Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
4:41 | Growing up, Danielle Ingram always assumed she'd be a veterinarian and live on a farm with horses. When her husband, who had served in Vietnam, became ill, she got qualified as a nurse so she could support the family. She worked her way up to RN and decided to join the service.
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Danielle Ingram's family was full of veterans. Her great grandfather was wounded at Gettysburg and that was just the beginning. Great uncles, her father and his brothers, and then there was her mother, who was one of the first women in the Army Air Corps.
Her father's experience in World War II was unusual. He went in as a private and came out as a captain. Danielle Ingram recalls how he was tapped to design the housing in a camp built to receive prisoners who were liberated from concentration camps. He didn't talk about the war much when it was over but he did express his distaste for war movies.
As soon as she saw the 9/11 attacks begin to unfold on TV, Air Force nurse Danielle Ingram knew we were under attack. They're going to send us. And they did. During Operation Iraqi Freedom, she was stationed in Oman where she instructed other medical personnel in the requirements of in-flight care.
After her first Iraq deployment, Air Force nurse Danielle Ingram only had a three month turnaround before she went back to the troubled country. She tried not to think about the deaths and the fighting. You couldn't function if you did. She still finds the sound of a helicopter disturbing to this day.
Air Force nurse Danielle Ingram had a memorable flight when she accompanied a wounded medic home from Iraq. They would meet again. When she got back to Balad Air Base, there was a sniper who would take shots at you if you went out at night. At one point there was a reward for anyone who brought a female service member to the insurgents, who had ill intent if they got their hands on one.
Anytime she hears a helicopter, Danielle Ingram thinks about the Medevac choppers bringing in the wounded back in Iraq. She was isolated for a while as she recovered from the emotional trauma of the war but then she got involved in raising awareness on the issue of veteran suicides.
Most of the names escape her now but Air Force nurse Danielle Ingram fondly remembers the nurses and doctors she served with. A nurse named Daisy helped her fight off a tarantula at Gitmo. Later, in Oman during Operation Enduring Freedom, she sent one of her nurses to temporary duty on The USS Eisenhower, which was a treat.
As soon as Danielle Ingram joined the Air Force Nurse Corps, Desert Shield and Desert Storm happened. She was needed elsewhere, though, as an instructor of the Air Force's unique in-flight health care procedures. Then, she had a memorable assignment to Gitmo.
The facility at Gitmo was receiving lots of boat people from Haiti and civilians from Cuba as well. Air Force Nurse Danielle Ingram treated them for their ailments and then one day she found a stable on the grounds with some horses that were being ignored.
Every time Danielle Ingram returned from overseas, she was struck by how the poverty and deprivation she'd seen contrasted with the relative opulence of America. After an eye-opening assignment at Gitmo, she went to Honduras on a similar medical mission, this time in a jungle.
