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Chapter 16 Drowning Tears with Laughter Students were enchanted by 2nd Lt. Judy Crausbay Hamilton’s enthusiastic attitude and unique war experience when she talked to my history classes about Vietnam.1 Women were not drafted into the military in the 1960s, but Judy signed up and served as both an air force and an army nurse during the Vietnam War.2 She worked in the air medical evacuation squadron in the U.S. Air National Guard from 1965 to 1967. Then she asked the air force to put her in-country as a flight nurse. After they told her that only male nurses were sent “in-country,” she left the air force for the army. She went to Vietnam from 1967 to 1968, serving as an army nurse at the Ninety-first Evacuation Hospital, III Corp, and other field medical facilities.3 After the Vietnam War, many veterans combated their emotions with anger, others turned to alcohol or drugs, and many withdrew from society . Second Lt. Hamilton learned to channel her horrifying experiences into memories, some of which bring laughter. Serving as an army nurse, she saved the lives of American, South Vietnamese, and North Vietnamese soldiers. She cared for soldiers during times of great danger. There is no doubt that she endured stressful times. However, she has learned to cope with the stressors of war in a most unique way.4 The following chapter covers Judy’s story of courage and patriotism in 1965–1969. Her vast experiences offer a unique perspective to the war. One of the wounded soldiers wrote to her many years after the war: “Last night I must have woke up a dozen times, each time enjoying the excitement of having established contact with you again, and remembering just how much you were a very bright light during a very dark tour of duty. Before my twentieth birthday I had been wounded in action three times, the worst time being the multiple GSW’s that brought me to the Ninety-first Evac in November of 154 Doctors and Nurses 1968.” He expressed his gratitude for her caring in a time of dire need. “For over twenty-five years I have simply wanted to say ‘Thank You’ for your care, concern, and kind words spoken daily during that six week period. You were truly an angel existing in a living hell. . . . Certainly you came in contact with hundreds of wounded soldiers, and there was nothing particularly unique or outstanding that would cause you to remember me. But for me you were not only the first American woman I had seen in seven months, but a great source of inspiration in an otherwise totally depressing environment.”5 2nd Lt. Judy Crausbay Hamilton Flight Nurse, Air National Guard, U.S. Air Force, and Ninety-First Evac and Can Tho Hospitals, South Vietnam, U.S. Army I joined the military after completing nursing school at Baptist Memorial Hospital in 1965. I served in the U.S. Air National Guard from 1965 to 1967 and served with the U.S. Army from 1967 to 1969. Women were not drafted into the military. Some women went to nursing school through the army, and they were indentured to them for three years. I went into the military to travel. My brother was in the navy on the USS Enterprise, and he also served in Vietnam. I have always been a nurse. I worked as a pediatric staff nurse at Children’s Memorial Hospital. After I joined the Air National Guard in 1965, I attended flight nurse school for about eight weeks at the School of Aerospace Medicine, Brooks Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas. I attended army boot camp at Fort Sam Houston,Texas.Asflightnurses,wewenttoflightnurseschoolandcameinto the air force as officers. So we did not go through air force basic training. Air force nursing was totally different from civilian nursing. We performed everything inside an aircraft. All of our nursing was done during flight. The great difference between air force flight nursing and civilian nursing was that you did not have someone to answer your questions. Most of the time flight nurses did not have anyone to help with medical procedures that might be needed in flight. Occasionally we would fly with one flight surgeon on board. A flight surgeon would fly with us only if we had an extremely critical patient. So we flew many times without flight surgeons. That was a big difference between civilian and flight nursing. During...

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