Marsha Four was an Army nurse working in an intensive care unit not far from the front lines of Vietnam.

Four said everyone she worked with and all her patients were young people who were thrust into war, unaware of the horrors they would face. She recalled seeing gruesome combat injuries and having to decontaminate troops that came back with uniforms doused in Agent Orange. She also remembered troops using jet fuel to burn waste from latrines, dioxin to defoliate base perimeters for better visibility, and burn pits for trash from the base and hospital.

“What they burned, depending on the way the wind blew, was the air we breathed. To say [it was] a unique experience, is very understated,” Four said. “We were all young kids, how would you think about being exposed to that kind of stuff?

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