is, so she may have come from a bi-lingual family.

Cheers
Stig
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  #19  
Old 2nd April 2019, 18:08
edwest2 edwest2 is online now
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Re: Alice Prescini - C-47 - 41-18603 - DNB 2 Feb 1945

The following is all new territory for me. Note the section titled Operations - Italy:


https://www.med-dept.com/unit-histor...eral-hospital/
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  #20  
Old 2nd April 2019, 19:47
Leendert Leendert is offline
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Re: Alice Prescini - C-47 - 41-18603 - DNB 2 Feb 1945

After digesting all the info, I concur with Stig's suspicions.


As it happens, when you now google the name 'Alice Pescini', they mostly point to women in Italy, so an 'Italian' connection with the Alice of 1945 is possible.


Regards,


Leendert
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