CN-ASTV, Australian civilian medical-surgical teams, Vietnam

CN-ASTV
is the acronym for
Civilian Nurses, Australian Surgical Teams, Vietnam 1964-1972

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Objectives:

To promote and support the development of government structures which recognize the veteran status of the group membership.
To act as a lobby group
To co-operate with similar organizations throughout the world
To provide social support for the membership of the group

Furthermore, the group will:

Work in close collaboration with the Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia (VVAA)
Hold meetings
Publish and distribute a newsletter
Any other appropriate activities

Patron: Mrs. Wilma Young, AM

Membership:
Open to all civilian nurses who served on the Australian Surgical Teams, Vietnam 1964-1972
Associate Membership:
Open to all allied health personnel (doctors, radiographers, laboratory technicians, administrators etc.) who served with the nurses on the surgical teams

Australian Surgical Team in action in 1967
Dr Tom Calou examines a child with nurse Kay Parnell
and Interpreter Kim. Student nurses in background.
©Copyright Jan Mills

A nurse with a gun?
Pat Deal, Long Xuyen 1968, learns to use a M16
to protect herself.
Click here for full story

VALE PAT DEAL
On July 6th last, Pat Deal succumbed to the cancer that she
had been fighting for some time. The cancer was acknowledged, at least in part, to have resulted from her service in Vietnam.

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Bulletin Board CN-ASTV Bulletin update March, 2008 Dedication of Commemorative Plaque Australian Civilian Medical/Surgical Teams Vietnam 1964 – 1972 Friday October 10, 2008 at 2pm Western Courtyard, Australian War Memorial Canberra The Australian War Memorial Plaque Dedication Program, which normally commemorates the active service of Australian military units, has accepted the Australian Civilian Medical Surgical Teams, Vietnam 1964 – 1972 for recognition in the grounds of the AWM. This will be only the 2^nd Civilian plaque to be dedicated (the 1^st being the ‘Skippy Squadron’ of Qantas pilots) amongst the current 140 memorials and is therefore a great honour to the service of the civilian teams in Vietnam. For further details civilian team members and relatives should contact: dangell1@aol.com

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YOU WILL BE KEPT INFORMED IF YOU JOIN THE CN-ASTV!

Current CN-ASTV Membership Fees: Click graphic to visit a related site
Membership $25.00 per year
Associate Membership $20.00 per year

Donations are gratefully accepted

Postal Address:
CN-ASTV Secretariat
c/o PO Box 2333 MDC
Kew, Vic. 3101 Australia
Fax: (03) 5984 0427

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Our thanks to the Department of Veterans' Affairs
for its grant to enable the writing of
a biography of Wilma Oram Young under the project banner
"Their Service Our Heritage"
A prisoner under the Japanese
she devoted the rest of her life to helping War Veterans.
Click here to ORDER this book
"A WOMAN'S WAR"
Now Available!

Links
Home Page
Bien Hoa Team . Long XuyenTeam . Vietnam Veterans Association . Brave Women of Oceania .
Many Women Served
. Vietnam Veterans (Noble Park Branch) . Lan in Vietnam . Nursing in Vietnam

Quotes:
"We'd been told we would be doing surgery and teaching local doctors and nurses. When we got there we found ourselves totally embroiled in war trauma. There was no time for teaching at all. It was frontline surgery under frontline conditions..."

"We did a lot of major surgery: amputations, stitching up and dealing with the aftermath of a US bullet that explodes on impact. It's still used today - it leaves a very small entrance hole, but when you get inside the patient everything has been absolutely mashed. I remember one patient with a live mortar head in the abdomen that had to be removed without any of us being blown up. Highly stressful, highly dangerous..."

"(After we got home) We were never debriefed and nobody wanted to know anyway, with the result that doctors, nurses, radiographers, all of us just pushed everything down. Many of us are suffering the psychological effects of that now..."

"I remember in the late 70s asking my doctor if what was wrong with me could have been the result of my time in Vietnam. He said: 'No way. Agent Orange was nowhere near Bien Hoa.' They Subsequently discovered that province was probably the most sprayed in the war..."

The above quotes are from Dot Angell, interviewed by Helen O'Neill and published in The Weekend Australian Magazine, April 21-22,2001.©Reproduced by permission of both the author and the interviewee.