![]() The combination of fast transport and advances in medical care resulted in a survival rate of 98 percent for those reaching a hospital in an hour or less. Facilities for medical treatment admitted 133, 447 wounded personnel between January 1965 and December 1970, and 97,659 of them were hospitalized. The widespread use of UH-1 Huey medevac helicopters enabled more of the severely wounded men to get to a hospital fast, sometimes within half an hour, substantially increasing the workload and pressure on nurses stationed there. Nurses in Vietnam often faced more intense demands for patient care than had been the case in previous wars. Despite all the difficulties, nurse veterans say a high level of camaraderie and the appreciation of their patients kept morale high. Combat nurses were scheduled for a 72-hour week-12 hours a day, six days a week-but after a major firefight with heavy casualties, a nurse’s shift might be 24 hours or longer. Red Cross bags were filled with stones and used as traction weights. Tables were constructed with discarded lumber and assorted scrap. They responded with resourcefulness and creativity. Nurses also had to deal with the loss of electricity, a lack of operating tables and shortages of supplies and equipment. Guards were on patrol 24/7, and barbed wire encircled the compounds. Some hospitals suffered significant damage from shelling. Medical facilities were frequently near supply depots and airfields-targets for enemy fire, which could come from any direction at any time. Greenway Rasmussen Collection, Military Women’s Memorial) Easy Targets Nurses in Vietnam often faced not only intense demands for patient care but also the threat of attacks on close-by military facilities and even the hospitals themselves. ![]() ![]() Army nurses at the 93rd Evacuation Hospital in Long Binh, near Saigon, in 1968, work to stabilize a patient. There was a range of tour lengths for nurses, although Army nurses, like other soldiers, served one-year tours. They served in both active duty and reserve units. About 65 percent had less than two years of experience, and 79 percent were women. “For grunts, the sound was a benevolent god with rotor blades for nurses, an adrenaline-pumping bird that brought us merciless, soul-harrowing work.”įor nurses in Vietnam that work occurred in Army field evacuation, surgical and MUST (Medical Unit, Self-contained Transportable) hospitals, on Navy hospital ships and aboard Air Force helicopters and planes. “In Pleiku, the sound was faint at first, then gradually grew louder a medevac chopper somewhere in the night sky,” writes Diane Carlson Evans, a former Army Nurse Corps captain and the founder of the Vietnam Women’s Memorial, in her book Healing Wounds. Nurses in Vietnam: Putting Themselves in Danger to Keep Men Alive Close
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