She was awful proud of her position. Not many people had the respect she had earned. Years of work and training led her to be one of the finest nurses in Korea, and now Vietnam.
Life after 1953 began to settle down. Just as Margaret had planned, she had decided to work as a stateside registered nurse.
But years of working in a VA hospital became less and less satisfying over the years. Sure, Korea scared her. But the war seemed to call to her. She felt it was her duty, so she picked up the phone and answered the call.
And now she was here. Lieutenant Colonel Margaret Houlihan, head nurse of the 2087th mobile army surgical hospital. Being 50 years old and a few gray hairs wouldn't stop her from answering her call to serve, and it certainly wouldn't stop her from saving lives.
But Vietnam was terribly different from Korea. And at times (many, in fact) terribly frightening. Being so close to the front lines, not knowing when the place would have to bug out due to shell fire, was very stressful. In fact, stressful was an understatement.
But she did her job and she did it well. Every day she'd give her all to save a life, to make sure her nurses were in top shape, and to help keep the camp functioning like a well oiled machine.
There was only one problem.
Of course, she knew she could fix just about anything. That's why she made it her top priority to have the commanding officer, Colonel Dayton, have more nurses transferred over to the 2087th. Their medical staff wasn't very impressive, not nearly as productive as the 4077th, but they got through OR sessions as well as they could. But they desperately needed more nurses, and a few more cutters wouldn't hurt.
Margaret only hoped that she'd be able to pull through this war.
She only wished she could help all the soldiers pull through this war.