The Role of Nurses in the Vietnam War Essay Sample

The Vietnam War has been known as the longest and most controversial war, lasting from November 1, 1955 through April 30, 1975. The United States became involved in the Vietnam war due to their concerns about the spread of communism throughout Asia. Vietnam was divided in two, north under the rule of Ho Chi Minh, a communist ruler, and the south under Ngo Dinh Diem, a democratic ruler.  If I were alive during the heat of the war, I believe I would have joined the war as a nurse in order to make a difference, have a job that kept me on my feet, and to help people.

To begin, as a young woman in the United States having to see and hear about all the horrid things happening overseas, I would feel the need to want to at least make the slightest difference in the war. Up to this point in history, women had only been able to enlist in the military for about 7 years, so the rush of being able to volunteer, to have that choice, would be exhilarating.  Having the ability to go overseas and be on the battlefield helping those in need would make a difference. This was the kind of war that needed all hands on deck. Women like Joan A. Furey just decided on an impulse to sign up and be a part of the  U.S Army Nurse Corps. Furey states, “While I was waiting for my license to come through to see if I passed... I went to the recruiters office.. and I said ‘I'm a nurse and I want to go to Vietnam’”, which proves that it was really on an impulse to sign up and go to help in the war. She felt like she would be able to make a difference.

Being a nurse in the Vietnam War, would mean that adrenaline would be pumping through my body at all times. The Vietnam War was such a traumatizing war for all parties involved. For example, soldiers such as W.D Ehrhart described his experience overseas and included such things as saying that there were 75 mining and sniping incidents a month and more than half of them resulting in casualties. Further, this would mean that medical centers would be flooded with injuries and “expected patients”, someone who was most likely to die and could only be given comfort. For example, Furey explains an experience she had with a patient who had come in with extensive injuries, who was expected to die, and she just wanted to help him live, however, as she helped him rebandage his wounds, “the entire back of his head was in this dressing” and with that, a fellow nurse came and pulled her away from him since he was dying and she just had to move on and help other patients.

Thousands of people were dying on both sides, and if I could help in keeping just one person alive or comfortable, I would do my best to do so.  Nurses had the huge responsibility of keeping soldiers alive, civilians who got caught in the crossfire, “having them out within 3 days”, and keeping “expected patients” as comfortable as can be (Furey). This alone, would be a major reason to join the war. These soldiers were putting their lives at risk each and every day for a war  that some soldiers did not  have a clear understanding of. In addition to soldiers putting their lives at risk, civilians such as children, babies, and pregnant women, who were caught in the middle of it, would also need medical attention. For example, Furey stated that often times unexploded bombs would just be “lying around in open areas where kids would pay” which ultimately led to the inevitable (Furey). A child sadly picked one up “and by the time [they] got to him, [they] had a ten year old with 99% third-degree burns on his body” (Furey).

The truth of the war was that there were innocent people who got thrown in the middle of it, it was not only soldiers who were getting killed, but people who did not ask for a war to happen in their homeland.

In conclusion, to make a difference, have an adrenaline rush, and to simply help people survive another day would be more than enough for me to join the war. Although the war was lengthy and uncalled for, it would be a great honor to have the ability to help.