Memories of Navy Nursing: The Vietnam Era

1 navy nurses had a significant role in theVietnam Combat Zone from 1963 to 1971and world wide throughout the entire felt very personally the startling impact ofduty in country . Their Memories are stillvivid and their words tell the story. The stressof being a nurse, and particularly a woman, inthe combat arena was depicted well by RADMShea, who was an operating room supervisoraboard the REPOSE:The woman becomes a substitute mother, wife, lover,sister the shoulder to cry on. You listen to the corpsmen, physician, ship s company officers, .Even the chaplain seeks out the nurse withhis problems. It was okay to discuss problems with thenurse -the woman. The men seemed to be able to sharesome aspects of their lives with women they could notshare with men. But the nurse - the woman - would notshare with anyone, not with other nurses, staff, or linepersonnel.

2 We might have seen ourselves as beingjudged weak, not being able to take it, and decided notto share our own problems with others to tough it out. ( navy Medicine, 1983).Station Hospital, Naval Support Activity,Saigon, VietnamThe navy took over medical support for in-country military and civilian personnel fromthe American Embassy in 1963. The first twoNavy Nurse Corps officers reported inFebruary. The hospital compound, calledDuong Duong, consisted of a five-story inpatient building, an emergency and operatingfacility, outbuildings and a parking lot. FourNavy nurses attached to the hospital wereawarded the Purple Heart for injuries receivedduring the Viet Cong terrorist bombing of theBrink Bachelor Officers Quarters on ChristmasEve 1964. They were the first women membersof the Armed Forces to receive the awardin the Vietnam conflict. The Naval Station wastransferred to the Army in March 1966.

3 Duringits operation by the navy , more than 6,000patients were hospitalized and more than 130,000 outpatients treated (full outpatient records were not recorded until November1964).On 10 October, we received our first wounded in action (WIA). From the day he firstarrived at our door, the casualties never ceased - andthey began to increase proportionately to the escala-tion of the war effort. My sense of our work, day to day,was that our success in saving lives, was major reasons for this success were the rapidtransport by helicopter of the injured and the fact thatwe at the new Naval Station Hospital, Saigon,were there to receive had dealt with just about every aspect of trauma. Duong Duong (Station Hospital) however,was unique. It challenged and broadened my my Korean experiences distanced me from thebattlefield, Saigon would draw me nearer.

4 NavalStation Hospital, Saigon, with all of its quirks andannoyances, was emerging as the peak of my his wallet, I discovered a photo of a young womanstanding with two tiny toddlers. The little girls were aspretty as their reached down and held hahand. It was cooling, his fingers stiffening. I looked atthat young, handsome face and tears filled my eyes. Iam certain that procedure was followed and the photoand other effects were turned , however, have nomemory of it. And, strangely, I didn t share the experience with others. Since then I have wonderedwhat triggered my unusual reaction. It was our habitto return to quarters, unwind, and discuss the injuriesand patients. Perhaps, after discovering the photo, Iwanted somehow to protect this young man s privacy.(Bobbi Hovis - 1963-1964, Excerpted from Station Hospital Saigon published by NavalInstitute Press 1991)Christmas Eve is always a very special time, but onethat will remain forever in my mind 1964.

5 A terroristbomb exploded in our BOQ, the Brink Hotel in people were injured, including myself and threeother navy Nurses. Two men in the rooms next to ourswere killed, and were not found for several hours. When things began to settle down at the hospital, they Memories of navy nursing : The Vietnam EraCompiled by RADM Maryanne Gallagher Ibach, USNR1brought one of the men in, that they had just found inthe debt*. He died on the table next to me, while my legwas being sutured. Shortly after, I went with anothernurse back to the BOQ to retrieve some personal articles for our group. The fire was out, and our quarters were destroyed, the area in darkness. When I made it back to my room I could hear Christmas carols. Christmas was a time for joy and Peace onEarth, yet we were surrounded by sadness, death and destruction. There is not a Christmas that goes by,that I don t remember my year in Saigon.

