You'll know you're a military nurse when the term "scope of practice" is an illusion 7,000 miles away. When your "shift" turns into a 72 hour long rollercoaster that starts in the ER, moves on to a MEDEVAC, followed by another, before finally ending up back in the ER. You walk into the trauma bay where you find your battle (fellow nurse), who has been covering the ER while you were gone, sleeping in the empty trauma bay. They wake up and look at you and you both smile; because you both know t... Read More ››

You'll know you're a military nurse when on the first day you completely take over, there is a MASCAL...it was our first MASCAL, our first DOA (dead on arrival), our first MEDEVAC. We had just gotten to Abu Ghraib to relieve a reserve unit. We had just completed the right seat/left seat and we were on our own. A call came in, the Marine humvee was hit by an IED. We rushed to await what rolls in. One DOA, one came barely scratched up, but one Marine came all tore up, he had gray matter showing.... Read More ››

1975--1979,WILFORD HALL, LACKLAND AFB, TX.. ENDUCTED AS A 1ST BLACK PRIMARY CARE NURSE PRACTITIONER(PCNP), AFTER V.A. IN HOUSE TRAINING TO HELP WITH POST VIETNAM HIGH PATIENT LOADS. 1ST ACTIVE DUTY ASSIGNMENT, LACKLAND AFB, BEFORE PHYSICIAN ASST. PROGRAMS AND DEGREE NURSE PRACT. PROGAM BECAME POPULAR. PCNP PICTURE USED AS A POSTOR FOR RECRUITERS OFFICES. USING MY MASTERS IN NURSING, I WAS ALLOWED TO GO INTO ADMINISTRATION AND OFF TO KOREAN. A SMALL CLINIC AND HOSPITAL, HAD TO HELPED PREP... Read More ››

.....when promoted, you wear the LT bars given to you after the death of a beloved patient, a senior chief, who always hoped to one day be an officer, and wear the bars given to him by a favorite teacher. He was a proud, yet humble man, had served his adult career in the United States Navy for a country he loved. He had 25 children, and had reared them with his devoted wife on an enlisted man's hard earned salary. He was struck down with pancreatic cancer, at an all to young age. Weakened by... Read More ››

“You’ll know you’re a military nurse when you have to move your hospital and all the patients while continuing to be totally operational.” In 2003 I was assigned as an Operating Room Nurse to the 28th Combat Support Hospital. After deployment to Kuwait, we convoyed into Iraq in March several days after the war with Iraq had started. We set up the hospital in the desert southwest of Baghdad in an area named Logistics Support Base (LSA) Dog pound. We shortly began caring for U.S. and allied tr... Read More ››

... when you go to war aboard a Hawaiian Airlines 747 with everyone wearing BDUs and gas masks bags - except for the stewards in their ALOHA shirts - wishing you "Good Luck!". (Thanks) You land in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Hawaiian Airlines has lost your luggage - just like in the States. So you lie around on your personal bags watching the planes take off and land while the frantic Major tries to find your equipment. Suddenly a missile fires and nearly hits a C-141 taking off - everyone jumps ... Read More ››

You know you are a military nurse when, you get the call to deploy and take 35 brand new nurses to war. I had the privilege of serving with the 10th Combat Support Hospital out of Fort Carson, Colorado from October 2005 to October 2006. With us were 35 new 2LTs with less then one year of experience in nursing, almost half the staff. Yet, we had to staff a trauma hospital and get ready to take care of some of the worst wounded you will ever see. But, as military nurses we didn’t see this as a... Read More ››

you are a flight nurse sitting in a C 130 Hercules with sweat dripping off your earlobes, into your eyes and down your face in 115 degree heat on the flight line in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia waiting to pick up an urgent air evacuation patient in Kuwait. The plane takes off with a pile of army infantry rifles 12 inches high in the middle of the webbed seats [yes, in most circumstances all "loose items must be securely stowed, but not on this day] and you start to feel nauseated. Because "green gas ... Read More ››