We have been learning about Ann (Benson) Rudolph, who graduated from high school in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, in 1960 and from the nursing program at Northfield’s St. Olaf College in 1964. She owed the Army two years’ service as a nurse for their financial support during her senior year of college. She completed the Nurse Officer Basic Course and reported with a friend to their first assignment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

Rudy reentered Ann’s life after she completed her Basic Course and they became engaged during her assignment to Walter Reed.

“He came back that fall, right after Basic. He came back from Europe, despite the ‘Dear John’ letter I had written him.”

She described her first work site at Walter Reed.

“We were in (nurse) whites (because) Walter Reed was a stateside hospital. We didn’t wear them in Vietnam. It had the nurses’ station and just off our nurses’ station was an area like a stepped-down ICU. Then you went through two doors and it was rows of women in various stages of recovery. I don’t remember if they all had to have surgery or what. It might have been a Med Surg ward, actually. I loved my head nurse there. She was British and called me, “Leftenant.” (Ann affected an English accent) She was an interesting lady, a major with white hair. We got along just fine. In fact, she came to our wedding in Gettysburg.”

She outlined her responsibilities on that ward.

“Mostly it was doing IV’s and medications and observing. I did go into the ICU part. I remember a couple of the women in there and that was more one-on-one; taking vital signs, IVs, care, and baths.”

Her supervisors reassigned Ann after a couple months.

“I was on that other floor from October to January or February and then, because I was ‘cute,’ I got to go to the VIP ward and take care of generals and senators. I came across a letter from a General Moore thanking me. Illinois Senator Everett Dirkson liked me. When he was there he’d say, “C’mon lieutenant, sit with me while I eat.” (Ann made a gasping sound) That was the highlight of my VIP time. I gave enemas to generals’ wives and all this other stuff. One night on the night shift scared me to death. I watched Mamie Eisenhower sleep. I thought, ‘Please don’t wake up! Please don’t put your call light on!’ Whenever she came, she was in this special suite and everything had to be pink. Obviously, I had to check on her, but I never eyeballed her other than watching her sleep.”

A few months later, Ann received unexpected notice of an overseas reassignment despite not yet having hit her one-year mark at Walter Reed.

“I came to work one day and my head nurse said, ‘I thought you’d stop at Personnel.’ I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ She replied, ‘Didn’t they call you? You have orders for Korea.’ I went over to Personnel and gave them my sob story because we had already ordered the wedding invitations and everything. I got out of that assignment. I think they put me from this list (pointing to one side of the table) to this list (pointing to the other side of the table). (Ann laughed) I probably wasn’t even back to my ward before that happened. Anyway, we got married in July; I got my (Vietnam deployment) orders in August; and I went to Fort Riley, Kansas, in September.”

Ann described the brief period she and Rudy had together before she had to leave.

“(He was) at Gettysburg Seminary. We lived in Gaithersburg, a place we found between Washington, where I was working, and where he was going to seminary. So, we each had to commute. We must not have lived there very long because I got my orders. They said Vietnam. We wept. Then he lived on campus at Gettysburg.”

Ann explained that her deployment orders required her to report to Fort Riley, where she encountered a wonderful surprise that helped her throughout her Vietnam deployment.

“That’s where the 93rd Evacuation Hospital (93rd Evac) converged — from the general down to the privates — to become a hospital. I was fortunate as distinguished from anyone else I’ve talked to who went to Vietnam. I had two of my college roommates with me at Fort Riley. The three of us became like glue. It was just wonderful. Ironically, we’d all been married within the last four months before deployment.”

The pre-deployment organization and training of the 93rd Evac personnel at Fort Riley passed in a blur to Ann.

“I was just so glad to be with those girls. (Ann chuckled) I really don’t remember our training. The hospital was all together at Fort Riley and we were airlifted (to California) at night where we were put on the (troopship) USS Buckner. We all shipped over to Vietnam together — the entire hospital.”

Ann described the room she shared during their Pacific passage.

“I was with these gals in a room on the ship, trying not to get sick. There were either three or four and we each had a trunk with our name and number on it. It was bunkbeds — pretty basic — not like a cruise ship. I think we had our own bathroom, but it was pretty stark.”

Ann, her St. Olaf nurse friends, and the rest of the 93rd Evac had weeks at sea ahead of them before reaching their destination –Vietnam.

©2025 William D. Palmer.