6 (Darby Reynolds, Station Hospital Saigon, February1964-February 1965)Military Provincial Health AssistanceProgram Rach Gia, Vietnam , 1965-1968 Rach Gia was the capital city of Kien GiangProvince in the southernmost port of theMekong Delta. During 1963-1964, the hadadded modern surgical suites, recovery rooms,and surgical wards onto existing ProvincialHospitals. The task was to train Vietnamesemedical personnel. The first team with twoNavy nurses assigned reported in February1965 to begin training. Theirs was a uniqueexperience far different from their colleagueson ships and at hospitals, yet none the less too horrible to IV s - incisions - incoming -Emergencies by the and triage all mixed fromhome - why doesn t the mail come?Another Air Evac - God can we make it?Morning arrives - the plane is here - I m gone but will never mission was gigantic to teach ourselves out ofa job.

7 We had to learn basic language and adapt tolocal customs. Progress was slow but steady and whenwe were relieved after one year, we proudly left fourfunctioning OR technicians, two emergency roomworkers, functioning X-ray department, a blood bankprogram, a competent lab technician, and more importantly - a very capable surgeon. (BernadetteMcKay, Rach Gia, February 1965-March 1966)Rach Gia Vietnam looked very peaceful from the closer the plane came to landing the chance ofbeing hit by small arms fire increased greatly. The warin thy remote southwestern province of Kien Giang wasa guerrilla war. The navy Surgical Team stationed atthe antiquated hospital in Rach Gia travelled by airbecause the Viet Cong mined the roads at night. Whenthe local, decrepit buses carrying many women, children and old men went out in the early morninghours the explosions resulted in many casualties.

8 TheNavy Surgical Team in Rach Gia provided the best surgical care remember Good Friday in 1967. Early in the morn-ing a local bus hit a land mine and our small EmergencyRoom and Operating Room we reflooded with had no whole blood. Many amputations were , women and children who started out in the "peace" and coolness of the early morning were now,in an instant, without arms or legs or eyes children werenow orphans and parents were now childless. (Winifred Copeland, Rach Gia, 1967)A beautiful people in an exotic land, exquisite flowers amid sea and sand, Death and destructionbrought to them by an awful war; which brought meand other strangers to their door. There I learned muchabout unique diseases; awesome injuries, rare wounds,tropic breezes, There I saw old, wise looks in much tooyoung faces; and about myself, I learned to open morespaces.

9 (Kay Wilhelmy Bauer, Rach Gia, 1966-1967)USS REPOSE (AH-16)Called the Angel of the Orient the REPOSEwas recommissioned in October 1965 andsailed in December with fourteen navy nurseson board and arrived on station off the coast ofthe Hue - Phu-Bai area in January 1966. By lateMarch the full complement of 29 nurses was onboard. During intense fighting as many as 200admissions in a 24 hour period were broughtfrom the battlefield by helicopter. In May 1970 REPOSE departed the South China Sea and wasdecommissioned at Long Beach, California,serving in reserve commission as a shore remember leaning on the rail outside of ICUwatching another beautiful sunset over the SouthChina Sea. It was early September 1968 - a few daysbefore I was to go home. The beauty of the scene beforeme and the sound of distant gunfire was an unforget-table dichotomy - tranquility and hostility in the samepicture.

10 It was much like the year I spent there, I thought - at peace with myself for the job I was doing,but angered by the seemingly endless conflict. Tet inFebruary was exhausting - so many wounded casual-ties. The decks were lined with stretchers headed forthe operating room. Teamwork and concern for the fellow man kept the adrenaline running. We helped alot of them -but many saw their last sunset no matterwhat we did. As I walked back into ICU that evening,I wondered how many more would die before I all, in our 18-bed unit we lost one a day inAugust. How many more codes would we call?(Barbara Coffin Rodgers, USS REPOSE, September1967 September 1968)Amid the anguish, suffering, and tragedy of receiving casualties aboard REPOSE, a bonding developed among all crew members, unlike any I hadever experienced before or since Vietnam .