Posted 11 years ago
toracat
(728 items)
Hello, I put this photo for all nurses! This was a field hosp., Sand bags and roof was canvas, When air conditioner broke or stopped the nurses ran around with poles propping up the ceiling! So it would not fall! I was pretty dirty in photo with no shower for weeks! I had to wait a long time for help as many were hurt worse than me. One nurse got angry with me because I was upset because enemy soldiers were taken in front of me. I was 18 and we were in the field trying to kill them. I did not understand why they were in line ahead of me, but now I do. They were hurt much more than me. One night a nurse came and gave me a massage, something I will remember forever! I just drank some wine, is this a mistake to post this? Oh well my life is different! Vietnam was stressful! But now my house is full of collectables! That too is stressful! haha thanks for looking!! Don
I appreciate you posting this toracat. It is a part of history we should never forget. Many of my classmates were scooped up in the draft as soon as they left highschool.
Thank you for your bravery and courage, and thank you for serving our country. We have the greatest country in the world. We may not always have the best government but the ideals this country was built on should continue to stay rock solid.
AMEN TO THAT CINDY !!
wow !!!!! Thankyou for sharing Don!!!
Hi Don the photo is close to my feelings about My time with nursing our guys . I will never forget nor should anyone what so many young people who were drafted went through over there . ( I knew it you remembered me taking your photo :-) The massage was for the 5 bucks you slipped me Don to get my hair done . Great Post ! and Thank you many times over for your service . !****
Thanks to all my good friends here at C. W.!
I think they liked me because I told them why I had to go into Army at age 17! Maybe they felt sorry for me a little? But yes I was happy to be with them!!
Very Special Thanks to Manikin! Many nurses have PTSD, and during the TET Offensive it was overwhelming for them as wounded just kept coming in. Later I was in another Hosp. in Vietnam, and the Nurse said "GET up" it was early! "Why?" I asked She said the floor needs mopping! I said "I only can use one hand!, how can I ring out the mop?" She went and got a young man who lost an arm and we were a team mopping and wringing the mop in bucket together!
Thanks Don. I am not alwys sure that people know whata toll Nam took on nurse's . Many of us yes do have PTSD and were treated years later with the men becuase no one addressed what we saw . One never gets over flashbacks but we hope they only come once in awhile , a smell, anything . For me it is Bags . I can not see a black bag on road and I am back . We had a few times to laugh but it was not like Mash and fun and games . I really do not like that show ! xoxox
excuse typo's . Darn data mask on PC changes my letters . It scrambles them so they don't look like words to protect from any hackers or ect . But it does not help typing with it .
Yes the hospital was not easy. There were young men or boys that lost arms and legs and burned, etc. I almost felt bad as I was not hurt so much. I went home from Japan to Travis AFB on Hosp. plane, most were on stretchers, I was sitting in a chair?! I was lucky with nerve damage as a few weeks later all my friends were killed and I would have been also. Life goes on! Don
Thank you! I was your neighbor until 11 yr. old! Next door in Nebraska!!
Thank you,
@ valentino97,I am glad you have got idea of what it was like and that Mash was not real life stories . I was behind toracat he is OLDER :-) But it was a long War and young men did not have choice as they do now to enlist . They had no choice and that made it very different than today when men and now woman can enlist and are mentally prepared as much as you can be . As I have told Don It was also my first exposure to drugs( I did not take them ) but many guys did to get through the tough times I guess . It was readily available there and back in USA I went to work in psychiatric hospital so many addicted to heroin and other drugs which I grew up never knowing or hearing about . I will always feel Nam was start of so much drug abuse coming into USA . It changed many life's and with little Thanks until recently to those who fought under some terrible circumstances .
PS Don wow you were so handsome I know I would have remembered that smile and face . Handsome as could be :-)
Thanks to both of you!
Thank you for your service and great story!
you are welcome!
*°·`*~~ SEASON'S GREETINGS - DON!~~*`.°*
And Happy Holidays to YOU, from Me, Simon, and Granny!!
Wishing you a blessed New Year and when I saw a photo a few weeks ago of a hollywood couple the man's face look familiar ! It was this photo of you that I now know I was thinking of :-) Were you ever in Hollywood LOL
Not for a long time! One time with Simon, people thought we were Robert Redford and Paul Newman! Joking!
lol :-)
Look at them dimples!
This guy went to charm school, Mani!
I think so vetraio :-) I know I would have remembered him from Nam if I had taken care of him . I bet he charmed all the nurses :-)
HAPPY NEW YEAR, DON !!!!
Thanks Kevin!
M*A*S*H* lasted YEARS longer than the actual Korean 'conflict'. I thought that "China Beach" was a superb show about Viet Nam nurses. Females in war never get their due - CB seemed to rectify that. I'd cut out of one of my college classes to get home in time to see it every week.
Thanks to you all. I wish that Viet Nam had been the LAST war.
Handsome! Beautiful photo dear friend!
I wish you the best for the New Year, a big hug to you from my heart!
Cheers!