The United States Navy Memorial Stories of Service Program is honored to announce the May 2020 story of the month has been selected to recognize the service of United States Navy Veteran, Lieutenant Junior Grade Mary Ann Carpenter Schaefer. The United States Navy Memorial Stories of Service Program was privileged to interview Lieutenant Junior Grade Mary Ann Carpenter Schaefer at the USS Okanogan APA 220 reunion in the fall of 2019.

LTJG Carpenter grew up in a small town in Northeastern Pennsylvania and shared, "I was a young RN and it was 1967, I decided it was time I made a little change in my job. My brother was a Hospital Corpsman and I think that may have influenced my decision to join the Navy.” LTJG Carpenter joined the Navy when she was 23 years old. Upon entry, she was assigned to Newport Rhode Island for Officer Candidate School. She recalled, "It was interesting, the Nurses had to go to Newport Rhode Island... we had classes and learned about the military way of doing things...we studied things like the parts of a ship and terminology." After 6 weeks of training, LTJG Schaefer was given orders to report to Naval Air Station Jacksonville.

Upon reporting to her first assignment, LTJG Carpenter recalled, "originally we would spend a week at each department of the hospital and at that time they were transitioning to the new hospital being built." She spoke of Marines in the hospital who had received wounds in Vietnam and remarked, "There were just young men who wanted to just get better and get back to their job in the service." LTJG Carpenter shared impactful memories as a United States Navy Nurse of treating and tending the wounds of Sailors and Marines who returned home from the Vietnam War.

LTJG Carpenter’s next assignment was at Naval Training Center Bainbridge where she continued work as a Nurse. The medical facility at Bainbridge was a dispensary and if greater medical needs developed, LTJG Carpenter would accompany those needing greater medical attention to the United States Naval Hospital at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. While at Naval Training Center Bainbridge, LTJG Carpenter met her husband, Lieutenant Commander Thomas Schaefer who had served on the Okanogan APA-220. LTJG Carpenter served in the United States Navy for 2 years and reflected, “I had very good experiences, I got to meet a lot of people from a lot of different places. I learned how to take care of a lot of different illnesses and injuries that I probably would not have come in contact with. There were many friends and you learn a lot from people from different places. It changed my life.”

The United States Navy Memorial honors United States Navy Veteran, Lieutenant Junior Grade Mary Ann Carpenter Schaefer, featured within this series titled, Stories of Service, Story of the Month. Each month, this series honors a Veteran’s story recorded by the Stories of Service Program at the Navy Memorial. To learn more about this story and to explore the Navy Memorial archive, visit the Navy Memorial Stories of Service site at https://www.navymemorial.org/stories-of-service.