By Jennifer Dolsen
In 1966, at 26 years old, decorated nurse and Vietnam veteran Sarah Blum joined the U.S. Army, drawn to serve by the daily news reports on the radio.
The Atlantic City, New Jersey, native joined as an operating room nurse and was eventually assigned to the 12th Evacuation Hospital in Củ Chi, a district outside Ho Chi Minh City — the location of several military campaigns, and most notably, the base of operations for the Viet Cong’s violent Tét Offensive in 1968.
“My year in Vietnam changed everything,” said Blum, now a nurse psychotherapist treating post-traumatic stress and author of the book, “Women Under Fire: Abuse in the Military,” a collection of women veterans’ accounts ranging from World War II to present day. “I had lived through war and its effects in a life-threatening situation for a full year and was used to high intensity.”
“My own transition was very difficult,” she told Task & Purpose. “I was five months pregnant
and a qualified nurse from a high leadership position in the military, but could not get a job at home. When I got out … I was completely out of sync with society.”
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