(Allen Fasoldt/Stars and Stripes)

Pleiku, South Vietnam, Dec. 20, 1966: An unidentified Army nurse at Bob Hope’s 1966 Christmas Show.

Some 11,000 women served in Vietnam, with 90% of them working as volunteer nurses. The nature of warfare in Vietnam made it impossible to be safe “behind the front lines,” and eight women, all nurses, are among the more than 58,000 names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Their names are: Capt. Elanor Grace Alexander, 2nd Lt. Pamela Dorothy Donovan, 2nd Lt. Carol Ann Elizabeth Drazba, Lt. Col. Annie Ruth Graham, 2nd Lt. Elizabeth Ann Jones, 1st Lt. Sharon Ann Lane, Capt. Mary Therese Klinker, and 1st Lt. Hedwig Diane Orlowski.