This book provides an oral history of women who served in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps during the Vietnam War. It follows the trajectory of eight women¿s lives from their decision to become nurses, to surgical and evacuation hospitals in Vietnam, and then home to face the consequences of war on their personal and professional lives. It documents their lived experience in Vietnam and explores the memories and personal stories of nurses who treated injured American soldiers, Vietnamese civilians, and the enemy. Their voices reveal the physical and emotional challenges, trauma, contradictions, and lingering effects of war on their lives. Women in the U.S. Army in Vietnam feared the enemy but also sexual violence and harassment: the experiences this book documents also shed light on the extent of historical sexual abuse in the military.

Janet D. Tanner is an oral historian and independent scholar based in Fullerton, California, USA.

1. "I was just going over there as a nurse": Introduction .- 2. "I always wanted to be a nurse": Politics, Culture, and Nursing .- 3. "I'm not going to Vietnam to fight, I'm going there to be a nurse": Joining the Army Nurse Corps .- 4. Lip gloss, Fatigues, and Fear: Life in the Combat Zone .- 5. "The hardest thing was being there and the most rewarding thing was being there": Nursing in Vietnam .- 6. "And it never happened": Leaving the War Behind .- 7. Epilogue: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death": War and Reconciliation.