Officer, nurse, woman : the Army Nurse Corps in the Vietnam War / Kara Dixon Vuic

Object Details

Author

Vuic, Kara Dixon 1977-

Subject

United States Army Nurse Corps History

Contents

Introduction: "Lady, you're in the army now" -- "The bright adventure of army nursing" : meeting nursing demands for the Vietnam War -- "An officer and a gentleman" : gender and a changing army -- "A wonderful, horrible experience" : nursing education and practice -- "Helmets and hair curlers" : gender and wartime nursing -- "I'm afraid we're going to have to just change our ways" : wives, mothers, and pregnant nurses in the army -- "You mean we get women over here?" : gender and sexuality in the war zone -- "Not all women wore love beads in the sixties" : postwar depictions of Vietnam War nurses -- Conclusion: Officers, nurses, and women

Summary

Drawing on more than 100 interviews, Vuic allows the nurses to tell their own captivating stories, from their reasons for joining the military to the physical and emotional demands of a horrific war and postwar debates about how to commemorate their service. Vuic also explores the gender issues that arose when a male-dominated army actively recruited and employed the services of 5,000 women nurses in the midst of a growing feminist movement and a changing nursing profession. Women drawn to the army's patriotic promise faced disturbing realities in the virtually all-male hospitals of South Vietnam. Men who joined the nurse corps ran headlong into the army's belief that women should nurse and men should fight.

2010

20th century

Type

Books

Physical description

xii, 271 p., [16] p. of plates : ill ; 24 cm

Place

United States

Vietnam

Smithsonian Libraries

Topic

Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Medical care

Military nursing--History

Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Women

Women and war

Record ID

siris_sil_949003

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0