Customer Reviews

Vietnam Nurses with Dana Delany

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I saw this dvd at a nursing convention and picked up one for myself and a friend of mine who has an interest in nursing during the Vietnam war. This dvd offers a thought provoking look into what the lives of nurses who served in Vietnam were really like. It is a story that the public did not hear about very much or wanted to acknowledge and is brought to life by real nurses who experienced it. As a nurse myself, I saw in these women all the attributes that a nurse should exhibit such as compassion, dedication, the healing power of touch and a kind word, and empathy. Like many of the soldiers that served, these nurses were in their late teens to early 20s when they went to serve and were not prepared for what they were going to experience in war. These experiences definitely impacted their lives and is something they can never forget and still haunts them today. Their story needed to be told and the recognition of these real life heroes is long overdue. Without these nurses, more lives would have been lost. I also found it fitting that they had Dana Delay narrating the documentary since she had portrayed a Vietnam era nurse in the TV Series "China Beach."

As a surviving combat Marine Grunt of the Viet Nam war, I want to laud this movie, that shows the very real part American nurses in Viet Nam played to support, not the war, but the soldiers and Marines who were wounded and med-evaced to an aid station, a surgical unit, or hospital ship. This was officially the first time American women served in a combat area where they could also be wounded or killed. They served, they treated and they provided for the wounded and the dying - not an easy challenge for the most hardened combat vet. Women in combat, especially these very brave women in Viet Nam, deserve all the credit they receive and more. There are many veterans today who give credit to their survival, not to the doctors, but to the American nurses who took care of them.

Semper Fi, nurses. You deserve much more than you received from that war.

Very well done!! Worth every penny and provides insights not only into the nurses who served, but also anyone who served in that confusing time and place. The saying that "there are no unwounded soldiers in a war" is very much a reality.

Thank you for this film. It's been a long road home from Da Nang and the smells, sights, sounds, and tears of the most terrible and most influential time in my life. None of us who served as Nam Nurses ever realized that our one year in SE Asia would in some ways consume and remain with us for the rest of our lives. I cannot, and will not, say I am at Peace with my "Tour"; but I have come to accept that as long as I can recall the funny/idiotic moments (and there were lots of them) more often than the gut-draining sorrow and exhaustion moments I will sleep better. From someone who was there, this film is worth watching and worth owning. didi-mau time. Over and out.

My history professor used this dvd in the classroom on the Vietnam War. It stands out for me as one of the best illustrations of what women in war are all about. The interviews with the real participants and the inserts of the TV show" China Beach" are priceless! A great reminder that history is about real people not just a date or a battle.These nurses/ women are my heroes.

A great story about some wonderful nurses. I wish it was longer because they did a terrific job !!

As a Vietnam era nurse and massage therapist who has worked for years helping people recover from trauma, I found that watching and listening to the Vietnam nurses relate their experiences was a life altering experience. By it's very nature, traumatic material is chaotic. I really appreciated that the organization and presentation of material brought some sense of order so that a viewer can take it in without being needlessly overwhelmed. Harsh scenes are interspersed with breaks and summaries by Dana Delaney, without mitigating the nurses' feeling during narrations. As a viewer, I felt both emotionally moved, and moved to action to contribute, as they did, to healing the impact of war. I wish that Dr. Margaret Carson had made an appearance, too, as it seems that the film was based on her research.

"Vietnam Nurses" is a well shot and well edited video that is a must see for nurses. This video was the idea of nurses...not producers and kudos go to their vision! Little attention has been paid to the sacrifices of nurses and other medical professionals during wartime and this video highlights their service, intelligence, bravery, caring, and the long-term impact of that service.

This was quite a remarkable set of true stories that involved women who you could hear see and feel what they had been through, the recognition that all these men and women deserved should have been given long ago. This was a great documentary movie, things like this should never be forgotten.

This is a poignant and powerful film that resonates with truth that needed to be told. War forever changes all those who took part and these very brave young women, raised with the myths of the 1950's early 60's US culture were stepping into a crucible of revolutionary cultural change and chaotic violence. How they dealt with these pressures along with numerous 24 hour non stop shifts of unending carnage is a tribute to their courage and resilience. The most moving part of this film, which is short 45 min-but not one minute is wasted, was when Diane Carlson Evans, the Vietnam Nurse who spearheaded the drive to have a monument in Washington DC honoring the nurses who served in Vietnam, recalled how she had been raised in hte Lutheran faith, and a while after she returned from Vietnam, someone from the Lutheran Church contacted her and wanted to interview her, and she said" I'm not the person you want. I prayed every day I was in Vietnam for the war to stop and the killing and maiming to stop and it did not. So God is dead.
The interviewer remarked that maybe God was in Vietnam through the empathy and love and care shown by nurses like herself during the insanity of war. Brought me to tears and I'm not religious.