Healing Wounds

Diane Carlson Evans delivers a powerful memoir that chronicles both her service as a combat nurse in Vietnam and her subsequent decade-long campaign to establish the Vietnam Women's Memorial in Washington, D.C. The book offers readers dual narratives: the harrowing experience of treating wounded soldiers in a war zone and the frustrating bureaucratic battle to ensure female veterans received proper recognition for their sacrifices.

Evans served as an Army nurse in Vietnam during 1968 and 1969, working in field hospitals where she witnessed the brutal realities of combat medicine. Her recounting of this period provides detailed descriptions of the physical and emotional toll that caring for gravely wounded young men took on the nursing staff. The author does not shy away from describing the overwhelming nature of mass casualty situations, the limited resources available to medical personnel, and the profound sense of loss that accompanied the deaths of soldiers despite the nurses' best efforts to save them.

What distinguishes this memoir from other Vietnam War accounts is its focus on the women who served. While much attention has been paid to male veterans, the approximately 265,000 women who served in or near Vietnam during the war years remained largely invisible in public memory and commemoration. Evans herself experienced this erasure upon returning home, finding that her service went unacknowledged and that the contributions of military women were often dismissed or forgotten entirely.

The second major component of the book details Evans's mission to correct this historical oversight. In 1984, she conceived the idea of a memorial dedicated to the women who served in Vietnam. What followed was a frustrating journey through government bureaucracy, political opposition, and institutional resistance. Evans describes the formation of the Vietnam Women's Memorial Project and the countless obstacles encountered in attempting to place a statue on the National Mall near the existing Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

The campaign faced opposition from various quarters, including some who believed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial should remain unchanged and others who questioned whether a separate memorial for women was necessary. Evans documents the fundraising challenges, the legislative hurdles, and the need to build public support for the project. The process required persistence, political savvy, and the ability to navigate complex relationships with veterans' organizations, government officials, and the Commission of Fine Arts, which had authority over memorials in the nation's capital.

Throughout the narrative, Evans weaves together personal history with broader themes of gender, recognition, and the meaning of military service. The book illuminates how female veterans struggled for acknowledgment in a culture that often associated military service exclusively with men. The nurses who served in Vietnam returned to a country that was conflicted about the war and largely unaware of or uninterested in the sacrifices made by military women.

The memoir also explores the lasting psychological impact of combat nursing. Evans and her fellow nurses dealt with what would now be recognized as post-traumatic stress, though at the time they received little support or recognition for the trauma they had experienced. The book touches on how the memorial project became, for Evans and many other female veterans, a form of healing and validation after years of feeling invisible.

The Vietnam Women's Memorial was ultimately dedicated on November 11, 1993, nearly ten years after Evans first proposed the idea. The memorial features a bronze statue depicting three uniformed women with a wounded soldier, located near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. Evans's account of the dedication ceremony and the emotional response from female veterans provides a moving conclusion to the long campaign.

The book serves multiple purposes: as a historical document preserving the experiences of women who served in Vietnam, as a case study in advocacy and memorial politics, and as a personal testament to the importance of recognition and remembrance. Evans writes with clarity about complex bureaucratic processes while maintaining an emotional core that reminds readers of the human stakes involved in questions of memory and honor.

For readers interested in Vietnam War history, women's military service, or the politics of public memorials, this memoir offers valuable insights. It documents an important chapter in the ongoing effort to ensure that all veterans receive appropriate recognition for their service and sacrifice. The book stands as both a historical record and a reminder of how easily certain stories and contributions can be overlooked without determined advocates willing to fight for their place in national memory.