According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, approximately 2.7 million Americans served in Vietnam from 1964 to1973. Of that number, some 10,000 were women, with approximately 90 percent of them serving as nurses. Louise “Lou” Eisenbrandt talks about her military experiences during the war in this fascinating interview. She served one year in Vietnam, from October 1969 to October 1970 at the 91st Evac Hospital in Chu Lai. Working 12-hour shifts, six days a week as a ward and ER nurse, she saw it all. Gunshot wounds, burns, fragmentation wounds, broken bones, head injuries, diseases of all kinds, intestinal worms, and many, many, traumatic amputations. “You saw things you had never seen before and I will never see again,” she says. “No matter what kind of trauma nursing you do back here, it can’t compare to what I did on a daily basis.” Often, she held the hands of dying soldiers, gave comfort and “doing what we could” when there was nothing more that could be done. An eloquent raconteur, “Lou” paints a vivid picture of these often-overlooked heroes in a much-maligned war.
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