Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1294870
worker (played by Marg Helgenberger) as well as nurses and surgeons and the Air Force pilot (played by Tim Ryan) who becomes the heroine's principal love interest. Dana Delany starred as Colleen McMurphy, a young nurse from the Midwest. Trained at a Catholic nursing school, she had lived in a commune before joining the Army in search of some destiny other than becoming a housewife or a nun. We quickly learn that McMurphy is a complicated character in a position of life-or-death situations that no civilian training could have prepared her for. Surrounded by young men who may never have been away from home before, she keeps her emotions inside while numbing them more and more with alco- hol. At times, this appears to be her Facing the Heat N urses arriving in Vietnam quickly found that the climate didn't lend itself to the glamour the recruit- ment posters had promised. Vietnam was miserably hot and humid, which made the nylon stockings required with the white nurse's uniform very uncomfortable. In prac- tice, Army nurses usually wore fatigues, despite frequent complaints that they weren't feminine enough for women. When they arrived, nurses were assigned to their hous- ing units. A dozen Army nurses typically shared each unit. The units, nicknamed "hootches," each had a shower, a small kitchen and just enough room for nurses to have a few shelves as well as their footlockers. The hootches also had rats, bugs and frequent problems with mold and mildew. Civilian Vietnamese women were hired to handle laundry and housekeeping. Some bases even hired local civilians to operate on-base beauty parlors so that female personnel could keep their hair in some kind of order. Dealing with Vietnamese civilians was complicated by the fact that few American nurses spoke the language. There was also no guarantee that even a seemingly friendly and sympathetic local wasn't a Viet Cong agent or sympathizer. Nurses were noncombatants, but that didn't necessarily mean they were safe. New arrivals quickly noticed that mil- itary buses had black chicken wire over the windows to keep out grenades and shrapnel. A green nurse who tried to open a bus window for relief from the heat was quickly warned that the windows had to remain closed for the occupants' own protection. Unlucky nurses could fall victim to bombings, ambushes or booby traps — the Viet Cong regarded American military per- sonnel as invaders and dealt with them accordingly. Rocket and mortar attacks were another danger. The only American nurse killed by enemy fire during the war, 1st Lt. Sharon Lane, RN, died in a rocket attack on June 8, 1969. (Seven other American nurses died of injuries or illness during the war, but no others were killed by enemy action.) Nurses' tours in Vietnam lasted for one year, although a few returned for two or more tours. An individual's status depended on the amount of time spent in-country. A nurse who had been in Vietnam for six months had more credi- bility than a doctor who had just arrived, even if that doctor was very experienced in the States. It was not simply about Dana Delany starred as Colleen McMurphy, an Army nurse struggling with burnout and alcoholism. attempt to just be "one of the guys," but she often drinks alone, and her alcohol use becomes more of a problem as the series progresses. McMurphy and her colleagues endure the heat, the lack of supplies and the poor infection control conditions with little emotional support. Grueling 12-hour shifts day after day are punctuated by enemy assaults. In one memorable scene, McMurphy sobs in the shower when she can't get her sweat- and blood-soaked scrub top off because it's stuck to her body. One reviewer called "China Beach" the war with a soundtrack, since the show incorporates more than 300 popular songs, including "Reflections" by The Supremes, which plays as a theme song over the opening and closing credits. ' October 5–November 9, 2020