Feisty Female Friday: Diane Carlson Evans
The FFF this week is Diane Carlson Evans.
Diane was born and raised on a dairy farm in MN and graduated from nursing school there. After graduation, she joined the Army Nurse Corps and served for six years, some of her time in Vietnam. She is the Founder of the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Foundation and former President and CEO of the Board of Directors. After her service, she felt that a memorial to honor over 265,000 women who served during the Vietnam war was needed.
As a former Army combat nurse and Vietnam veteran, she led the ten-year struggle to complete the circle of healing with the placement of the Vietnam Women’s Memorial. Even though the wall of names at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. lists the names of women nurses who died in Vietnam, Diane felt deeply that the memorial did not acknowledge adequately the women who were also soldiers and needed to heal. Their service was also worthy of honor and recognition, she says, and that recognition took place on November 1993 with the dedication of the Vietnam Women’s Memorial, located adjacent to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
Today she serves as Chair of Vietnam Women’s Memorial/Eastern National Advisory Group and liaison to the National Park Service Regional Representative on the Mall, Washington DC. She testified before every Congressional and federal agency hearing in D.C. regarding site and design approval for the Vietnam Women’s Memorial, was instrumental in developing the design competition for the Memorial, and commemorated the dedication in Washington, D.C. Diane currently volunteers for the Eastern National and National Park Service efforts on behalf of the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Foundation and participates in educational activities throughout the US.
Her work today focuses on readjustment services for veterans. Her book, Healing Wounds: A Vietnam War Combat Nurse’s 10-year Fight to Win Women a Place of Honor in Washington D.C., chronicles her journey in the face of many bureaucratic oppositions to the Women’s Memorial. Diane has received numerous honorary degrees, nursing, service, veterans, human rights, state, and women’s awards. She is also a Lifetime member of many Vietnam Veterans Organizations, has received numerous honorary doctorate degrees and prestigious awards from civic and veteran’s organizations, and was awarded a Presidential Citizens Medal for her service in the service of the 10,000 women who served in the Vietnam War.
Today she advocates for veterans and speaks nationally about the contribution of women during wartime. She is married, has four children, seven grandchildren, and lives in Montana.