Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
Auclair, who served as an army nurse during the Vietnam War, is currently much in demand by local book groups whose members have read and enjoyed Kristan Hannah’s best-seller, “The Women.” The novel, which focuses on a young nurse serving in the United States Army Nurse Corps during the war, is a tale of patriotism, deep female friendships and incredible challenges.
Hannah dedicates her book to the courageous women who served in VietNam, most of them nurses. “In too many instances, they came home to a country that didn’t care about their service and a world that didn’t want to hear about their experiences; they postwar struggles and their stories were too often forgotten or marginalized,” she writes. “I am proud to have this opportunity to shine a light on their strength, resilience and grit.”
>> Abby Auclair can be reached at abby.auclair@gmail.com.
Auclair admits she has not read the book. “At first, I was bitter about it,” she said. " I thought Kristin Hannah was making money off our story and she wasn’t even in Vietnam. "
She has since changed her mind and is now able to appreciate the author’s decision to tell the important story. “Now I feel like Ms. Hannah wrote an historical novel and I was one of the characters,” she said. " But I still don’t plan to read her book. I think it would be too painful. I don’t need to read it; I lived it.”
Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
Among those who have appreciated Auclair’s presentations is Jane Alter of Centerville. Her book club met at Wright Library in Oakwood to discuss “The Women.”
“When Abby shared her experiences as a nurse during The Vietnam War, I felt she validated what Kristen Hannah wrote,” Alter said. “She told many similar stories to those related in the novel. She told us that the nurses gave shots by flashlights, and that the injured dying soldiers would call out names as the nurses held their hands. Abby said most of the nurses were young with brief training and served 10 months in VietNam. "
How it began
It’s no surprise that Abby Auclair ended up as an army nurse. Her dad was an army “lifer” and she was born at Ft. Jackson Hospital, in Columbia, South Carolina. The family lived near the base and Auclair has vivid memories of the displays on Armed Forces Day. The recruitment brochures she picked up about the Army Nurse Corps were treasured and well-worn.
She looked forward to nursing school at the University of South Carolina and was awarded an Army student nurse scholarship. After graduation, at age 23, she spent a few months in an orthopedic amputee ward. Then suddenly, in May of 1971, she found herself in a plane headed for Vietnam.
" I really wasn’t fearful of the war,” Auclair says now. “Mostly I was afraid I wasn’t adequately trained for war-time medicine.”
It was a legitimate concern. She wasn’t prepared to have her plane fired upon while deplaning in Vietnam. She couldn’t have imagined that the living quarters and 85th Evacuation Hospital in Phu Bai would be so dilapidated. She was horrified by the rats and snakes but quickly learned that the frogs in the operating room were a blessing. They were there to help reduce the number of insects.
The hospital was next to a munitions dump and was regularly shelled. Auclair had to learn how to help her patients get under their beds to protect them from incoming fire and to place mattresses on top of those who couldn’t be moved.
And she certainly wasn’t prepared to see so many critically ill patients at once, as many as 20 who had been mortally wounded.
Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
She will never forget the handsome young Lieutenant who lay dying in his hospital bed. “No amount of suctioning, towels and surgical intervention could remove the excessive bleeding that flowed from his dying body,” Auclair remembers. “He drifted in and out of consciousness.”
As the young man fought gallantly to survive, he called for nurses asking them who won the World Series.
“We were all stunned by that question and no one had the answer,” said Auclair. “There was no social media, newspapers. We sent a corpsman to run through the hospital shouting ‘Who won the world series?’ Finally, he returned with the answer. The brave lieutenant smiled, said ‘good,’ and passed away shortly thereafter.”
Moving on
In January of 1972, after serving in Phu Bai for six months, the 85th EvacHospital was closed down and the nurses were transferred to the 95th Evac Hospital in DaNang.
Auclair said it was the little things that kept them sane. A good example was the litter of puppies born on the compound in Phu Bai they had come to love. When it was time to move on, the nurses were told the puppies would have to be left behind.
Imagine their surprise when they were greeted in DaNang by their adorable little friends. “The crew of a Medevac helicopter,” said Auclair, “had medevacked them to us at the 95th!”
Three months later, as the war began to wind down, the nurses were on their way home. The only negative experience she remembers is when someone told her if the medical personnel had refused to go to VietNam there couldn’t have been a war. “As a 23-year-old, I really took those words to heart,” she said. “But I soon realized I wasn’t responsible for the war.”
Back in the United States, Auclair attended the Army OB-Gyn nurse-practitioner course, then worked as a nurse practitioner for four years at Ft. Bragg in North Carolina.
After her army service, she signed up for the Air Force and earned a master’s degree in nursing. She met her husband, Paul, at an Air Force base in Montana. She separated from the military in 1980 after 10 years of service.
Now, when someone thanks her for her service, Auclair responds: “You were worth it.” The couple has been married 46 years and have two daughters and four grandchildren.
Sharing her story
When Auclair was featured in a PBS segment about her time in VietNam, Auclair said she would do it all again.
“For many years, I believed that,” she says now. But since serious medical problems from her exposure to the herbicide Agent Orange began to manifest themselves — both for herself and then for her two daughters — she has changed her response. “If I had known the long term ramifications of my exposure to Agent Orange, I would never have gone,” she says now.
For the past six months, Auclair has been sharing her personal VietNam journey with organizations and book groups. “I have yet to make it through my story without tearing up,” she said. “But it blesses and validates me. Everybody asks very pertinent questions and I feel such love and appreciation from every group, not only for me but for all of the nurses who served in VietNam.”
One of those who appreciated hearing AuClair is Bonnie Beaman Rice who hosted a book club meeting at her Kettering home.
“As I listened to Abby describe her experiences as a nurse in Vietnam, I couldn’t help but think that if I had lost a loved one in that war, I’d be so very grateful that the last person they would have encountered on this early would be this young and brave ‘angel’ who demonstrated such strength and compassion,” said Rice. “She has surely absorbed the grief of touching so many lost souls; it was an act of humanity and service that can never be repaid and which should forever be appreciated.”
>> Abby Auclair can be reached at abby.auclair@gmail.com.
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