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A listener note, Against the Odds uses dramatizations that are based on true events.

Some elements, including dialogue, may be invented, but everything is based on research.

U.S. Navy nurse Mary Rose Harrington shovels a huge forkful of salted beef into her mouth.

It's noon on December 10, 1941. She's been working nonstop for two days, and she's ravenous.

She's sitting in the common room of her dormitory on the Cavite naval base in the Philippines,

outside Manila. Her squad of 11 other nurses is eating around the table with her.

Usually lunchtime is lively here, full of chit-chat,

but today, there's not much light talk. Three days ago, Japanese warplanes attacked the Pearl Harbor Naval Base in Hawaii, killing and wounding thousands of sailors. This act of war stunned Harrington and her fellow nurses. Since then,

they've been working frantically to transfer patients from the base's hospital, just in case the

Japanese bomb cavite next. Any talk at lunch today focuses on the coming war. Harrington has strong

opinions.

Japan caught us off guard with that sneak attack, but we'll pummel them in a fair fight.

The other nurses not in agreement.

Suddenly, an air raid siren sounds.

The whole table groans.

This is the third siren already today, and none of amounted to anything.

But rules are rules. They have to head down to the dirty crawl space beneath their building and shelter

there. Harrington refuses to miss a meal for another false alarm. She stands up, plate in hand.

The other women follow her lead. Within a minute, they're in the crawl space, an unlit cavity with a dirt floor. It's full of spider webs and

lizards darting about. The ceiling is so low they can barely move around. The nurses sit cross-legged on the dirt and

...