Although the United States tried not to send women into war, there were almost

11,000 women involved in the Vietnam war. About ninety percent of those women were

nurses. The nurses were relatively young ranging from twenty to forty years of age

(“Women”) with the average age being 23.6 years old (Tortorice). Since many of these

nurses were so young, they did not have much training. Sixty-five percent of them had less

than two years in the field (Tortorice). The women with more nursing experience were in a

better position when they came back from the war because they were better equipped to

handle so many casualties mentally and physically. With the new invention of the

helicopter, nurses saw more patients than ever. Many of these men had the worst injuries

any nurse had seen. The less experienced nurses had some trouble adjusting since they had

only worked in hospitals with doctors to give the orders, and now they were making their

own snap decisions for these men (“The Vietnam Center”). These women were volunteers

who wanted “to serve their country, to help the service men who were wounded, to receive

training and an education, to further their military careers, to prove themselves or just to

have an adventure” (“The Vietnam Center”). Eddie Meeks, a nurse working in the army

recalls, “I have two younger brothers. One was in the Marine Corps and one was draftable

age. I figured someone who wanted to be over there should take care of them, so I

volunteered to be in the Army Nurse Corps, as did all the nurses in Vietnam” (​Military

Nurses​). Nurses even had to be on guard for attacks and had to be ready and prepared to

protect themselves and their patients (​Military Nurses​).

Nurses worked for twelve hours at a time at least six days in a week. When a big

battle came about, nurses often worked 36-hour shifts to care for the wounded (“The
Vietnam Center”). A nurse recalls, “If you were asked to work 7 days a week, you didn’t

question your commanders. You just responded to the needs of your team” (Ratner).

During their leisure time, many nurses taught basic hygiene, first aid, and English in

surrounding communities such as orphanages and hospitals. Nurses had to endure stress,

guilt, anger, and many more emotions while serving as well as saving lives. Some nurses

said that this was a very rewarding experience (“The Vietnam Center”). Ninety-seven

percent of soldiers who made it to the hospital during the Vietnam war (​Military Nurses)​ . A

nurse describes caring for the soldiers: “We were nursing their wounds and their spirits”

(Ratner). Another nurse comments about her time in Vietnam: “It provided me the

opportunity to travel around the world, learn about different cultures, perform various

nursing procedures, make life-long friends, and live through a combat experience. It’s

where my love of nursing began” (Ratner). The nurses learned many new skills in Vietnam.

If they were new to nursing, they learned many new procedures, but even the experienced

nurses learned new things. There were limited resources in Vietnam, so nurses had to

improvise with equipment (La Salle).