American Women In The Vietnam War

10 Pages 2573 Words

mily members waiting for their soldiers to return, or the “hippie” women anti-war protestors who tried to persuade men from going to war.
Regardless of this seeming forgetfulness on account of the American public, women did serve their country in many capacities during the war. They, like the men in uniform who were doing the fighting, came under much of the same enemy fire and risked their lives. These women be divided up into the military personnel and the non-military civilian women who were involved in various ways. The majority of military women were in the Army Nursing Corps, while the remainder of these women were either enlisted or officers in each branch of the military serving as clerks, photographers, cartographers, air-traffic controllers— all non- combat positions. The non-military American women served as journalists, Red Cross workers, missionaries, teachers, entertainers, and government workers in many agencies that existed in conjunction with the military effort in Vietnam.
Unlike the men who served in the U.S. military during the war, all women in Vietnam were volunteers since they were not subject to the draft. In a war that became less and less popular as the years went by, American women still were motivated to join the effort in Vietnam. Their motivations were many and diverse. Many women who joined the military or other government agencies to go to Vietnam felt compelled by a certain patriotic duty. Since their brothers, boyfriends, and husbands were being called to duty, many felt obliged to serve their country as well. Other women went to Vietnam for a sense of adventure. One Army nurse, Judy H. Elbring said in her memoirs: “I went to nursing school so I could go to Vietnam. I needed a job that could get me into the war… The stories I had heard my father tell made it sound very exciting.” Still others wanted to escape protective parents or the prospects of an “ordinary” future as homemak...