Trailblazing Vietnam combat nurse and author who served as inspiration for bestselling author Kristin Hannah’s blockbuster novel, The Women.
Former Vietnam War Army nurse Diane Carlson Evans will take the SVAF stage in Sonoma in 2025 to share insights from her military service and her decade-long effort to establish the Vietnam Women’s Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Carlson Evans was one of the real-life inspirations behind bestselling author Kristin Hannah’s blockbuster novel The Women. Hannah has credited her collaboration with Evans as deeply enriching her novel’s portrayal of the combat nurses who served in Vietnam, highlighting their often-overlooked contributions and challenges.
Carlson Evans will discuss both her collaboration with Hannah and her powerful memoir, Healing Wounds: A Vietnam War Combat Nurse’s 10-Year Fight to Win Women a Place of Honor in Washington, D.C., which recounts her time in theater and the struggles that followed.
Her impassioned story of serving in Vietnam is a crucial backstory to her fight to honor the women she served beside. She details the gritty and high-intensity experience of being a nurse during combat. She becomes an unlikely hero who ultimately serves her country again as a formidable force in her daunting quest for honor and justice.
Carlson Evans, a former captain in the Army Nurse Corps who served in the combat zone of Vietnam, is the founder of the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Foundation. Today, she advocates for veterans and speaks nationally about the contributions of women during wartime.
Carlson Evans grew up on a dairy farm in rural Minnesota and joined the Army Nurse Corps after graduating from nursing school at age 21. She served in Vietnam from 1968-1969, working in the burn unit of two hospitals a few kilometers from the Cambodian border. Including her year in Vietnam, Carlson Evans completed six years in the Army Nurse Corps.
Carlson Evans persevered for a decade to establish the Vietnam Women’s Memorial on the National Mall, lobbying federal authorities to honor the 11,000 military women who served in Vietnam and the 265,000 who served around the world during the Vietnam era.
Carlson Evans received The American Legion’s Distinguished Service Medal in 2021 and was nominated for the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2024.
“It was one of the luckiest days of my life to connect with Diane Carlson Evans… [She] is a force of nature, a true leader, indefatigable and inspirational. Her research help in “The Women” was pivotal, but even more lasting is the impact she has had on me personally, on my life… She is a true American hero.” – Kristin Hannah
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