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9/1983. Diane Carlson Evans conceives of the idea for the memorial for women and begins collaboration with Rodger Brodin to create a statue.

For information on Brodin, see "Profile/Rodger Brodin," by Craig MacIntosh, Minneapolis Star, 07/30/81: 11A. About a work on a soldier he's doing: "The sculpture is unusual, portraying the soldier not in a combat pose, but with his arms outstretched. Brodin says his soldier, symbolizing the Vietnam vet, is asking for help -- and acceptance. 'This is not a political statement. . . . I think it is important to recognize the veteran, not the politics of the war.'" [FullText]

4/1984. The Vietnam Women's Memorial Project (VWMP) is incorporated.

7/7/1984. Brodin's statue, "The Nurse."

"Soothing the Wounds," by Karen Harder, (Eau-Claire) Leader-Telegram, 07/07/84. Interview with Evans, who describes motivation for a sculpture called "The Nurse" by Brodin: "She has a certain grace about her. . . . She looks like she is coming home from the war rather than going to the war. I think she looks rather tired but within her she has a story to tell." Has a picture of the statue and an Evans poem called "The Nurse." [FullText]

7/8/1984. Preview showing of a statue entitled "The Nurse" at the Rodger Brodin Studio in Minneapolis.

9/1984. Leaders Evans and Donna-Marie Boulay describe their project.

"Vietnam Nurses Memorial Project Raising Funds for Bronze Statue," by Donna-Marie Boulay and Diane Carlson Evans, Minerva, Fall 1984: 20-22. "The Vietnam Nurses Memorial Project was organized recently to establish a memorial for nurses who aerved in the Armed Forces during the Vietnam War. [The statue] 'Nurse' wears a jungle fatigue uniform, combat boots, and holds her helmet in her hands. The statue was designed for the nurses who cared for the sick and wounded in Vietnam: to give them recognition for their long hard hours of work and sacrifice for the patients they nursed during that war; to help them feel important about their contributions to society and history; to pay tribute to them as veterans; and to raise public awareness of the fact that women served in Vietnam." [FullText]

11/12/1984. National Women Veterans Recognition Week.

"They Also Served: Vietnam's Women Vets Get Recognition at Last," by Vincent Coppola, Newsweek, 11/12/84: 35. "Thousands of women served in Vietnam. . . . they witnessed firsthand the horrors and costs of that conflict. To the endless stream of wounded, they were lifesavers, big sisters, mothers, angels. They comforted the dying and were haunted by death. And like many male Vietnam vets, they have been ignored by the Defense Department, the Veterans Administration, the American public -- victims of a war the country is too willing to forget. . . . Many plainly need help. . . . Even though a National Women Veterans Recognition Week begins next Sunday, those honored still amount to second-class citizens as far as military agencies are concerned." [FullText]

1/1985. A profile on project leader Diane Carlson Evans.

"Vietnam Nurse," by Cliff Borden, Wisconsin Veterans of Foreign Wars News, January 1985: 12-15. Contains a profile on Evans: "It was extremely gratifying to be a nurse in Vietnam, and to care for veterans, stateside. It's the most satisfying nursing I will ever do. I hated the war and wish it never would have happened. But the war did exist; I'm glad I served, that I was a nurse and could do my part." Describes a trip to Washington to display the Brodin statue and indication that "she and her group would like to see national recognition for the contribution of all women who have ever served in the Armed Forces of the United States." Contains her poem and a picture of the statue. [FullText]

11/1985. After-effects suffered by Vietnam war nurses.

"Wounded Healers: A Summary of the Vietnam Nurse Veteran Project," by Elizabeth A. Paul, Military Medicine, November 1985, 571-76. Questionnaire to 137 nurse veterans identified eight stressors, such as "The young age and severity of the casualties, danger to the nurses' lives, sexual harassment, and survival guilt. . . . This study reveals that nurses, like combat veterans, have suffered adverse after-effects from the Vietnam War, although the stresses of the war, for the nurses, were markedly different." [FullText]

4/13/1986. Media attention.

"Vietnam nurse battles for fitting tribute," by Kate McCarthy McEnroe, St. Paul Pioneer Press Dispatch, 04/13/86: 1C. "[Diane Carlson Evans] has launched a national campaign to erect a 7-foot-tall statue of a sad-eyed Army nurse next to the Wall. . . . The proposed bronze statue has stoic composure in her form, but poignancy in her face. Ostensibly staring outward, her eyes are really looking in. . . . 'The history of women in the military is full of "Yes, buts. . . . Yes, women went to war, but they were there to find a husband.'" [FullText]

4/20/1986. Media attention.

