At a time when vets are universally thanked by strangers for their military service, it is
sobering to remember a period in our nation’s history when soldiers returning from Vietnam were scorned, spat on, and decried as baby killers by an American public either indifferent to or oppositional to a war in a far distant country the majority could not have located on a map. Less well known is the fact that among those serving in Vietnam were some 11, 000 women, 90% of whom were nurses. In her well-researched, very readable novel, author Kristin Hannah pays tribute to those women, describing in often harrowing detail what it was like to wear the uniform in the unforgiving nightmare that is a combat hospital. Twenty- year- old Frances Grae McGrath (Frankie) is the picture of West Coast monied respectability when she confronts the biases and prejudices of her own family with respect to military service. While her older brother is expected to volunteer and serve in the Vietnam war, as a woman, she is expected to dress properly, act like a lady, marry, and raise respectable children. To the consternation of her family, she has other plans. Although it reads continuously, the book covers four distinct periods: a brief section on Frankie’s life before she enlists; a long section covering the war and nightmare scenarios in the operating rooms; the harrowing journey through scorn, isolation, PTSD episodes and drug addiction; and the veterans struggles to overcome their trauma and be recognized for their contributions during the war.
This is a very moving work of fiction set amidst the reality of place and time. We glimpse the Tet Offensive and Walter Cronkite, protests against the war and marches for recognition led by veteran soldiers such as Ron Kovic. As good fiction always does, the story allows us to
experience what Frankie and other nurses confronted in that war. There are friendships, romantic entanglements, close calls and deadly strikes. We close the book filled with a sense of renewed appreciation for our veterans and for the doctors and nurses who looked after them in appalling conditions and with little thanks and recognition for too many years afterwards.[1]
[1] On November 11, 1993, The Vietnam Women’s Memorial was dedicated on the National Mall, close to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C. For many years after the end of the war, even the Veterans Administration seemed ignorant of the fact that women had served and were thus entitled to medical and therapeutic services alongside the men they had cared for and in many instances, saved.
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