Healing Wounds: A Vietnam War Combat Nurse’s 10-Year Fight to Win Women a Place of Honor in Washington, D.C.

What is the price of honor? It took ten years for Vietnam War nurse Diane Carlson Evans to answer that question—and the answer was a heavy one. In 1983, when Evans came up with the vision for the first-ever memorial on the National Mall to honor women who’d worn a military uniform, she wouldn’t be deterred. She remembered not only her sister veterans, but also the hundreds of young wounded men she had cared for, as she expressed during a Congressional hearing in Washington, D.C.: “Women didn’t have to enter military service, but we stepped up to serve believing we belonged with our brothers-in-arms and now we belong with them at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. If they belong there, we belong there. We were there for them then. We mattered.” In the end, those wounded soldiers who had survived proved to be there for their sisters-in-arms, joining their fight for honor in Evans’ journey of combating unforeseen bureaucratic obstacles and facing mean-spirited opposition. Her impassioned story of serving in Vietnam is a crucial backstory to her fight to honor the women she served beside. She details the gritty and high-intensity experience of being a nurse in the midst of combat and becomes an unlikely hero who ultimately serves her country again as a formidable force in her daunting quest for honor and justice. Featured in Kristen Hannahs new book The WomenWhat is the price of honor? It took ten years for Vietnam War nurse Diane Carlson Evans to answer that questionand the answer was a heavy one. In 1983, when Evans came up with the vision for the first-ever memorial on the National Mall to honor women whod worn a military uniform, she wouldnt be deterred. She remembered not only her sister veterans, but also the hundreds of young wounded men she had cared for, as she expressed during a Congressional hearing in Washington, Women didnt have to enter military service, but we stepped up to serve believing we belonged with our brothers-in-arms and now we belong with them at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. If they belong there, we belong there. We were there for them then. We mattered.In the end, those wounded soldiers who had survived proved to be there for their sisters-in-arms, joining their fight for honor in Evans journey of combating unforeseen bureaucratic obstacles and facing mean-spirited opposition. Her impassioned story of serving in Vietnam is a crucial backstory to her fight to honor the women she served beside. She details the gritty and high-intensity experience of being a nurse in the midst of combat and becomes an unlikely hero who ultimately serves her country again as a formidable force in her daunting quest for honor and justice. What Is The Price Of Honor? It Took Ten Years For Vietnam War Nurse Diane Carlson Evans To Answer That Question—and The Answer Was A Heavy One. As A Nurse In Vietnam In 1968–1969, Diane Carlson Evans Learned To Overcome Seemingly Impossible Odds—including The Night She And A Corpsman Kept Twenty-six Severely Dehydrated Soldiers Alive In The Darkness As Artillery Barraged Their Hospital. Fourteen Years Later, This Wisconsin Mother Of Four Felt Called To Establish The First Memorial Honoring Military Women On The National Mall. But She Had No Idea What She Was In For. What Followed Was A Ten-year Battle To Overcome Sexism, Bureaucracy, And Betrayal Within Her Own Rank. Evans Was Labeled A “feminazi” And Received Death Threats. At A National Veterans Of Foreign Wars Convention, She Was All But Booed Off The Stage. Allies Undermined Her. Editorial Writers Opined That A Women’s Memorial Adjacent To The Vietnam Veteran Memorials Was “like Putting An Elvis Statue On Mt. Rushmore.” But Evans Persevered; Detailed Notebooks Reveal That She Completed More Than Twenty Thousand Tasks In The Quest For Her Decade-long Dream. And In November Of 1993, She Made History: The Vietnam Women’s Memorial Was Dedicated Near The Wall, Bringing Honor, Healing, And Hope To The 265,000 Otherwise Forgotten Women Who Served During The Vietnam War.