People sometimes talk about the conflict of having women on
the front lines. Little do they realize, as this memorial is proof of, women
have been on the front lines for centuries. They have been following the front
lines as healers and camp mates since ancient times. A civilization cannot
survive without its women.
This image is extremely powerful. It shows one female nurse looking up, her
right hand extended back. Is she looking up in hope of rescue/help, calling
out? Is she protected those behind her, defiant of the danger around her? Is
she providing the other nurse comfort and strength? The second female nurse is
very present and attentive to her patient.
She has a calm, focused look. She cradles him with care and strength
while providing pressure to his wound. She is the calm in the storm around her;
competent, calm, cool, collected, and compassionate. You may not notice but the male soldier is
blindfolded. He is totally reliant on these guardian angels around him.
If you look around the corner of the statue you would find a
third nurse. On her knees, holding the
male soldier's helmet, this nurse is the personification of humanity's reaction
to war. The confusion and grief on her
face is the outward expression of the internal turmoil that must come from what
the nurses of the Vietnam War must have experienced.
While most nurses will never need to experience the horrors
that those men and women faced, today we need to remember how to be like those
who paved the way for the rest of us, a guardian, an angel, and human.
