Voices of Service: Vietnam War nurse

describes life in the medical ward

Jeffrey Hawks Education Director of Army Heritage Center Foundation

Jan 22, 2016

In 1967, Phyllis Cogan was a student at Indiana University, Indiana, when she decided to join the
Army Nurse Corps to help pay for college.
They had something called the Army Student Nurse Program, through which you could have
your last year or two paid for, she explained. You would enlist in the Womens Army Corps at
that time. You enlisted as a Private First Class. You got an ID card and you could use the PX, and
it sounded like a great deal. I think I went to that PX twice the whole time because it wasnt
really convenient, but it was nice to have.
But what was really important was that you got a stipend, she added. It was under $100, but it
seemed like a fortune. Six months before I graduated I was honorably discharged from the
Womens Army Corps, and the next day I was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Army
Nurse Corps, and they paid for my last year of school. It was wonderful.
Though her primary motivation was financial, she says there were other reasons for joining the
Army.
My father had been a Marine in World War II, she said. This was a man who could not see the
American flag without breaking into tears. He did think America could do no wrong, but he had
great pride in what he had done. My mother was a little concerned that military nurses could get
the wrong kind of reputation. My father replied: Well, if they know her theyll know better, and
if they dont know her what do you care? I always knew that my father was proud of my
service.
After graduation, she went through basic training, took a little leave to visit her family, and spent
about six months at Fort Bragg before heading off to Vietnam. She arrived on April 19, 1969, her
brothers birthday, and departed one year later on April 19, 1970.
I thought it was kind of exciting, actually, she said her of arrival in Vietnam. We flew in in the
middle of the night and slept briefly on cots, and were sent out the next night. I was sent to Chu
Lai and assigned to the 27th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. I was 22 years old and would call
myself fairly naive. I hadnt seen anything horrible happen yet, but I knew bad things did. At that
point it was an adventure, but I had no idea what to expect.
When I got to the hospital, that was an adjustment. They showed us out hootches. They were
semi-permanent wooden buildings. Of course it was hot, but they had a separate room for the

nurses and doctors who worked the night shift that had air conditioning, because you couldnt
have it for each room. And it was so hot you couldnt sleep. But that broke down about halfway
through and never got replaced. But we all survived it. The joke was that the pilots had air
conditioning, but they said Well you dont want a sleepy pilot. I thought you might not want a
sleepy nurse either!
The hootches werent bad. They were small, and you had a few shelves, your footlocker, a small
cabinet, and a little closet for hanging clothes. The Mama-Sans did our laundry. We ate in the
mess-hall. The food was for young men, so it wasnt exactly dietary heaven for a young woman
who wanted to watch her weight. But the food was solid, I dont remember disliking it.
Phyllis and the other nurses enjoyed a few perks of being the only American women.
There was a civilian engineering outfit nearby, and they would invite the American nurses over
to their compound fairly often. And they had steaks, and shrimp, and all the good stuff. And the
wine. So it was nice. I dont think the male nurses got invited very often.

Nursing
Phyllis soon discovered the old Army tradition of learning by doing.
When I got there they said, Have you ever started an IV, and I said Yeah. Id been on a ward
at Fort Bragg and learned how to do IVs with an 18 gauge needle. So they said Oh good, well
put you in the ER. I said I didnt have any ER experience, Im just out of school and my school
didnt have an ER. I got down there and discovered that the IV they wanted me to use was even
bigger. I said I couldnt get that in a calf and they said Before long youll be getting it in
children. Which turned out to be true.
Her patients in the ER were mostly injured. She saw a lot of injured limbs, shrapnel wounds that
were not too deep, and some head wounds.
We lost some patients. They came in with severe injuries that we couldnt treat, she said. One
of those memories I would almost like to forget and cant was a young man, still alert, saying
Please, please dont let me die. He was bleeding out right in front of us, and we couldnt stop it.
Thats one of those memories that sticks out and doesnt want to go away.
One day they brought some body bags in, and the sergeants wouldnt let me go back to deal
with them. An officer had to go back but they would not let us go back. They said, These bodies
have been in the water for several days and you dont need to see this. I dont think it was a lack
of respect for our abilities, but a desire to protect us.
From the ER, Phyllis transferred first to the intensive care unit, then the medical ward, finally
ending up on the Vietnamese ward. She especially liked that ward, where she worked with a lot
of children and local women. Many of them were injured in the war, some from what we refer to
today as collateral damage, but she didnt dwell on that.

I didnt even, at that point, ask how they got those injuries, they just came to us for help and we
helped them.
I didnt think about it, she said of the security. Whenever the alarms went off we had to run
down into the bunkers and sit there in the sucking heat until the bells cleared. The funny thing
was that we were at the edge of a compound, and if the mortar landed 500 feet away but off the
compound we didnt go to the bunkers. But if it landed 3 miles away but on the compound we
went to the bunkers. We sat there one time watching the mortars hit off the compound.
But I wasnt conscious of being at risk, she added. Now one of our doctors came in from six
months out in the field, every time hear it hed hit that wall and be down. And we kind of
laughed at first but he said That was incoming. We asked him how he could tell and he said
You can tell. Well we couldnt, the nurses couldnt.
Phyllis says she was issued a soldiers full kit, except for a weapon.
I had everything but the actual .45, which was what they were giving nurses at the time. Thats
another story because in Basic they had us fire the .45. Of course the .45 has a pretty good
kickback. So I fire it and the sergeant says Okay, youre done and I said Wait a minute, I didnt
hit anything. What is this for? He said: Familiarization, so you know what it is. I said, Yeah,
but that wont do me any good. And he said, Lieutenant, if the enemy gets close enough to you
to fire that thing, throw it.
Phyllis also reflected on how she avoided PTSD.
I never felt threatened, but Im the kind of person I take my life one day at a time and really
dont often dwell too much on what might happen down the road. I think that might have
something to do with how I came out of Vietnam. Also my very strong belief that in spite of
everything we do to each other there is a God. Yes, he allows horrible things to happen, but I still
believe Hes there.
Phyllis knows first-hand that not all veterans are so lucky.
My younger brother served as a Navy helicopter crew chief in Vietnam. He was shot down a
couple of times and came back with severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. One nurse was in the
ER when her fianc was brought in nearly dead. My own daughter got engaged in Afghanistan,
and her fiancs helicopter had a hard landing and he was hospitalized with a concussion.
Something like that is life changing and very traumatic. I didnt have those kinds of things. I
have memories that hurt, people that didnt make it, children who didnt make it. But I dont
have nightmares.
Phyllis stayed in the Army and served until retiring as a lieutenant colonel in the late 1980s.
I dont regret going, she said, reflecting on her time in Vietnam. I would have gone again if
wed been there long enough. Thats what I was, I was an Army Nurse.