You Were My Heroes

This chapter seeks to problematize notions of equality and inclusion in public history claimed and granted on militarized terms with emphasis on military nurses of the Vietnam War. It presents the case for paying more attention to the power of literature and instances of life writing to revise conventional narratives of war and heroism, which have led to a male-dominated landscape of historical markers, monuments, and memorials. The chapter describes a feminist reading of Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Glenna Goodacre’s Vietnam Women’s Memorial, and Lynda Van Devanter’s autobiography. It argues that particularly Van Devanter’s autobiography serves as an example of women veterans’ efforts to challenge singular male warrior hero traditions, while it also complicates men’s expectations that military nurses refrain from transgressing entrenched notions of ‘appropriate’ femininity.