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“Nursing in 'Nam”
From Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Brent Pyfrom/All Hands Magazine
The Vietnam War is a time not forgotten in history. This war had many events and left an asterisk in the record books on the outcome. There is so much to say about the war and so many heroes to bring up. There’s a group of Americans to speak on who don’t get enough credit. One group who happen to have a whole month of their history because they deserve it, the one group to speak on are women: and not just any women—The Navy Nurse.
The Navy Nurse Corps was composed of men and women but for the sake of women’s history, this article will talk about the courageous women.
According to www.vietnamwar50th.com, in 1963, the first Navy Nurse Corps officers arrived in South Vietnam to aid in the creation of the U.S. Naval Station Hospital, Saigon. Shortly after, more arrived and the nurses served in three main places during the war, U.S. Navy hospital in Saigon, aboard the hospital ships USS Repose (AH-16) and USS Sanctuary (AH-17) offshore. In 1966, Navy Nurse Corps officers helped establish the Navy Support Activity (Naval Station Hospital) in Da Nang. The hospital became one of the busiest combat casualty treatment facilities in the theater.
Four Navy nurses were awarded the Purple Heart Medal due to their actions during the conflict. The nurses were injured during a Viet Cong bombing on Christmas Eve. They refused medical treatment so they could continue to treat others who may have been more injured. The names of the nurses are Lieutenant Barbara Wooster, Ruth A. Mason, Grade D. Reynolds, and Frances L. Crumpton. The brave nurses were the first female members of the U.S. Armed Forces to receive the award for the Vietnam War.
During the war, Navy nurses played a vital role in theater and could be found aboard hospital ships, as part of Military Provincial Health Assistance Program (MILPHAP) teams as well as at Naval Support Activity (NSA) Station Hospital Da Nang.
Located 30 miles from the Vietnam Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating Northern and Southern Vietnam, the station hospital was one of the busiest combat medical facilities in theater. Between 1965 and 1970, 95 Navy nurses served at the station hospital, among them Capt. Marie Brouillette. Brouillette was attached to the hospital in 1968 during the Tet Offensive when its patient census peaked. Over the course of the year the hospital staff processed over 8,000 patients through the OR and completed some 12,000 procedures ranging from limb amputations and bowel surgery to craniotomies.
“There was no clock as long as the patient care needs were there. A team would go 24,36, or 48 hours if needed,” Brouillette later recalled in an oral history with the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED). “We used common sense and allowed staff who could go no longer some time to rest. Somehow we managed. No one ever complained.”
According to History.com, nine Navy women served in Vietnam apart from nurses. One of these women was Lieutenant Elizabeth G. Wylie, who worked in the Command Information Center of the Commander of Naval Forces in Saigon; and Commander Elizabeth Barrett, who in November 1972 became the first female naval line officer to hold command in a combat zone.
Also in 1972, Alene B. Duerk became the first woman in the Navy to promote (on June 1, 1972) to rear admiral. Duerk was stationed at the Pentagon and helped recruit nurses. She was later given the title of director of the Navy Nurse Corps. She was a veteran of three wars, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.
During Vietnam, most of the women who served volunteered as nurses. There isn’t much information on the Navy Nurses in Vietnam but today the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps has over 4,000 nurses that spread over numerous health care specialties. So, thank a Navy Nurse because they literally keep the combined heart of the Navy pumping
| Date Taken: | 12.27.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 12.28.2022 11:37 |
| Story ID: | 435974 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 114 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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