Officer, Nurse, Woman

Kara Dixon Vuic is an assistant professor of history at Bridgewater College.

Vuic offers an important new contribution to how we understand women's participation in the U.S. military after World War II. -- Tanya L. Roth H-Minerva, H-Net Reviews 2010 Vuic's book is important reading for anyone wanting a more thorough understanding of more than just the Vietnam War or nursing history. Its relevance also encompasses enduring complexities of gender, cultural representations, and collective memory. Highly recommended. Choice 2010 Utilizing a feminist paradigm, Kara Dixon Vuic's evocative and unique dissection of the collective gender experiences of Army Nurse Corps officers in Vietnam and its aftermath breaks new ground in the history of military nursing... I found Officer, Nurse, Woman quite intriguing. I can unreservedly recommend it as a valuable addition to the literature documenting nurse participation in the Vietnam War. -- Mary T. Sarnecky, DNSc, RN Nursing History Review 2011 Excellent study... The strength of this book is Vuic's main source: nurses who served in Vietnam... Officer, Nurse,Woman enriches a growing body of literature on second-wave feminism's broad impact and successfully challenges and complicates the dominant narrative of military history and destabilizes familiar categories-especially our notions about women and war. -- Susan Gelfand Malka Journal of American History 2010 A well researched, well written account that will be used by professors and students who wish to understand better the complexity of gendered military service. -- D'Ann Campbell Journal of Military History Provides an important foundation for understanding how military women reflect social and cultural gender roles, how institutions respond to and influence gender norms, and how the response shapes and challenges our understanding of citizenship and nation... Vuic's book will be important for scholars of the time period as well as those interested in gender, women's work, nursing history, and the military. -- Julie Fairman Bulletin of the History of Medicine 2010 The best one volume treatment available that integrates the personal experiences of nurses with a nuanced understanding of social, political, military, gender, and women's history alongside feminist theory. Minerva: Women and War This is a wonderful book, chock full of oral history and riveting personal stories. It makes a meaningful contribution to Vietnam War and twentieth-century gender historiography. -- Penelope Adams Moon Historian 2011

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: "Lady, you're in the army now"1. "The Bright Adventure of Army Nursing": Meeting Nursing Demands for the Vietnam War2. "An officer and a gentleman": Gender and a Changing Army3. "A wonderful, horrible experience": Nursing Education and Practice4. "Helmets and hair curlers": Gender and Wartime Nursing5. "I'm afraid we're going to have to just change our ways": Wives, Mothers, and Pregnant Nurses in the Army6. "You mean we get women over here?": Gender and Sexuality in the War Zone7. "Not All Women Wore Love Beads in the Sixties": Postwar Depictions of Vietnam War NursesConclusion: Officers, Nurses, and WomenNotesEssay on SourcesIndex