Military Healthcare through the years...
from WWII to the Gulf War
Captain MaryLynn Bender, RN, United States Air Force
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| MaryLynn on right |
MaryLynn on right
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In the beginning...
It all started with a Christmas gift. At the age of six MaryLynn recieved a nursing kit for Christmas and knew from that moment on that she wanted to be a nurse. Being the only daughter of a firefighter, caring and protecting others only seemed natural. She attended public schools in a suburb of Buffalo where she was raised. MaryLynn was not afraid of a challenge, being the first in her family to attend college. After four years at Alfred University she earned her bachelor's degree in science and nursing. Her dreams almost didn't come true. In June of her senior year of high school her father again told her that they didn't have the money to fund her college career. MaryLynn wasn't deterred, applying for about 30 scholarships, 6 of which were awarded to her, sending her on her way to Alfred. "It's in my personality to find a way when I want to do something, it's just the way that I am."
It ended the way it
began …with a boy.
Before entering the Air Force she had no interest
in entering the military at all. MaryLynn choose the Air Force for two main
reasons: her college boyfriend and shortened basic training. MaryLynn also
knew that often Air Force officers were treated with more respect than other
military officers. The Air Force program MIMSO, Military Indoctrination for
Medical Service Officers,taught her the necessary skills for a career in the
military. "It taught you the customs of the military, how to wear
the uniform, how to salute, how to march, all the different customs related
to the history of the Air Force." After enlisting MaryLynn began
MIMSO at Sheppard Air Force Base in January 1988. " It was a lot of
fun, and what I loved most about the military, especially as a nurse...was
that everybody was in the same boat...everybody was new at some point."
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What happened in Biloxi, Mississippi ?
After MIMSO MaryLynn was stationed in Biloxi, Mississippi at one of the largest hospitals in the Air Force. Because of her college degree she was automatically a second lieutenant earniung a gold bar (which they called butter bars). Being an officer at the age of 22 was strange to MaryLynn. As the daughter of a Marine drill sergeant, having a higher rank than those older than her went against the standards by which her parents had raised her. Growing up she was taught to respect her elders, so having oldler people salute her and call her ma'am was strange to her. " Yes my parents taught me to respect myself. people respected you as common courtesy...but not in a military sense." One problem that MaryLynn encountered was that fraternization between enlisted and officers was discouraged, and many of her friends were enlisted. Within the hospital the enlisted technicians followed the orders of the nurses, regardless of age or how long they had worked at the hospital. The techninians had a non-commissioned officer in-charge(NCOIC) and the nurses had an officer in charge of them. MaryLynn felt that the fact that she was told she couldn't be friends with enlisted members was a form of prejudice and really bothered her. "That was one thing I did not like about the military...somebody can tell you who your friends are."
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After about six months she and
her future husband Ray, a civilian, started getting serious. He was in D.C.,
and she wanted to be closer. Not knowing that transfers were hard to get and
often not given for 2-3 years, MaryLynn requested a transfer and received
it. After one year she was transferred to Maryland. " I guess it's
a case of the squeaky wheel gets the grease, if you don't ask, you don't move..."
She worked first on a med-surg floor and then on an orthopedic/neurological
floor. It was her experience in these units that helped her become the qualified
nurse she is today.
The Transfer …
In March of 1989 MaryLynn became engaged and was transferred
to Andrews
Air Force Base
in Maryland. The military moved her and gave her a housing allowance,
since it wasn’t practical for them to live on base. It was at this time
due to the strict stipulations enforced by the military that MaryLynn began
to understand she belonged to the military. "That was something else
that was hard for me to get used to. You are property of the military. If
you are sick you don't call in sick. They don't care what your home situation
is...you have to have alternate plans."
After her move to D.C. things began to change for MaryLynn. " My life wasn't the military anymore. I have two lives..."
She worked as an OB/GYN nurse and found her true calling. MaryLynn implemented a program called Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies that aided young mothers and their children. She also began teaching prenatal classes and breastfeeding classes.
Visit Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies
As a result of her work with Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies MaryLynn received an award...
When you’re in the medical
corps you are expected to become management. This often meant that MaryLynn
was the only nurse in charge of a 28 bed unit. This is an incredible responsibility
for any nurse, let alone a 22 -year- old nurse in her first year on the job.
"I couldn’t help but feel responsible……" Doctors
and nurses all treated each other with mutual respect. Often the doctors weren't
much older than I was....
"The doctor to nurse relationship was awesome in the military, that
changed in the civilian sector..."
"I got to know the doctors really well in the military, because they were the only five doctors on the unit..I used to scrub in with the neurosurgeons...so the doctor to nurse realtionship was great because I was often asked for my expertise with a large respect for my knowledge, this formed a comradery."
Wedding bells…
MaryLynn and Ray got married by a justice
of the peace. Their church wedding would follow and was planned for November.
MaryLynn received a pay increase for having a dependent and it allowed them
to get a VA home loan. They were then able to buy a house.
