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Local Airman speaks during Memorial Day event

  • Published
  • By Marilyn C. Holliday
  • 11th Wing Public Affairs
BOLLING AFB, D.C. --  Each Veterans' Day and Memorial Day individuals gather to tell their stories at the Vietnam Women's Memorial statue and to lay a wreath at the Vietnam Wall.

Titled, Vietnam: In Their Own Words, the event is from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. May 31. Of particular interest to AFDW Airmen is the featured speaker at The Wall at 1 p.m.

Storytellers and those gathered for the event will move from the Vietnam Women's Memorial statue to the wall to hear featured speaker Lt. Col. Mary T. Carlisle, chief nurse and chief of education and training for the 579th Medical Group at Bolling Air Force Base.

Lieutenant Colonel Carlisle has held several clinical, educational and leadership positions at various assignments including medical surgical, critical care, ambulatory surgery and emergency services. She was deployed as a critical care nurse with the Expeditionary Medical Support unit to Masirah AB, Oman, to support Operation Enduring Freedom in 2001 and 2002 and to the Air Force theater hospital at Balad AB, Iraq, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2007. She sought care for post-traumatic stress disorder after returning from Iraq and was profiled in the Real Warriors Campaign as a person seeking healing for the mental and emotional costs of war.

"I am extremely honored and humbled to represent the Vietnam Women's Memorial, as well as all women who are serving today on this Memorial Day," Lieutenant Colonel Carlisle said. "I hope that by sharing my story of healing, that others will have the courage to come forward and get the help they need."

The keynote speaker for the event is Admiral Michael G. Mullen, chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The day's events begin at the Vietnam Women's Memorial, where a combination of military members from both the Vietnam era and today's armed conflicts tell their stories "in their own voices." Every 30 minutes another storyteller will tell his or her story. After Lieutenant Colonel Carlisle's speech at the wall, attendees will move back to the memorial for more stories.

Built and dedicated 16 years ago, the Vietnam Women's Memorial is a monument to the bravery and contributions of more than a quarter million women who served during the Vietnam era to include among many nurses, Red Cross workers, journalists, military women and civilians.