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br Conclusion br Acknowledgements br Introduction About wome
Conclusion
Acknowledgements
Introduction
About 265,000 women served in the U.S. military during the Vietnam era, with as many as 11,000 deployed to the Vietnam theater of operations (precise figures are not available) (Thomas, Kang, and Dalager, 1991; http://www.vietnamwomensmemorial.org/vwmf.php). During the Vietnam era, military women were not formally assigned combat roles. Nonetheless, they eph receptor were deployed to combat zones where they experienced warzone stressors and hostile fire. Most military women in Vietnam served as nurses in the Army, Navy or Air Force Nurse Corps (Neel, 1973). About 60% arrived with less than six months active military duty service, often without any civilian or military job experience, and generally with little formal training for combat nursing. They handled many casualties, and some were themselves wounded or injured. The nurses functioned in life-and-death situations, were assigned profound medical responsibilities generally exceeding the authority they would have been afforded in civilian settings, and often performed duties that were beyond the scope of their professional training. Tours of duty for women in the Army Nurse Corps were generally one year, with assignments at surgical or field hospitals and convalescent centers. Navy Nurse Corps Vietnam duty was generally for 90 days on one of the two hospital ships in Vietnam waters. Some Air Force nurses were stationed in Vietnam at the 12th USAF Hospital in Cam Ranh Bay, generally for a one-year tour of duty. Other Air Force nurses were not stationed in Vietnam, but could land in Vietnam multiple times in a single day to pick up wounded soldiers and accompany them to hospitals in Japan or elsewhere.
The Departments of Defense and State also deployed civilian women to Vietnam, as did service organizations such as the American Red Cross (ARC), which deployed women to run its Supplemental Recreational Activities (SRAO) program in the warzone. Often called “donut dollies,” a sobriquet they acquired during World War II, women in the Red Cross worked in small teams traveling around the country in “clubmobile” units to boost the morale of the troops (Stur, 1965, citing “Department of Defense Request for SRAO in Vietnam,” June 4, 1965. NARA RG 200 [Records of the American National Red Cross, Box 75]). ARC women make up the largest population of the civilians in this study.
It is useful for the modern reader to recall some social context of the women deployed to Vietnam. Women deployed to Vietnam were expected to reflect the female gender as it was then conceptualized. Feminine appearance was essential. Nurses arriving in Vietnam deplaned into the brutal heat and dirt of Vietnam wearing dress uniforms with nylon hose and dress shoes. The Red Cross “donut dollies” were expected to symbolize purity and innocence and to think of the male troops as brothers. They wore blue seersucker shirtwaist dresses or culottes throughout the War, even while flying in helicopters to set up recreational activities at fire support bases deep in the jungle, often under extremely dangerous circumstances (Steinman, 2000; p. 213). (See Fig. 1).
Most of the sparse literature on women in Vietnam focuses on military nurses. Virtually no research exists on the health and well-being of civilian women deployed to Vietnam. Stanton and colleagues (1996) interviewed 22 female nurses from various war eras and identified common themes, including the physical and professional hardships of living (e.g., extreme temperatures) and working (e.g., long hours, lack of necessary medical supplies) conditions. Warzone nursing was described by all as different from stateside nursing. It included managing unfamiliar tropical diseases and dangers from the threat of chemical warfare to being wounded by enemy fire (Stanton, Dittmar, Jezewski and Dickerson, 1996). Martin (1967) characterized the working environment as dirty and dangerous. Kirk’s (1965) interviews with Army and Navy nurses stationed in Saigon, which was not a direct combat area, revealed other hardships like long duty hours, few opportunities for relaxation, intense heat, and poor facilities. Norman (1990) interviewed 50 military and veteran nurses who served in Vietnam. They described difficult living and working conditions, long hours, a seemingly endless stream of casualties, and feelings of loss and grief. However, the interviewees also described their Vietnam service as both professionally and personally rewarding.