August 2, 2019
Hello ,
If I don't laugh, I'll cry forever. Those are the words of Lieutenant Colonel Cora L. Burton. That's what she titled her book that tells the story of her year as an army nurse in Vietnam.
When Cora arrived in the war zone in September of 1969, she was one of the most experienced black women in the army, but this would be her first duty under fire, her first time in a combat hospital.
She admits she was "frightened out of her wits."
Cora Burton caught my attention because after writing about so many black women who served in World War II, I was curious about the women who followed them.
And being an army nurse, Cora also sparked my interest because I became so attached to the army nurses who figured in my book Pure Grit, but who were all white, due to the racist restrictions of the time.
The photo shows Major Cora Burton while stationed at the 91st Evacuation Hospital at Chu Lai. The city experienced almost daily rocket attacks while she was there September 1969 to September 1970.
Cora supervised the triage of wounded patients, jumping to help when needed. This has got to be one of the most stressful jobs as a nurse, assessing injuries and deciding who gets immediate treatment, who can wait, and who will get no treatment because they are likely to die anyway.
Cora saw the worst the weapons of war can do to a human body. But another potentially deadly problem facing the U.S. soldiers in Vietnam was racial conflict.
It was no secret to the chain of command, and when her unit got orders from Washington D.C. to set up a Human Relations Council to deal with racial tensions, Cora was handed the job on top of her nursing duties.
Wounded U.S. paratroopers are helped by fellow soldiers to a medical evacuation helicopter on during the Vietnam War. (AP Photo)
"I had already observed division among the troops, so I took on the task with energy I didn't know I had...In the combat area with this kind of distraction and separation, I was afraid perhaps none of us would survive," Cora wrote in the introduction to her book.
"The duty in Vietnam called for all the physical and emotional strength you possessed...some soldiers arrived in Vietnam with racial preconceptions, but most did not know what to do with all the other emotions they felt. They were experiencing extreme anger, fear and confusion, not to mention regret that they didn't head for Canada. Some fearful and confused ones turned to drugs while the angry ones targeted other
races--both blacks and whites."
One day Cora was called to speak with a panicked black private holding two white MPs at gunpoint. She convinced the soldier to surrender.
She had earned a bachelor's degree in psychology, as well as her nursing degree, and was no stranger to racial discrimination.
"These racial conflicts raised their ugly head [in Vietnam]. Luckily, that was one form of combat duty for which I was ready," Cora said.'
She held monthly meetings for people to air their grievances and counseled people on how to lessen stress and deal with racial strife. Cora mediated confrontations and educated soldiers about ethnic slurs.
All this, while she dodged sexual discrimination and harassment from her commander.
“The Colonel found ways to let me know what he wanted from me in return for my support–my body. I learned to duck with such grace and poise, I soon became as fleet of foot as any prima ballerina. I didn’t want to offend or anger him because I had been warned of his vindictiveness. Instead, I called on all the psychology I had learned as well as my intuitiveness to stay out of his clutches.”
“The only thing I wanted to do was finish my tour and get the hell out of there unscathed physically and mentally and without a vindictive blow from the commanding officer via my efficiency [report]. In those days this type of annoyance was called hitting on you. Now it’s called sexual harassment.”
Cora received the Bronze Star for her performance in Vietnam. She spent all of her nursing career in the Army Nurse Corps after joining in 1956, retiring as a lieutenant colonel.
She was one of about 11,000 American women who served in-country during the Vietnam war, some 90-percent of them military nurses. Due to guerrilla warfare, there was no safe "behind the lines." They lived and worked risking their
lives.
In addition, combat nurses often suffered anger at seeing so many young men terribly wounded or dying, and guilt that they cannot save them all and send them home whole.
The nurses also treated many civilians, women and children victims of the violence, and some also volunteered their time in local orphanages or hospitals on the off hours.
These woman are honored with a memorial located just north of the Reflecting Pool on the Washington D.C. mall. Dedicated in 1993, the Vietnam Women’s Memorial depicts three uniformed women with a wounded soldier.
After 1967, nearly all the nurses arriving in Vietnam were volunteers straight out of school, becoming the youngest group of American medical professionals to serve in combat.
Many were wounded. Eight nurses were killed, they are named on The Wall honoring those who died in the war.
Sources:
You can get the Kindle edition of Cora Burton's book If I Don't Laugh, I'll Cry
Forever on Amazon, and there are several copies available in libraries around the U.S. that you can request through inter-library loan at your local branch.
For another view on military nursing in Vietnam, check out this article by Diane Carlson Evans. She is the former military nurse who wrote the forward to my book Pure
Grit an led the effort to establish the Vietnam Women's Memorial.
In follow up to my previous newsletter on The Red Summer, Bob wrote to correct my information on the situation of farmers after WWI.
Agriculture was still booming as American farmers were feeding a starving Europe.... Agriculture collapsed around 1922 as Europeans were able to bring their farms back on line. American farmers had invested heavily during WWI in mechanical assistance, notably tractors, reapers ect. To allow them to accommodate the massive demands of the European market.
Mechanical assistance drastically reduced the labor to produce crops. The Europeans were starving and their fields were fallow due to the demands on manpower required on the front lines. American prices boomed with the increase in demand for exported wheat and other commodities and prices went through the roof.
When Europeans began to till their fields again American prices tanked and farmers, to cover their investments in machinery, increased their acreage. Increased production (with a tanking market) forced commodity prices down…. So the farmers brought more acreage under the plow (or in this case tractor which was a far more efficient producer.)
It was a vicious cycle that was not resolved until FDR passed the Agricultural Adjustment Act. In the same era you had the environmental disaster that caused the Dust Bowl.
Thanks, Bob! I always appreciate hearing from you all.
Until next week...
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