Healing Wounds

A Vietnam War Combat Nurse's 10-Year Fight to Win Women a Place of Honor in Washington, D.C.

By: Diane Carlson Evans, Bob Welch - contributor, Joseph Galloway - foreword

Narrated by: Janet Metzger

What is the price of honor? It took 10 years for Vietnam War Nurse Diane Carlson Evans to answer that question - and the answer was a heavy one.

In 1983, when Evans came up with the vision for the first-ever memorial on the National Mall to honor women who'd worn a military uniform, she wouldn't be deterred. She remembered not only her sister veterans, but also the hundreds of young wounded men she had cared for, as she expressed during a Congressional hearing in Washington, DC: "Women didn't have to enter military service, but we stepped up to serve believing we belonged with our brothers-in-arms and now we belong with them at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. If they belong there, we belong there. We were there for them then. We mattered."

In the end, those wounded soldiers who had survived proved to be there for their sisters-in-arms, joining their fight for honor in Evans' journey of combating unforeseen bureaucratic obstacles and facing mean-spirited opposition. Her impassioned story of serving in Vietnam is a crucial backstory to her fight to honor the women she served beside. She details the gritty and high-intensity experience of being a nurse in the midst of combat and becomes an unlikely hero who ultimately serves her country again as a formidable force in her daunting quest for honor and justice.

©2020 Diane Carlson Evans (P)2020 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Her perseverance

I listened to Kristen Hannah’s book The Women and was so touched I needed to read more. Obviously Diane Carlson shaped Hannah’s main character. This book was a testimony to so many women who served. I learned even more about the war. I think everyone would benefit from her story.

Excellent

For those of us that are children of Vietnam Vets, it’s fuzzy what our parents did. This book brought a lot of insight into what women went through and what the war and various protests were about. My father served. I would have liked to know his story but agent Orange killed him before I was adult enough to ask.

Fortitude

I was never wounded in Vietnam but I visited a lot of shot up guys. This story echoes what I saw but I never really felt their pain. To me nurses were just another MOS doing a job in the rear area. We all reflect on our experiences but they are a very special group. Without whom a lot more guys would not be here today. The memorial reflects that and they deserve a rightful place of honor

Impressive & Important

I was amazed as I read this story of Vietnam combat nurse Diane Carlson Evans. Her heroism as she cared for the soldiers during the war should be applauded, as well as the other nurses. Diane is humble, yet passionate as she recounts her experience during and after the unpopular Vietnam War. I found her detailed account very interesting and important, especially her unrelenting quest to establish a women of Vietnam statue to recognize their service. I hope many will read this book.

Diane’s story & commitment

The book reflects the importance & dedication of individuals to accomplish a goal. It tells the Vietnam story from a very personal basis shedding a small light on the heroic efforts of so many veterans. I applaud all who have help us heal.

Heartbreaking AND inspiring

After reading the fictional“The Women” by Kristin Hannah, I was anxious to read the nonfiction work upon which it was based. It was surprising to me how much of Hannah’s book was taken directly from Diane Carlsen Evan’s experiences in Vietnam. After reading of these, it’s truly astounding that there was so much opposition to the women’s memorial - especially from male veterans. (The opposition from the cultural elite was not as surprising.) This is a wonderful story about an incredible woman whose service before and after the war is worthy of the highest military and civilian honors.

Thanks

You have brought back memories I had lost, good and bad. I laughed and I cried.
Many of your experiences mirrored my own, upon returning home. I moved to Canada because I wasn’t able to endure the lack of respect we Vietnam vets had earned.
Now I will visit the memorial.
Thanks to the ones who helped me and all the women who served. Thanks especially to you for helping me remember.

Inspiring

Perseverance and Ferocity! I have a better understanding and gratitude for my generation that served during the Vietnam War.

Diane took me on her journey

Diane is a courageous, resilient and tenacious woman who I admire. Her story and mission has brought healing to so many women who deserve honor and acknowledgment. Welcome home!

Healing wounds takes time and real effort/intention

I read Carlson Evan’s story because it was referenced as a source at the back of Kristin Hannah’s book, The Women. The latter, a piece of historical fiction. The former, Healing Wounds, a remarkably readable, well written and vital first person account of life both in war time and home and what it took to navigate the devastating obstacles to living well and re-entry before them returning from an unwanted and lost war. Against all odds, Evans and her colleagues achieved the conception, creation, completion and dedication of a statue placed near the Wall on the mall in Washington, D.C., to honor all women, especially nurses, who served during the Viet Nam War. It is an excellent book, part memoir, part social commentary (watch what you say and do lest you become the very public lesson of who not to be and how not to behave), part leadership how-to, and part very necessary manual for anyone also diagnosed with Complex PTS (or who knows and loves someone who is). It is a satisfying walk through the history of a very courageous, determined and heart-centered woman, and visionary, on a mission to continue serving and honoring all involved, who, in the process, jumpstarted her own healing and reconnection journey. You might just be healed a little bit by it too. Going to see this memorial is now on my bucket list. Thank you.