![]() Photo: The helicopter landing area known as Vampire Pad and the covered walkway to the Triage area of the 1st Australian Field Hospital. The nursing work was very demanding however and the hours long on a routine week the nurses worked twelve-hour shifts, six days a week, earning two-thirds of what a male officer of similar rank earned. Ĭountless lives were saved in Vietnam by the ability to evacuate casualties from forward areas quickly, often within an hour of men being wounded or injured. The hospital specialised in fast treatment for Australian casualties and was connected to the Nui Dat task force by US ambulance helicopters. ![]() In April the following year, the 8th Australian Field Ambulance transitioned into the 1st Australian Field Hospital which remained operational until late in 1971. Shortly after they arrived, a New Zealand army nurse, Margaret Torrey joined them. Undertaking a tour of twelve months, the first four nurses (playfully dubbed the ‘fab four’) served with the 8th Australian Field Ambulance then stationed at the Australian Logistic Support Group compound at Vung Tau, a coastal resort 60 miles south-east of Saigon. A nursing sister attends to a soldier lying on a hospital bed in the outdoors. They were also crucial, in maintaining the wounded soldiers morale. All however were dedicated and devoted and served with great courage, resilience and resourcefulness. ![]() ![]() And despite the Vietnam War being the first major ‘televised war’, in later oral histories, the women all agreed that they had had no deep understanding about why the war they were sent to, was in fact being waged. Before leaving, the nurses did not receive any specific training or practical information to prepare them for their daunting task to perform nursing duties in a primitive, tropical war zone that until then had been carried out by male Army medical assistants and orderlies. In total forty-three women volunteered to serve their country as army nursing sisters between May 1967 and November 1971. The first group of Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps (RAANC) nursing sisters deployed to Vietnam in May 1967 were led by Captain Amy Pittendreigh. From left to right Lieutenant Colleen Mealy, Lieutenant Margaret Ahern, Captain Amy Pittendreigh, Lieutenant Terrie Roche. Photo: The first group of Australian Army nurses of 8th Field Ambulance to arrive in Vietnam in May 1967. ![]()
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