The Women by Kristin Hannah is a wonderful story about a woman’s experience working as a nurse during the Vietnam War. It’s heart wrenching, and impactful. It brought back memories. The Vietnam War was during my young adult years. My classmates, friends, and their brothers were drafted to fight a war in a country they couldn’t even find on a map. Too many died there. An entire generation was impacted.
The story is about Frances McGrath. She lived a privileged life on Coronado Island, California. She was the California girl, the Beach Boys sang about. She was perpetually tanned, long blonde hair, and a surfer girl. Her family lived within walking distance to the beach. Her father was a conservative who expected his son to be a hero soldier and his daughter to marry and produce grandchildren. Her father’s study, had a “heroes’ wall” where the men in the family served proudly. Her mother was loving and popular at the country club.
When Frances’ brother, Finley, became a navy pilot, Frances conceived the idea of following him. She had just graduated from nursing school. She didn’t tell anyone, she thought she’d surprise everyone; they’d be so proud.
Only they weren’t. They were appalled. Young ladies don’t go to war. What could she do? She was committed. She had joined the Army because they would take her immediately–only two weeks of training. Her parents were angry and barely said goodbye.
Then the family received that dreaded visit from two uniform officers, telling them that Finley’s plane was blown out of the sky. There was nothing left of his body. They were told to put a stranger’s boots in the casket and bury that.
With her grief, and confused emotions in turmoil, Frances arrives in Vietnam. She only had two weeks training, where she learned to roll bandages. Luckily, two veteran nurses, Barb and Ethel take the rookie Frances, under their wings. She was completely unprepared to be a combat nurse. The three women become fast friends,soul mates,and sisters.
Frances starts in a ward where the soldiers were unconscious. But there is where she became acclimated to Vietnam. She eventually becomes a surgical nurse, working with Dr. Jamie Callahan. They become very close, but on his way home, his helicopter is shot down and he is killed.
There are many horrors. One of the worse was the realization of seeing all these teenagers dying, wounded, crippled, blinded, and then reading in the newspaper, “The Stars and Stripes”, that the US was winning the war. Clearly, they weren’t.
The nurses also treated the Vietnam citizens. The description of people suffering from napalm was abhorrent. -
I cried reading about the mother with her infant in her arms, fused together when napalm had been poured down on them.
It was clear that our government was misleading the public. The soldiers in Vietnam couldn’t believe what was happening. It was a stupid war. We shouldn’t have been there, in the first place. Make peace and leave, but Nixon pushed on, even into another country, Cambodia. The world was crazy. The soldiers’ fathers had been proud to serve in WWII and Korea. What happened? Presidents and leaders assassinated, protests, police brutality and war. Misleading the public is too soft a description. The United States government was lying to its people and killing a generation of its own.
There is romance in the story. She falls in love with a navy pilot, Ryeson, but he is also killed just before returning home. BTW, the life expectancy of a helicopter pilot was 30 days.
Frankie finally goes home to a different kind of war. Her friends and neighbors don’t welcome. Her parents are embarrassed by her. She finds a job as a nurse, but has to start by emptying bed pans–she who was a surgical combat nurse! Yes, she had a problem adjusting to this different reality, especially, when Ryeson appears again. Apparently, he didn’t die; he was captured and held in a prison camp. But their reunion wasn’t. I’ll leave it at that.
Eventually, she has a mental breakdown, but with the support of her friends, Barb and Ethel, Frankie puts back her life. She reconciles with her parents, even becomes a nurse again, but more importantly, she moves on.
If you were alive during the Vietnam era, you will easily relate and live through the times, again. The Women by Kristin Hannah is an extraordinary novel about a woman’s experience working as a nurse during the Vietnam War. It’s heart wrenching, impactful, moving and fantastic.
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