CPT Patricia Brantley Nix Oral History Tape 1, Side A - Edited

title:

CPT Patricia Brantley Nix Oral History Tape 1, Side A - Edited

creator:

Nix, Patricia (Brantley) (1941 March 28 - )

subject:

Army Nurse Corps

description:

Tape 1 of 2, side 1 of 2. This is the edited interview audio. Patricia B. Nix (formerly Kline) was born on March 28, 1941 in Columbus, Georgia. When she was 16, the family moved to Atlanta, Georgia and, after graduating from high school, she attended junior college at Emory at Oxford for two years. She then transferred to the Emory University Nursing School, joining the Army to defray the costs of the program. To cover her last two years of study, she owed the Army three years of service. She met her husband, a medical student at Emory who also went to the junior college, and they married in 1963. She graduated nursing school in 1964 and then spent 6 weeks in San Antonio, Texas at the Medical Field Service School. She then went to her station Ft. McPherson, Georgia, which was near where her husband was completing her internship and residency. While there, she worked in a women's ward dealing mostly with gynecological problems, while obstetrics was done in another ward. In 1965 she was sent to Santo Domingo on standby, and she was ordered to Vietnam in March 1966. Nix did not want to go to Vietnam; trying to get pregnant before being sent out, working with another nurse who offered to swap places with her, and writing a letter to a Georgia Senator all in an effort to stay stateside; but none of these efforts worked in her favor. Upon arriving in Vietnam, she spent a night in the 3rd Field Hospital in Saigon and was then moved to Vung Tau, a village 35 miles Southeast of Saigon that she said was one of the safest places she could've been in the country. While there, her mother had a heart attack and she was sent home to Georgia. She spent a month home with her mother while she recuperated (which still counted as part of her time in Vietnam) before returning to Vung Tau. It was early in the Vietnam War and Vung Tau was not that close to combat, so they received a manageable flow of patients. She handled dressing and soakings of wounds. When she was about to come back to the United States in 1967, she reported to sick bay with ulcers in her mouth and when asked if she wanted to stay and recover. She refused, heading straight home on her assigned return date in March. She didn't have any trouble readjusting to being home, saying that she already knew that she'd be coming back to a good life she'd already had with her family. She returned to her previous position as Ft. McPherson as a captain, leaving at 3 years of service when she was 7 months pregnant. Her husband was sent to Vietnam shortly after their second child was born, but he returned after 10 days because he tore several ligaments in one of his legs, and the recuperation time was long enough that he finished out his service in the US. After they were both out of the service, they moved to Jessup, Georgia, and she began writing out her story so it wouldn't be lost with her whenever she passed away. A transcript of this interview is available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Binker, Mary Jo

date:

2002-09-12

type:

Audio

format:

Cassette

identifier:

695.01; 2002.695

source:

CLIR - Recordings at Risk

language:

English

relation:

546803 | 549690

coverage:

Vietnam War (1964-1975) | 1964-67

rights:

Unrestricted