The Book
More than 250,000 women served in the U.S. military during the Vietnam War. Approximately 7500 of them went to Vietnam, 6000 of them as nurses. Sisterhood of War tells the story of fifteen nurses from Minnesota who spent a year caring for the casualties of war, came home to a divided country, and descended into a silent struggle with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. In order to heal themselves, they bonded together as sister veterans, sharing their stories with each other in a PTSD support group and with the nation in the Vietnam Women’s Memorial.
A Tradition of Service
No American woman has ever been drafted into military service, and for generations they were legally prohibited from serving in their country’s military. Nevertheless, American women have a long history of serving their country during war. They have supported male soldiers as wives, mothers, sisters, friends, and workers; they have worked with the military as civilians; they have built the economic and material infrastructure necessary during wartime; they have sustained families broken apart by war and cared for war’s wounded; they have spoken in defense of and in opposition to war, in the name of self, family, and nation. But they have also participated more directly in war, whether legally allowed to do so or not. ...more