From Vietnam Nurse to Massage Therapist: A Veteran's Journey with Luster Shell
- maypop
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
I met my friend Lester Shell over twenty years ago at the Coffee Company in Elizabethton, TN where she was doing charity massages for a local charity. She shared that she was a massage therapist after working many ears as a register nurse.
Over the years her life stories were intriguing to me. We shared our stories of our respective military service which bonded us. She joined the Army in 1966 as a Nurse and served a year in Vietnam from 1967 to 1968 during the Tet Offensive. She served at the 3 rd Field Hospital outside of Saigon.
I asked Luster if I could interview her military experiences. Luster enjoyed riding horses and did a lot of drawing in the quiet moments especially in her first Duty Assignment in Fort Bragg, NC Soon she was sent to Vietnam where she worked long hours caring for wounded soldiers and local civilian people that needed medical care. She also met many celebrities through the Bob Hope USO Shows and also actors and actresses that came specifically to visit the wounded soldiers to encourage their recoveries.
After the Tet Offensive and before she returned to the States she was granted leave where she went to Bangkok, Thailand.
Photos
She of her time while there in Vietnam, Thailand and home.
Dress uniform in front of Airplane leaving the Tri-Cities Airport, TN to go to Vietnam Returned home with her parents, Rhoda and Cecil Shell, her Gramma Shell and Luster standing next to her gramma.
Luster with a patient who had a double amputee above the knees holding his hand with his purple heart he received.
The bullet she gave to a service man who had surgery to remove, he didn’t want and told her to keep it.
Sabbatian Cabot from the television series A Family Affair stand between another nurse and Luster.
James Gordon MacArthur, actor, visiting and posing with a patient.
Bob Hope USO Christmas Show 1967 with Raquel Welch, Elaine Dunn.
Actor Bob Denver posing with Luster.
Fest Parker giving Luster a kiss.
Premier Ky and Madam Mai giving a South Vietnamese a purple heart “US Army Photograph” General Westmoreland with a patient and Bob Hope.
Luster riding an Elephant in Bangkok, and Luster holding a snake.
Luster sitting of the picnic table that she sometimes used as a sunning spot during the rainy season.
Luster also waded in waters just like others during the rainy season.
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