One of my buddies was a Nurse during the Vietnam War. He worked on flights returning wounded to bigger Hospitals for more treatment. He told me that on the long flights back to Trippler Army Hospital, there were either Nurses or Medics assigned to watch over the Nurses providing care.
"Psychologically those trips took a lot out of us Nurses. It was more of a flying ICU ...and not everyone makes it out of ICU. So we had trained folks looking for signs or overwhelm, or possible breakdown.
We knew their lives would be different ...and we knew the toll it took on family, friends and loved ones. Lots to carry. You just focus on your job. Do your duty...and pray. "
I knew he was a Combat Medic...and later a Nurse. I did not know about those flights to Japan, Okinawa, Hawaii, or California, to get the severely wounded back home. He just said: "They weren't easy flights."

I wonder, just how many folks who saw all the horror of war and combat, but didn't fight, dealt with what they saw ...and did. They don't get the "glory" and Press that frontline soldiers get...but sheesh, they gave their all to heal those wounded folks. Both their bodies and their minds.
I never even knew he was a Vietnam Vet....not for twenty years. And he told me just two stories of his experiences. And that was enough to make me cry.
Quiet heroes...