This week commemorates the 30-year anniversary of the Vietnam women’s memorial in Washington DC, an endeavor that was made possible by a former River Falls resident, Diane Carlson Evans, who was a combat nurse in the Vietnam War.

Evans grew up on a dairy farm in Buffalo, Minn. She became a nurse like her mother before her and enlisted in the army with the intention of going to Vietnam.

“I was in nursing school in Minneapolis in the 60s, and because of the deferrals, if young men were in college they didn't have to go to Vietnam. So, what did that mean for farm boys like my brothers who were drafted because they wanted to be farmers?” Evans said. “And I'm thinking, well, if my brothers have to go, and all these farm boys around me are dying, I should go too. That's why I signed up for Vietnam. Everyone should serve our country in some capacity, that's just my belief. I defend America, and I defend our democracy.”

The Vietnam Women’s Memorial Project started after a visit to Washington DC to see the unveiling of the Vietnam Wall Memorial in 1983. At that time, there was some backlash about the wall and Vietnam vets wanting a monument that represents the men who served in the war. A plan was made to commemorate a statue of three service men to honor those who served in the war.

Evans returned home to River Falls, where she lived for 10 years with her husband who was the chief surgeon at the local hospital, with an overwhelming feeling that if the men are going to be commemorated then the women should also be recognized. This simple trip marked what would become a turning point in her life and the beginning of a 10-year project stemming from a grassroots campaign which all began with a speech at the Lions Club in River Falls.

“I was so nervous because it was still just 1983. The Vietnam War was so controversial, and still so many people hated the war and were still blaming us veterans for it,” Evans said. “I read my speech that talked about my time as a nurse in Vietnam and that there’s going to be a statue next year in 1984 dedicated to and portraying the men who served in Vietnam. I said I believed that if there was going to be a statue for the men, there needs to be one for the women or people would never know we were even there and what we contributed.”

The room was dead silent when she finished speaking. Then, as she gathered her speech to leave the podium, the entire River Falls Lions Club stood and gave her a standing ovation.

From that point on, she just kept climbing the ladder. The support of the Lions led to getting the support of the River Falls American Legion. From her contacts there, she got a meeting with a senior leader and past national commander of the American Legion who gave her a basic road map of what she had to do to make her vision a reality.

“He said, you have to get your local post to pass a resolution to support it. Once you get that done in River Falls, you go to the District Convention in Wisconsin. If they pass it, you get to go to the state convention in Wisconsin, and if they pass it, then you go to the national convention. If they pass it, then they support your idea,” Evans said. “I got in the car after the meeting, and I just felt overwhelmed. Like, how can I do this? So, I went home, and I wrote out a strategy. I started with the American Legion in River Falls, and they passed a resolution. Then they helped me with the district and then they helped me at the state. Every time, I had to stand in front of all these people and explain to them why I needed their support, and they did. Wisconsin got behind it 100%, so that was my stepping stone.”

It wasn’t easy though, especially once Evans got to the national level.

“There was a lot of opposition. The mean-spirited opponents all came out of the woodwork and tried to stop what I was doing. They had some really crazy reasons why we did not deserve a monument on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. They were mean-spirited, and they were ugly,” Evans said. “We were all volunteers, we weren’t drafted. For so many of those names on the wall, we were the last person they talked to, we were the last person they looked up to. We were there for them to hold their hands and be with them so they didn't die alone. And those 300,000 that were wounded, we were there for them.”

Needless to say, the support came flooding in too.

“Initially, all we were getting was bad press. Then, all the Vietnam veterans who were reading these nasty articles about us women were so angry that they started writing letters to the editor and saying, ‘These women deserve that memorial. If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be here to write this letter,’” Evans said. “The letters were so heartwarming, they just brought you to tears because they talked about what it was like to have the women with them on the air evac chain, the Air Force flight nurses bringing them home and the boots on the ground nurses who were the first face they saw in the emergency and operating rooms.”

There were 265,000 nurses serving around the world in the Vietnam era, and they were all there by choice. This monument honors every one of them.

“My favorite part is seeing what this has done for my sister veterans and brother veterans. How it's helped them to heal and opened them up. I have hundreds and hundreds of thank you letters from men and women saying, ‘Thank you for this memorial, I didn't know that I needed it. It has helped me to heal, it has helped me to talk to my family, it's helped me to connect,’” Evans said. “It's just been such a beautiful thing to look at the 30 years and how women have transformed how they feel about their experience because of the healing power of the monument. It's just so powerful to know that it means a lot to these people. They've been so forgotten and so maligned, and that has changed in 30 years. So, that's what’s heartwarming for me because that was the whole point and the goal of what I was working for for 10 years, was to help those women feel that what they did was of value and has preeminent historical lasting significance.”

After the project was complete, she knew she wasn’t through yet. The story that she had to tell, about her experience both during and after the war, was important to tell, and she began working on a tell all book that depicted her entire experience. In 2020, that memoir was published.

After her years of service to her country and to her fellow enlisted men and women, both during and after the war, Evans holds a special place in her heart for River Falls and its community.

“The main thing I want to say is how grateful I am to the people in River Falls for helping me, supporting me and getting this started because without them I wouldn't have gone anywhere,” Evans said. “I did not do this alone, and that's such an important point to make. I give credit to all my allies, all the people who stepped up to help because without them there wouldn't be a memorial. I'm internally, deeply, profoundly grateful to the people who helped make this happen.”