Vietnam voices: Joan Furey

Joan Furey, Sayville, 62. Retired from Department of Veterans Affairs, where she was a nurse and oversaw women's programs.

I graduated from Pilgrim State Hospital School of Nursing in Brentwood in 1967 and joined the Army [Nurse Corps] in July '68, and I went to Vietnam in January 1969. I was a first lieutenant and served with the 71st Evacuation Hospital. I worked in the surgical intensive care unit/recovery room in Pleiku.

It was a very intense experience. We basically took care of the American combat casualties, so we took care of a lot of the young soldiers and not-so-young soldiers. Gunshot wounds. Mortars. Land mines. We also took care of the civilian casualties, including children.

It was both very, very difficult and very, very rewarding, both seeing so many young people, both our soldiers and the Vietnamese children so severely injured [and caring for them]. There was a lot of multiple amputees, brain injuries.

My younger sister was involved in the anti-war movement. We sent tapes and sent letters back and forth. By that time, it didn't really bother me because after seeing what I was seeing and being exposed to what I was exposed to, I really just wanted the war to end.

I came back in January 1970. I made an attempt to get involved in the anti-war movement because I really wanted the war to end. But when I got involved with some people who were doing that, I really couldn't commit myself to it because I kind of felt that I would be betraying all of the people I had taken care of. I was very upset at the way people were portraying the Vietnam vets. I had just seen so much of the good that they had done, and I had seen so much heroism and self sacrifice. I was very conflicted by that. So I was kind of against the war as a war but just couldn't make the commitment to be involved in the whole message the movement was sending. So I just kind of stayed away from it.