By Dixon Bledsoe
Silverton resident Mary Fogarty was ready to take on the world when she graduated from Seattle University in 1968 with a bachelor’s degree in nursing. So when the U.S. Army agreed to pay for the last two years of her college expenses plus a small salary in exchange for three years of service, Fogarty was fine with the trade-off.
Looking back, Fogarty, 62, said what she gained from her time serving in Vietnam was more than monetary.
Formerly from Stayton, Fogarty said she was once was shy and quiet. The experience as a nurse during the Vietnam War gave her the confidence that served her well for the next three decades, including 33 years as a nurse at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Portland in the intensive care and vascular surgery units. She retired two years ago.
Fogarty, then known as Mary Schachtsick, was one of the few nurses in her unit to volunteer for Vietnam because she wanted to serve her country and be with the troops during wartime. At graduation, she was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army Nurse Corps. She served four years, one year beyond her contractual commitment, leaving the service in 1972 with no debt, highly accomplished nursing skills acquired in the duress of a combat zone, $12,000 in her pocket and a new-found confidence.
Her service commitment started in Ft. Benning, Ga., where she worked 18 months in a pediatric ward. But then she received orders to report to Qui Nhon with the 67th Evac Hospital. With new silver bars marking a promotion to first lieutenant, the young officer reported for duty where, she laughs, “I was the little old lady at 23, in a ward full of 17- and 18-year-olds.” When asked if the experience was anything like TV’s M*A*S*H., she smiled and said, “We were much more like the series China Beach,’’ set in Vietnam. Our shifts were 12-16 hours long for six straight days, so when we partied, we would definitely party.”
Her most vivid memories of the Vietnam experience? “I have a lot of thoughts, both good and bad.
The little 6-year-old Vietnamese boy who came into our ward in his wheelchair with a bullet wound to his hip was precious. He had damaged his colon, bladder, rectum – you name it. But we had so many good specialists and nurses that he walked out on crutches just a month later. A little baby came in with an upper airway obstruction and died right in front of us, despite our best efforts to resuscitate her, and another baby girl had bullet fragments inutero when her mother was shot. She died just four hour’s after I held her in my arms – a beautiful little girl.”
One of the most rewarding times was spent with French nuns at a leprosarium, helping those patients with leprosy. “It was a beautiful hospital with gorgeous tile so clean you could eat off the floor. The patients were sweet, grateful people, and the Sisters were incredible” she said. “I had never been to Europe before and we had no clue that their dinners were so elaborate. They brought us soup and we didn’t realize that there were still six more courses to go. We could barely move we were so full.”
On one of two R&R’s (rest and relaxation breaks), Fogarty and a friend jumped on a plane to Hong Kong dressed in their Army fatigues. The airline crew recognized them as nurses and asked if they could help two American men struggling to comfort a Vietnamese infant.
They changed diapers, cuddled the infant, fed her and played for the duration of the flight. Fogarty only later found out one of the gentlemen was Bob Considine, a highly-regarded war-time journalist who had broken through red-tape to get the baby released for adoption by an Army major and his wife. The incident was written up in Reader’s Digest in a tribute to Considine.
Fogarty came back to the U.S. as a skilled nurse and with captain’s bars, spending her last two Army years at Ft. Lewis, Wash. She recalls a little of the politics of the war, stating, “My brother had served in Vietnam just a couple of years before me and came home to having milkshakes thrown at him. Our military newspapers were rather restricted, but our soldiers received clippings from home regarding the protests.”
After she left the service in 1973, she and a friend thought it would be fun to head to Washington, D.C., to see President Nixon’s second inaugural parade. Her friend saw it all, but Fogarty had volunteered to help on an ambulance crew and was assigned to work near the Washington Monument.
“There were tons of protesters and many were burning flags. Some flags were hung upside down. It was pretty scary.”
Fogarty lives in Silverton with her husband, Pat, also an Army veteran. Now retired, the couple travels a lot, visiting regularly with family in the area, including Pat’s two adult children, Kate and Josh.
They enjoy working with ministries through St. Paul Catholic Church in Silverton. Though they don’t celebrate on Veteran’s Day, such as participating in parades, these two vets were proud to serve.
“For my birthday, Pat got me a flag pole and we fly the flag, complete with lighting, every day.”
Would this Vietnam vet do things differently? “Not at all. For me, it was a good way to go. My expenses to a great college were paid for over my last two years, I had no debt when I got out, and I grew up. It made me a much more confident, secure, skilled nurse and a better person. No regrets.”
