The American Journey © 2007

Chapter 27: The Cold War Era

Web Lesson Plans

Introduction
In this chapter students read about the Cold War—an era when the United States and Soviet Union pushed each other to the very brink of war. While the U.S. and Soviet Union never engaged each other directly in armed conflict, fighting did break out in several locations around the world. One of those was the Korean Peninsula. In this activity students will take a closer look at the important role women played in the war effort.

Lesson Description
In this lesson students will visit the Korean War 50th Anniversary Web site. They will read about the work done by women in the military during the Korean War. After answering several questions they will write several journal entries as if they had served in the war.

1. The learner will be able to describe the work done by women in the military during the Korean War.
   
2. The learner will be able to integrate information from the Web site into original journal entries.

1. 22,000
2. Women served as nurses, stenographers, interpreters, draftsmen, censors, and parachute riggers and also worked in communications, intelligence, supply and food service, and weather observation.
3. Outside their regular work assignments, women donated blood and "adopted" fighting units by supplying them with stationery, food, and books and knitting socks and sweaters for the soldiers.
4. MASH stands for Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. Nurses took over the operation of an improvised civilian hospital in Inchon, living and working in the same primitive conditions as the GIs for whom they cared. They wore fatigues, steel helmets, and combat boots rather than their traditional uniforms. The nurses used their helmets as wash basins and carried and ate out of their aluminum mess kits. Like combat soldiers at the front, they lived in tents or shattered buildings and slept in sleeping bags.
5. Students' journals will vary.