Rocky Wright’s move into Vietnam
This is the first of three installments concerning combat veterans, offered to help commemorate Memorial Day 2019.
Racquel “Rocky” Wright’s introduction to the Vietnam War was swift and brutal.
Wright, 71, of Yuba City, was fresh out of nursing school, joined the Army at 22-years-old and several weeks later she was there tending to soldiers – most had their arms, legs and/or lower torsos blown off and only one of her patients survived in that first year.
“It was probably the most significant year of my life,” she said. “After Vietnam, I was all about getting out of the Army because it was a bad situation watching people die and we weren’t
welcomed home when we got back.”
Wright ended up spending 28 years in the Army, achieving the rank of lieutenant colonel and was awarded the Bronze Star amongst other accolades.
“When I got home from Vietnam, I had a month off and stayed at my parents’ house,” she said. “I didn’t want to see anyone. I licked my wounds.”
Her next assignment was at Letterman Army Hospital at the Presidio in San Francisco.
“I was called a combat nurse back in the day and have a Bronze Star, which is uncommon for a woman,” she said.
“Many veterans put themselves down if they didn’t serve in combat and I tell
them, ‘it doesn’t matter. If you served, you can have trauma.’ We don’t like to see people put themselves down.”
Wright said she was so busy during her time in the service that she didn’t come to terms with what she was experiencing until much later and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder at age 64.
“For 20 years, I worked as a reservist and tried to not make time for any of the challenges but as time goes on, you have time to think about it and the symptoms start happening – I started shaking,” she said. “I think that’s why I had PTSD because of what I saw and if I had kept doing tours over and over, I’d be in worse shape.”
Her symptoms happened later in life and she wants to find ways to help veterans and others dealing with PTSD get help sooner, rather than later.
“The Veterans Affairs wanted to give me drugs and I avoided that. Then, I went for inpatient help which was different,” she said. “It’s hard to find people who can treat patients with PTSD.”
Wright said she’s been informally networking with people nationwide and locally who have found ways to manage PTSD and knows that each person has to find ways that work for them.
“For me, it’s all about meditating and finding ways to avoid or cope with it. People have to build their toolbox of help,” she said. “I get called by nature – I go to the ocean, the mountains and go fishing.”
Wright’s Yorkshire terrier, Dakota, has also helped her manage PTSD and she said stigma surrounding service animals and emotional support animals makes things more difficult, at times.
“When people come home and they leave the military, they don’t have a way to process what they’ve been through and they’re out working and living in the world and people don’t know what they’re living through,” she said. “It’s important to get people out of the woodwork because it can be isolating – sometimes what they’re experiencing falls on deaf ears.”
Before retiring, Wright also worked with Kaiser, Sutter North and Fremont-rideout and during Operation Desert Storm, was called to help backfill positions at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, Colo. as others were deployed.