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The civilian healthcare sector was struggling with nationwide nursing shortages, and both the Army Nurse Corps (ANC) and Navy Nurse Corps had shrunk to a fraction of their World War 2 strength.įacing a shortfall of more than 2,000 nurses, the Army launched an ambitious recruitment campaign called Operation Nightingale. military personnel in Vietnam grew from 16,000 to around 550,000, although until 1965, American troops were still officially considered advisers to the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN).Īs early as 1962, the buildup in Vietnam highlighted the urgent need for more military nurses. involvement in the region escalated dramatically in the 1960s. Recruiting Nurses: Operation NightingaleĪlthough some American forces were stationed in Vietnam in the ‘50s, U.S. Some didn’t make it home alive, and many others were changed forever. nurses - the large majority of them women - served in Vietnam during the war. involvement in Vietnam do not depict a single American nurse. Surgeries still continued.The nurses who served in the Vietnam War are among the least recognized of American military veterans. At night, the "Helgoland" left its harbor for the safer open sea.
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They amputated limbs day and night from children, women and men, whose legs were torn to shreds by mines, who were wounded by gunshots or who had bad Napalm burns on their bodies. On top of that, treatment on the boat came for free.įor the doctors and nurses, working with the many civilian patients was a big challenge physically and mentally. "We never asked where they came from," the chief physician aboard the "Helgoland" recalled.
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The Vietnamese called the "Helgoland" the "white ship of hope." The crew helped everyone, no matter which side they may have been on. Word got around quickly that the German ship spelled salvation for the ill and wounded. Medical care in the country was a disaster there was only one doctor per 17,000 people. The floating hospital was the most modern clinic in all of Vietnam. Since the boat was under protection of the Geneva Conventions, it was considered strictly neutral. Only civilians were treated on board, no soldiers. The final harbor for the "Helgoland" in Vietnam was the city of Da Nang, close to the war. When the first wounded civilians were brought on board, the German medics were shocked. But the doctors and nurses were not prepared for the horrors that were awaiting them. The "Helgoland" reached the South Vietnamese capital Saigon in September 1966, protected by mine-detection ships. Last resort for civilians: Two "Helgoland" nurses with a Vietnamese child Some 150 beds and three operating rooms were set up along the boat's 92 meters (300 feet). Instead of tourists, there were ten doctors and 30 nurses on board from the German Red Cross. Under protection of the Geneva Convention The German response was the deployment of the "Helgoland." In a rush, the German Red Cross had converted the boat into a hospital ship, as ordered by the German government. The US kept insisting on support from their Western German allies. The Americans' entry into the war put pressure on the German government. Soon, communist North Vietnam and the US got involved as well. A violent civil war between communists and anti-communists had been raging in the country for years. The goal, roughly 12,000 kilometers (7500 miles) away: South Vietnam. In 1966, the "Helgoland" left for her longest journey yet. Soon, the little ship would have a much more serious purpose. But the Helgoland's days as a pleasure boat were coming to an end. Stressed-out city slickers wanted the boat to take them to the famous chalk cliffs, where they could relax. Passengers used to be able to find laughing children and fun times aboard the pleasure boat "Helgoland." The 1963-built vessel transported happy tourists from the northern German port town of Cuxhaven to the island of Helgoland.