Station Hospital Saigon

Book excerpt: In 1963 Bobbi Hovis and four other nurses arrived in Saigon charged with the monumental task of converting, in four days, a dilapidated apartment building into the first U.S. Navy Station hospital in Vietnam. This engaging memoir, one of the few books written by and about women in war, describes their efforts to provide the first American casualties with excellent care despite third-world conditions. It is an inspiring story told with candor and humor. Operating in a city of chaos, where the extraordinary became the ordinary as the war escalated, Hovis provides a rare inside look at Vietnam in the early years of conflict. Her vivid impressions contrast the serene beauty of the countryside, before the ravages of full-scale war, with the excitement of Saigon and the horror of Viet Cong bombing attacks. Her gripping firsthand account of the Diem coup gives the reader a true sense of the turmoil and uncertainty experienced by the beleaguered medical staff. Her recollections of activities that helped to alleviate the intensity of her hospital duty--holidays in Cambodia, tennis and tea parties with the Westmorelands and Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge--further highlight the contrasts of her experience and allow the reader to become part of the small circle of U.S. personnel then in Vietnam. This accurate, very personal memoir makes a significant contribution to the history of the Navy Nurse Corps and the Vietnam experience. Drafted in 1964, while her memories were still fresh, and recently revised for publication, the work captures the confidence and esprit of men and women who were proud to be part of the military effort and had no inkling of the agonizing conclusion to the war that was to cometen years later. Illustrated with over forty of Hovis's personal photographs and introduced by Rear Admiral Frances Shea Buckley, NC, USN (Ret.), Station Hospital Saigon will appeal to everyone who spent time in Vietnam or knows someone who did, and will serve as a valuable primary reference for historians.