Page 41 - November Sun Rays_Flip book LR

Trudy Glackin Colonel Christine Inouye
ics’ Technician “C” School located at the
32nd Street Naval Station. I met my hus-
band shortly after I arrived in San Diego
and ten months later we were married.
Two years after my discharge from the
Navy, I joined the Army Reserves along
with my husband.
I received a Letter of Commendation
for the work I did transcribing various
ship electronics training manuals for the
Vietnamese. This project required a huge
commitment on my part but more impor-
tantly on the part of the instructors. I feel sic training. It was hotter than hell. We
blessed to have been included as part of
their team.
Because of my job, I knew when ships were
leaving for Vietnam. I would stand on the
pier at the Naval Station in San Diego
watching them pass by. It was hard real-
izing that some of the guys I knew would
never return. Twice I watched the ship my
husband was on leave dock. I remember
getting in my car to leave base and driv-
ing to the tip of the peninsula to watch
his ship fade into the mist of the ocean.
I would stand there for what seemed like
hours wishing it back.
Though I know the support work I did
stateside was important, I was not per-
mitted to go to Vietnam or serve on
ship because I was a woman. I volun-
teered anyway, but the only response
was a thank you note from Navy Com-
mand. As an enlisted woman, I was ex-
cluded from going, but I wanted to serve.
ONLINE: SCTEXAS.ORG
flatable tents called DEPMEDS (deploy-
US Army Nurse Corps (1976-2004)
I was born in Baltimore but grew up in
California. I got my nursing from UCLA
and was working in the ER when I decided
to join the Army. There wasn’t any real
reason except in 1976, the Army Nurse
Corps was the only service actively recruit- I worked with dentists and other health
ing. I think today I would have chosen the
Navy or Air Force because those services
had better duty stations than the Army.
I went to Fort Sam Houston officer ba-
marched around in skirts, stockings and
heels. Field training at Camp Bullis was
worse, wearing fatigues, flak jackets, hel-
mets and boots in 110 degree heat.
My first duty station was at Sagami Ono
in Japan. It was a hospital affiliated with
Camp Zama, where people coming out of
Vietnam were evacuated, but because I was
there during peace time we pretty much
took care of service men and their families
on the base.
During Desert Storm, our group landed
first in Kuwait City. Soldiers and guns
were everywhere. We never knew when
something bad was going to happen. The
building we were in had no plumbing and
no beds, so we slept in sleeping bags on a
concrete floor.
After a few days we traveled to the Combat
Support Hospital in Saudi Arabia, which
was actually comprised of numerous in-
Left, Christine Inouye as an Army officer; right, today.
able medical systems). Our quarters were
DEPMEDS, too. Each housed eighteen
women - mostly nurses. Once a week a tent
was converted to a shower facility, with
wood slats on the floor and signs posted as
to which times were for women and which
were for men.
professionals on a project called Dental
Readiness while stationed at the US Cen-
ter for Health Promotion and Preventive
Medicine. Dental hygiene in the military
has always been a problem as lack of time
and water made brushing nearly impos-
sible and the gum provided in the MREs
was not sugar free. It took time and effort,
but our team was able to get the military to
replace the sugar gum in MREs to xylitol
sweetened.
When you’re here in the states and you
know that your unit has been mobilized,
you have to go through a lot of training.
You go over marksmanship, putting on
your gear and gas masks. They have gas
chambers that you go through as an ex-
ercise, but until you’re actually there you
don’t realize how scary it is. You’ve only
got nine seconds to get on your mask and
gear, and after that it’s just waiting.
Women contribute a significant amount
of knowledge and experience. Our Armed
Forces are better because of what we are
and what we do.
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