"Ex-Viet Nurse Wants Statue for Women Vets," by Gary Radolf, Lacrosse (Wis.) Tribune, 04/20/86. [FullText]

4/23/1986. Media attention.

"Build War Memorial for Tears Held Back," by Ann Daly Goodwin, St Paul Pioneer Press Dispatch, 04/23/86. [FullText]

5/1986. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund approves locating a women's memorial on its site.

5/3/1986. Do you think of the women?

"Statue Will Honor Women Who Served in Vietnam," Winston-Salem Journal, 05/03/86. "[Evans] said the statue would balance a statue of three male veterans overlooking the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. . . . 'If you go to the Wall and see the Three Fighting Men, do you think of the women? . . . As a country, we don't do a good job of recording the contributions of women.'" [FullText]

5/13/1986. A nurse was there with them.

"Memorial for women who served in Vietnam long overdue," by Dennis Rogers, (Raleigh, NC) News and Observer, 05/13/86. Evans: "For years I hid the fact that I was a Vietnam veteran. . . . The monument will say that there was somebody there who cared for them. . . . It will say that the men who died in these hospitals did not die alone, that a nurse was there with them." [FullText]

5/24/1986. We as a nation were not recognizing these women.

"Vietnam War Era Nurses Announce Bronze Statue," (Williamsport, PA) Sun-Gazette, 05/24/86, 2. [FullText]

"Women Kick Off Campaign to Add Statue to Memorial," Manchester (NH) Union Leader, 05/24/86. Evans: "I am very proud of the women I served with. . . . But it came to me as a revelation in 1983 that we as a nation were not recognizing these women. We were not seeing or hearing about them." [FullText]

7/15/1986. Major media attention.

"Statue of Limitation?" by Elizabeth Hess, Village Voice, 07/15/86. "Just when the stink over Maya Lin's Vietnam Veterans Memorial was beginning to dissipate, a new set of troops has surrounded the Washington site. Women Vietnam veterans are demanding their own, separate -- but equal -- war memorial. Their mission is to place a bronze statue of a female military nurse close to Lin's minimalist earthwork; its purpose is to counter the gender of Frederick Hart's three male soldiers." Scruggs is in favor, but "There's got to be an end somewhere. . . . Air Force pilots might be next." Hess ends with a blast at government neglect: "Agent Orange victims, for example. How about a monument for them?" [FullText]

7/28/1986. The right to be represented.

"Vietnam's Other Vets," by Arnold Abrams, Newsday, 07/28/86: Part II: 3. The VVMF supports the proposal. John Wheeler: "That is a decision of the heart, and statistics do not govern the heart in these circumstances. . . . Whatever their numbers, American women in Vietnam earned the right to be represented on this national site." [FullText]

8/1986. Sculptor Rodger Brodin.

"Honor Women Who Served," by Gary Hiebert, VFW Magazine, August 1986: 24-26. Profile of sculptor Rodger Brodin. [FullText]

9/1986. The nurses who died.

"Nurses Who Served -- And Did Not Return," by Doreen Spelts, American Journal of Nursing, September 1986: 1037-38. Biographical sketches of the 10 nurses -- 8 women, 2 men -- who died in Vietnam and whose names are on the Wall. [FullText]

11/1986. Recognition not glorification.

"Eight Names on the Wall Belong to Women," by Christoper Podgus, Veteran, November 1986, 23-27. "Public recognition is also the goal of the Vietnam Women's Memorial Project. . . . 'We don't want glorification,' Diane Evans says, 'I don't know of a single woman who went to Vietnam for the glory of it. But we do want public awareness that what we did was valuable. And we want to be publicly proud of what we did.'" [FullText]

11/6/1986. A general women's memorial.

Public Law 99-610, "Women in Military Service For America Memorial." [FullText]

11/11/1986. Media attention.

"Statue Recognizes Women Veterans," (Doylestown, PA) Daily Intelligencer, 11/11/86, 1. [FullText]

11/29/1986. Media attention.

"They Also Served: Women in 'Nam,'" by Lacy McCrary, Philadelphia Inquirer, 11/29/86: 1B. Profile of Grace Tymkiw, Pennsylvania coordinator of the Vietnam Women's Memorial Project. [FullText]