Combat nurse praises Legion for decades of support
Near the end of her remarks at the 102nd American Legion National Convention Tuesday in Phoenix, Diane Carlson Evans ended her recollection of the battle to see a permanent memorial for women of the Vietnam War, and she posed a question for the crowd.
“Now you may be asking, how is any of this – talking about a memorial dedicated 28 years ago – relevant today? Well, here is your answer: you deserve gratitude. You deserve appreciation from all of us who benefit from your important work. And now, finally, we welcome home and honor those veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and around the world. They need what The American Legion can give them.”
On Aug. 31, the Vietnam War combat nurse and life member of American Legion Post 2 in Helena, Mont., received the organization’s most prestigious award, the Distinguished Service Medal, for decades of service and achievements that span back to 1968-69 when at age 22 she saved lives and cared for wounded troops in the thick of the Vietnam War.
With local, district, department and national American Legion support at every step of a complicated 10-year journey, she later saw to fruition the Vietnam Women’s Memorial on the National Mall in 1993.
She has continued in recent decades to advocate on behalf of her fellow Vietnam War veterans, male and female, served on The American Legion’s 100th Anniversary Honorary Committee, received the organization’s Patriot Award in 2018, and her 2020 autobiography “Healing Wounds: A Vietnam War Combat Nurse’s 10-Year Fight to Win Women a Place of Honor in Washington, D.C.” explores not only how the memorial came to life but the personal struggles she had with post-traumatic stress after the war.
She told thousands of Legionnaires that their support and work on her behalf – and for all wartime veterans – will continue to benefit the newest generation of veterans, those coming home now from the longest war in U.S. history.
“The attacks and attempts to whittle away our veterans programs may never cease,” she said. “American Legion leaders move your initiatives and programs forward in so many ways – aging veterans, physical and mental health … it’s all been discussed at your convention. Closest to the heart of the Legion are service officers, who helped me with my claim. Front-line advocacy, at all times, for us. There is a place for each of us in the Legion. I found my place was alongside you, to help heal the emotional wounds of war.”
She explained that American Legion support was instrumental to reach Veterans Day 1993 when the Vietnam Women’s Memorial was dedicated after years of resistance in Washington. “It took 10 years to finally honor the women with a memorial, but we prevailed. It took me 50 years to write my book, ‘Healing Wounds,’ published last year, to talk about that fight and to share my own deeply personal experience in Vietnam, and how that led to making history.”
The journey to that moment 28 years ago began with a lunch meeting with American Legion Past National Commander Dan Foley of Minnesota who she called a “torchbearer” in what would become a difficult battle to put the memorial on the National Mall. “Over lunch, he told me what had to be done to get a resolution passed, but he made me work for it. He taught me the way, while I had to prove to the Legionnaires that I was serious. I never dropped the ball, but you kept it in the air for me, and helped fulfill the dream of a national monument to honor my sister veterans, the first in the history of the United States honoring military women, on the national mall in Washington, D.C.
“I believe this prestigious award says more about you than it says about me. I see today as finally my opportunity to say thank you to The American Legion … I am here to thank you for what you did, not for what I did.”
Founder of the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Foundation, Carlson Evans continued her work in support of women veterans, combat nurses and all who served in the Vietnam War. She has received dozens of awards and three honorary doctorate degrees.
In receiving the Distinguished Service Medal, she joins such figures in American history as Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan; Gens. John Pershing and Dwight Eisenhower; Sens. Robert and Elizabeth Dole; Dr. Jonas Salk; Babe Ruth, Bob Hope, Henry Kissinger and the Dead and Missing from the Vietnam War.
But the most meaningful moment in her life, she said, came from serving her country during a time of war. “No matter what war, we served together … Our bonds are deep. Our appreciation for sacrifice and our compelling need to remember the dead and help the living are ingrained in us. The greatest privilege of my life was to serve as a trauma nurse in a combat zone, caring for the wounded and dying, Pleiku, Vietnam.”
Learn about her book, “Healing Wounds: A Vietnam War Combat Nurse’s 10-Year Fight to Win Women a Place of Honor in Washington, D.C.”