Operation Nightingale (United States)


Operation Nightingale was an extensive program run by the United States Army Nurse Corps to recruit nurses during the Vietnam War. Begun on February 28, 1963, the nationwide program sought to add 2,000 nurses. At its peak, almost 150 people were working to sign up nurses. Recruiters "lecturing at high schools, universities, and career fairs, placing advertisements in stores, making radio announcements and TV commercials, and at times enlisting celebrity endorsements." They said that “women would experience an equality with men that they would not find in the civilian world.”