Tuesday, October 22, 2019

A US Navy nurse experiences the ugly side of Vietnam War protests

Kay representing the US Navy Nurse Corps at a White House ceremony in which LBJ
signed the H.R. 5894 bill, removing restrictions on women's advancement in the military. 
Credit: Kay Wilhelmy Bauer


"On the morning of August 17, 1970, Kay received a shocking telephone call from her commanding officer telling her to stay home. A bomb had been detonated on the steps directly outside Kay's office door. She had survived a year in a war zone, but here, in what she thought was the safety of her home state, Kay's life was in danger! 

A few months later, on the evening of October 4, Kay was watching television in her St. Paul home with Amy, her former roommate and longtime friend. Suddenly Kay and Amy heard the sound of an explosion, and the house began to shake.

Kay went outside. The house next door had blown up. Fragments had landed on Kay's roof and in her front and back yards. The next-door neighbors, asleep in their beds, had been killed instantly. 

As Kay stood outside with the stunned crowd watching the burning remnants of the house, a man in a suit and tie tapped her on the shoulder.

'Are you LCDR Bauer?' he asked."

From "Kay Wilhelmy Bauer: American Survivor from Courageous Women of the Vietnam War. 



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