Aida Nancy Sanchez
(Physical Therapist), 1952-1976, Vietnam
U.S. Army Medical Specialist Corps

Aida Nancy Sanchez
(Physical Therapist), 1952-1976, Vietnam
U.S. Army Medical Specialist Corps

Army physical therapist Aida Nancy Sanchez, originally from Santurce, Puerto Rico, served at the 95th Evacuation Hospital near Da Nang, Vietnam, from December 1970 to December 1971. As the first physical therapist assigned to the hospital, she set up a clinic in a Quonset hut treating as many as 70 patients a day. During the war, she spent most of her time flying between Cambodia and Vietnam tending American and Cambodian soldiers and citizens with their physical therapy needs. She even cared for Cambodian president Lon Nol in his palace in Phnom Phenh. Sanchez retired in 1976 as a lieutenant colonel, after 24 years of service. She ended her career at Fort Gordon, Georgia, overseeing the six-year transformation of run-down barracks into the Eisenhower Army Medical Center. Years later, Sanchez wrote of her service and that of her fellow women veterans, “We always have been very proud to serve, and it will always be with us the pride we share and feel about the military service we have given.”