On the seventh anniversary of the Iraq invasion, a New Mexico nurse discusses her service

When people hear about nurses serving in war, they probably picture a woman in white tending to wounded soldiers on the battlefield. Modern American military nursing, however, goes beyond providing comfort to our uniformed service people. Nurses may dress the wounds of the enemy. They may deploy to New Orleans to salvage lives in a temporary hospital. Some military nurses may get the chance to share their skills and knowledge with Iraqi women in makeshift classrooms. Others may find themselves witnessing history firsthand as Saddam Hussein’s guilty verdict is being read.

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The great American poet Walt Whitman volunteered as an Army nurse during the Civil War. This poem captures the sentiments of nurses who have witnessed the battlefield.