Published: March 08, 2009 12:06 am      

Army nurse survived two wartime ship sinkings

A Ferndale nurse who survived two ship sinkings during World War II and received the Bronze Star for meritorious service has died.

Ruth Hindman Balch, 92, who spent most of her adult life in Tennessee, died Feb. 25 at a nursing home in Reston, Va.

Mrs. Balch gained renown, though, in Johnstown newspapers for her exploits during the war.

About a dozen stories carried her name within two years.

They included headlines from September of 1943 – “Survives sinking at Salerno’’ – and January 1944, “Ferndale nurse experiences second hospital ship sinking,’’ to August 1945, “Capt. Hindman of Army Nurse Corps is bride.’’

“I don’t know how she did it and kept on going,’’ said her daughter, Laura Scherzer of Gaithersburg, Md. “She must have had nerves of steel.’’

Perhaps to get away from home as one of 10 children, Ruth Hindman attended nursing school at the University of Pennsylvania and joined the Army Nurse Corps in 1940.

“She volunteered thinking she’d only be in for a year,’’ said Mrs. Scherzer. But she was in for the duration following the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Famed Life magazine photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White spent time with Mrs. Balch and her fellow nurses, chronicling their actions in her book “Purple Heart Valley.’’

Mrs. Balch witnessed the Allied bombing at Monte Casino and the invasions of Anzio, Naples and Salerno, Italy.

In an essay on her World War II experiences, she wrote, “When one works in a surgery tent, one doesn’t have a chance to jump in a foxhole or hit the ground, etc., when you are being shelled. A person in the hospital would come around and put your helmet on your head. That was IT.’’

Her second ship sinking at the hands of the Axis powers came off the coast of Nettuno, Italy. The German bombers struck the British vessel the

St. David shortly after dark.

“She said that, when she was in the water the second time, she had this amazing feeling of calm, of tremendous peace,” Mrs. Scherzer said. “She looked up and felt God’s presence over the water.’’

She was rescued after several hours of hanging on to a log in the cold, rough seas.

Even so, the screams of her fellow servicemen and women haunted her the rest of her life.

Mrs. Balch received the Bronze Star for service that included training shock teams and surgical technicians in the field. She also was awarded the Purple Heart for wounds received in action.

Mrs. Balch enjoyed returning to the Johnstown area to visit extended family in Windber, Indiana and Beaverdale, where she was born.

“She always loved to go back and visit,’’ her daughter said.

“She had really fond memories of growing up there.’’

Mrs. Balch visited as recently as 2002, making a trip to the Flight 93 Temporary Memorial in Shanksville.

Among Mrs. Balch’s survivors are a brother of Johnstown, Robert Hindman, and two daughters. Her late husband Lee was an electrical engineer who was ordained as an Episcopal priest in 1954.