Nurse veteran looks at changes

SEELEY LAKE – "Things were a lot different then," Ruth Stebleton said, thinking back on the years from 1968 to 1970 when she served as a nurse in the U.S. Army. White shoes, white socks, white Army cap in place of her traditional white cap – that was the required attire for women nurses in that era.

Basic training was also different for Stebleton, though some of that was fortuitous. When she reported to Camp Bullis in San Antonio, Texas, the barracks were already filled to capacity, so she and some of the other women were billeted at a nearby motel, complete with swimming pool. From the motel, they eventually were moved into an apartment.

Basic training itself was also less rigorous than the typical regime new enlisted soldiers endure. Entering as a Registered Nurse, Stebleton started out at 2nd Lieutenant rank, which channeled her into a specialized Officer Basic Course.

Some of the specialized training focused on treatment of the types of wounds and injuries most prevalent among soldiers. One demonstration Stebleton remembers vividly involved a container filled with gelatin dyed red at one end and blue at the other. A bullet was shot from the red side and a streak of red passed through and exited the blue side. The point was that whatever was in the path of an entering bullet, whether mud, Army uniform or other particulate matter, it was dragged through the wound, increasing the likelihood of infection. It was a wound complication she would see repeatedly in her military nursing career.

When Stebleton talks about things being different now in comparison to when she was in the Army, she is, however, talking about more than clothes and basic training; she is also talking about inequality. In her day, Army men's medical coverage extended to their wives and children. Though Army women were provided with the same medical coverage, none was available for their spouses. Men in the military were free to marry as they wished. Pregnancy and child raising were the women's responsibility and in no way affected the man's career. An enlisted woman, on the other hand, had to get permission from her superior officer to marry. Pregnancy meant an automatic discharge.

In today's Army, women can continue to serve in certain capacities while pregnant. The military mother and her spouse are both eligible for maternity/paternal leave. There are childcare facilities available, as well as numerous programs for children of active military.

Stebleton said she met her future husband, a civilian, soon after she enlisted. Within a year they were planning marriage. As required, she notified her colonel. The colonel checked the deployment schedule and when she saw that Stebleton was on orders to go to Vietnam in April, the colonel canceled that order and Stebleton was able to spend her entire duty tour at Fitzsimon Army Hospital in Denver.

Stebleton said she was grateful to the colonel not only because it allowed her to be closer to her husband, but also, as she put it, "I don't think I would have done very well over there [Vietnam]." She added, "One of the girls I worked with at Fitzsimon's was killed over there."

At the time, Fitzsimon's was a 350-bed hospital servicing 1,500 patients, some of whom were in physical therapy or other outpatient facilities on the base. The base also included amenities such as a movie theater. One dollar covered entrance and popcorn. According to Stebleton, soldiers would come in wheelchairs, some controlling their IVs themselves.

Stebleton primarily worked in the surgical recovery room, intensive care and the open heart surgery area. A number of patients were sent directly from Vietnam. She recalled one soldier from South Dakota who looked like a big football player. He had been sent first to Japan for emergency care. The medical staff there tied off the big bleeders and put temporary casts around his amputated legs, then sent him to Fitzsimon's. Stebleton recalls when they soaked the casts to get them off, they had to place metal bedpans underneath the Stryker frame he was on to catch the blood.

"It was bad," she said. "We had a lot of ugly patients...war victims...missing legs. We had a hand ward and a leg ward and a number of other wards."

Another incident that implanted itself in Stebleton's memory involved a young soldier whose amputations were the result of a fallen tree rather than a battle wound. She said patients with high amputations such as his always got a colostomy to prevent fecal matter from infecting the area. Despite all their care, he died. Stebleton said the most wrenching part was that his family lived too far away and were unable to be there with him.

That scene played over and over again: a wounded or dying man in the hospital alone with no family to support him. It is one of the differences she highlighted between now and when she served. She said she doesn't remember a single family ever visiting a patient in the intensive care unit. Now families are notified immediately and help is available so they can be at the bedside of their loved ones, even stay overnight in the room if they wish.

In general, Stebleton said the patients at Fitzsimon had a good attitude and did as much as they could for themselves. She remembered a double leg-amputee joking, "The Army doesn't want me anymore. I'm too short."

She also noted that a lot of patients were "really messed up," and many ended up in nursing homes or similar facilities for the rest of their lives.

Though Stebleton opted not to reenlist when her two-year Army commitment was complete, she said she was proud of her military service. She felt it gave her confidence and helped her discover what she wanted to do in life. She added that she thought everyone in the United States should be required to serve two years in the military, as they do in countries such as Denmark and Israel. "I think it would be good for them," she said.

Stebleton continued working as a recovery room nurse, first in Fargo, N.D. and later in Bemidji, Minn., where she retired. She moved to Seeley Lake in 2012 to be close to her only child. She enjoys the time she gets to spend with her granddaughter Olivia, volunteering with various organizations in the community and playing cards throughout the winter.