"The best part was...
he was considered my dependent husband. I LOVED THAT! We'd be sitting in the
lobby of the hospital and they would come out and say 'Lt. Bender' and they
would look right at him. I'd be like 'no, that would be me'."
Ray and MaryLynn spent their honeymoon in Hawaii. They stayed on a base where
they paid according to rank. For a second lieutenant cost was about $60 a
night for an ocean front room.
Yearly Field Training...
"As nurses we were required to go out into the field once a year, one weekend a year, and they put us through our paces....we slept in tents, we wore our fatigues...they'd wake us up in the morning differently...one morning they woke us up by setting off M16's right outside of our tents, that was scary, and then another morning they woke us up by blaring over the PA system, 'Good Morning Vietnam'...so that was neat, and it gave us a taste of what it was like to be out in the field...You freeze at night. you roast during the day...we had to carry mock patients through obstacle courses, over six foot log walls underneath three foot log walls, under briars and sticks...and the whole time you're doing the obstacle course, they are firing at you...smoke bombs, so the whole time your breathing in smoke, coughing, with a helmet on your head so this was to simulate war-like situations."
"They had us errecting field hospitals, where they would time you to see how long it took you to put it up...."
"We did leadership training courses...for example, we would be part of a team of six people where we were given a rope, a big stick and a rock and told that the field was full of land mines, and we neededed to get our whole team from here to there, how are you going to do it?"
"I enjoyed it, it was very hard work, but I enjoyed that part of it."
"I mean, frankly it was easy to forget that I was in the military, mostly I was wearing scrubs in the hospitals that I worked in, very much like civilian hospitals."
Marylynn found her field training experiences very intimidating because they were so realistic. She had to carry one patient with the help of three other people through the obstacle courses while being fired at. It was extremely stressful and very physically demanding. "It was very hard work, and it was truly a picture of what the field is really like."
Desert Shield…
MaryLynn was still stationed in Andrews during
the beginning of the Persian Gulf Conflict. She took a trip to Europe with
Ray, using her military benefits. They stayed on bases throughout Europe,
spending a lot of time in Germany. MaryLynn loved this experience because
the travel was very safe and there was a feeling of family at each base. It
was easy to adjust.
Desert
Storm…
Two months after returning from Germany, MaryLynn
found out she was pregnant with her first child. Because of her pregnancy
she knew she would not be deployed overseas. "Now all of a
sudden I am a person with a child...and now I'm thinking that my husband and
child would come first as opposed to the military, and that isn't the way
they see things, your number one concern when you're in the military, is what
they call the mission, basically keeping the country safe. Two months later,
things really started heating up and that was when the Pursian Gulf war started"
It was also at this time that
she began to question her role in the military. She saw women separated from
their husbands and children, and knew her priorities were shifting from the
military to family. " I am proud of my military career… but I
desperately did not want to go to war."
She was supposed to be discharged in January, but due to the war she stayed on until March. This meant that MaryLynn was 6 months pregnant. MaryLynn was then medically disqualified by her own choice, due to her own medical circumstances.
Her Opinions…
Opportunity:
"Your very first promotion is automatic..."
Climbing the "military
ladder" is relatively expected. As long as you dot all of you i's and
cross all of your T's and play by the rules, you will be rewarded for you
duties..."
Marylynn chose military nursing not because there was a lack of other carreer choices, but rather because she feels as though it is in her nature to help people... "The ability to make a difference in a person's life is even now the way that I am...I get a little high on the fact that I can make a difference."
Marylynn feels as though nurses don't get enough recognition for their contributions in the hospital.."when it comes down to it, it is nurses that run the hospital...doctors come and they go but it is the nurses that are with the patients twenty four hours a day and know them intimately...we have the whole picture."
Does being a woman make you a better nurse, especially in the military, in a predominantly male field...
"ninety percent of the nurses I worked with in the military were female, there were many male technicians..which, in the military did what civilian nurses do, such as dressing changes and IV's etc.."
"My friend is a male nurse, and I think it can be hard on the guys because when he walks into a room, people assume he's a doctor..."
Equal for men and women…
" I feel as though the military really offeres equal opportunities
for men and women..."
Patriotism: "I
consider myself to be very patriotic, and I always have considered myself
to be very patriotic, and alot of that has to do with the fact that
my dad was in the military..."
September 11th…. "September 11th makes me want
to help with the Red Cross and disaster relief, when the kids are out of school..."
"However, as far as
serving in the military and helping out in that aspect, I have no desire to
go back into the military, especially considering how unstable things are
in the world right now... anything could happen...If anything, I feel more
centered..Since September 11th, there's nowhere I'd rather be than in my home,
with my family."
Defining herself as a woman...
"being in the military was awesome because it taught me that I could be a leader at the age of 22, and I could safely and effectively run and oversee an entire unit by myself..."
" I came to realize and appreciate the fact that I had so many options..i came to understand and learn that I had capabilites in me that i didn't even know that I had."
" the thing is that I didn't feel afraid to maintain all of my responsibilites, I felt as though I was adequately trained... I felt capable and ready to do it."
" I have no regrets, I was able to meet people and experience things that I wouldn't have been able to do otherwise."