Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler’s legacy created one of the most popular patriotic albums in music history. It may seem outdated today but during the mid-sixties, it spoke to a large segment of America’s population. He wrote songs about courage and anything you can think about in a war.
Among all the songs he recorded, “Salute to the Nurses” relays a different subject. As the title implies, the song paid tribute to the nurses stationed in Vietnam during the war. The lyrics talk about the injuries, both physically and mentally, the soldiers have endured during their patrols. Further, it creates a picture of how the nurses would help the soldiers not only with health but with other important issues that you may run into.
After the battle after the fight
many owe their lives to the ladies and men in white
And all of the men in this war torn land
salute the nurses of Vietnam
They know the awful toll of war each day
they know more than any the price we pay
A soldier his hands too burned to write
a nurse takes down his words through the lonely night
Vietnam War Women
Any soldier who spent time in the hospital during the Vietnam War surely has fond memories of those brave women who took care of them and offered compassion.
They have gone to the front where men fought
in the night from Pleiku to Qui Nhon
where war these men fight
Many a wounded soldier pain is eased for a while
by opening his eyes to see a nurse’s smile
Though there’s relatively little official data that exists about female Vietnam War veterans, the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Foundation estimates that approximately 11,000 military women were stationed in Vietnam during the conflict. Nearly all of them were volunteers, and 90 percent served as military nurses, but women also worked as physicians, air traffic controllers, intelligence officers, clerks and other positions in the U.S. Women’s Army Corps, U.S. Navy, Air Force and Marines and the Army Medical Specialist Corps. In addition to women in the armed forces, an unknown number of civilian women served in Vietnam on behalf of the Red Cross, United Service Organizations (USO), Catholic Relief Services and other humanitarian organizations, or as foreign correspondents for various news organizations.
To each of the wounded on the operating shelf
these nurses give a part of themselves
I know every soldier to the last man will
sometimes say a prayer for the nurses of Vietnam
After the battle after the fight
many owe their lives to the ladies and men in white
And all of the men in this war torn land
salute the nurses of Vietnam
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Tags
Salute to the Nurse, Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler, Vietnam War