A NURSE’S PURPLE HEART
Ann Darby Reynolds of Dover, New Hampshire, graduated from St. Anselm College in Manchester with a degree in nursing in 1961 and was commissioned as an ensign in the Navy Nurse Corps in 1962. She served at Pensacola, Florida, and Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, before receiving orders for Navy Station Hospital Saigon on Christmas Eve 1963. The following Christmas Eve would be the most memorable of her Navy career—as she relates in her memoir Silent Night. Reynolds arrived in Vietnam in March 1964 as a lieutenant junior grade. At age 25, she was the youngest of seven Navy nurses at the hospital. The hospital was assigned another nurse in December 1964. She lived with Reynolds and three other nurses at the Brink Hotel, a bachelor officers’ quarters for the U.S. military.
The holidays were approaching, and the word was out that something big was going to happen. All the newspapers, flyers and Armed Forces Radio sent the same message: “Be observant and check all stray packages.” No one knew when or where it might happen. Hospital staff had to be prepared. Everyone was getting anxious the closer it came to Christmas.
A few days before Christmas, some of the men found a Christmas tree for the nurses. It looked rather pathetic, so we found a few decorations to add, including a letter that arrived. Lt. Ruth Ann Mason had been selected for lieutenant commander, a promotion. I also received a letter from Washington. I had been selected for full lieutenant, and my letter went on the tree.
The five of us decided to have a Christmas party on the evening of Dec. 23 and invite some of the men. However, one nurse had to work that night.
I was scheduled to work Christmas Eve day and the operating room watch from 4 p.m. until 8 a.m. Christmas Day. I left the party and went to bed at 9 p.m. The next morning I reported to work, and we had a
