Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
5:15 | Candace Carter-Miller was an Army offspring and grew up all over the place. She had always wanted to be a nurse and the idea of being an Army nurse appealed to her so she secured a scholarship with a program at Walter Reed. Nearly everyone she was working with had been to Vietnam. Would she be going there?
Keywords : Alexandria VA Walter Reed Army Institute of Nursing nurse Vietnam National Guard Fort Belvoir hospital narcotics
It was a long flight in heels and pantyhose. Candace Carter-Miller was glad to ditch that outfit and get into fatigues once she got to Vietnam. She was sent to Da Nang and the 95th Evacuation hospital where she was assigned to triage for the incoming wounded. The Medevac pilots who flew them in were dedicated and fearless.
They were persona non grata. Candace Carter-Miller laments the stigma and hostility encountered by all Vietnam veterans. To have served faithfully and then be subjected to that has left a lingering bitterness.
What was it like to be one of the few women serving in Vietnam? Candace Carter-Miller remembers that she never felt unsafe but that it could be very awkward to be in a room full of men where she stood out. The nurses were a close knit group. You had to be when you could hardly ever get off post.
There was a lot going on in triage at the 95th Evacuation Hospital in Da Nang. Army nurse Candace Carter-Miller saw a lot of crazy things there but the most outlandish involved a tree limb. After every shift the nurses sat and analyzed the days work and brainstormed about how they could have done better.
Coming home from Vietnam was surreal. It seemed the entire country was against the war and the military. Candace Carter-Miller had her eye on an Army career but she couldn't even travel in her uniform. Years later, as she readied for a possible deployment to Desert Storm with the national guard, she sensed that a change had occurred.
