front lines, but they gave everything they had to each soldier they cared for. The nurses saw every wounded soldier, whereas the men on the front lines did not have to see everything. One soldier that was wounded said “I could never do this job because I must look everyone in the Face” (Evans 91). Along with the nurses bravery they endured physical and emotional distress.The nurses paid a price for serving in the hospitals. Many nurses felt that they were not doing a good job. One nurse said, “The nurses were patching up the men and sending them back to the slaughter” (Evans 91). The nurses felt as though they were not helping anyone. Another nurse said, “The entire hospital staff worked as hard as we could to save this soldier and we did for awhile, but we later received word that the man had died” (Evans 92). These types of events were taking a toll on the minds of the nurses. The nurses also began to question themselves, always wondering if another nurse could have done a better job in saving a person’s life. One nurse was so overwhelmed by work that she forgot to change IV’s in a patient. She accidentally killed him on her first day (Evans 95). The nurses also began to feel as though they would never leave Vietnam. They thought this because they watched their friends who had been discharged Little 5 killed (Smith 172). This further made the nurses feel a sense of hopelessness. Also, while some people turned to God to help them through, some nurses were losing faith. When casualties were pouring in from a major explosion one nurse said, “God, not another burn, but God has long since forsaken this place” (Smith 158). Aside from the mental and emotional anguish that the nurses had to endure, they also were hurt physically. One example of physical violence that the nurses felt is shown in a story that happened to Winnie Smith, a former Vietnam nurse. She said...
