Minnesota's Women Vietnam Veterans Oral History Project: Interview with Mary O'Brien Tyrrell

Titles: Minnesota's Women Vietnam Veterans Oral History Project: Interview with Mary O'Brien Tyrrell (Supplied title)

Description: BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION: Mary O'Brien Tyrrell was born in Wisconsin. She worked as a nursing assistant beginning in eighth grade and went on to obtain a nursing degree from the college of St. Scholastica. She enlisted in the U.S. Navy during her last two years of college and served in Guam. Upon her return to the United States, Tyrrell obtained a master's degree and worked in health education. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Family; importance of religion; working as a nursing assistant starting in eighth grade; wanting to be a nurse since a young age; her father's illness; importance of patriotism and community service; working while in high school and college; being a good student; attending St. Scholastica and pursuing a nursing degree; deciding to enlist in the U.S. Navy and family reaction to enlistment; reputation of females in the military; traveling to Mississippi and being exposed to different ethnicities; racism; concern of Communism; being assigned to Camp Pendleton; being treated differently as a woman; volunteering for Vietnam and being sent to Guam; reaction to Guam; working the night shift at the air evacuation hospital in Guam; training corpsmen; conflicts of interest with the head nurse; becoming head nurse; the Tet Offensive; traveling to Japan and Thailand; treating injuries and contact with patients; work environment; racial tensions; writing a poem dedicated to the corpsmen; the importance of the Vietnam Women's Memorial; difficulty in finding a job upon returning to the United States; anti-war sentiment; obtaining a master's degree and working in health education; thoughts on war in Iraq and war in general; post-traumatic stress disorder; thoughts about women in the military.

Dates

• 05/23/2006 (Creation)

Creation

• interviewer: Heikkila, Kim
• interviewee: Tyrrell, Mary O'Brien

Identifiers

• Library Call Number: OH 113
• Accession Number: AV2007.38.11

Holding Type: Oral History - Interview

Project

• Oral History - Project, MHS Collection, project: 'Minnesota's Women Vietnam Veterans Oral History Project' <OH 113>

Quantity: 3 hours sound cassette 55 pages transcript

Format

• Content Category: sound recordings
• Content Category: text

Measurements

• 150 minutes length

Subjects

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