BETHESDA NAVAL HOSPITAL ~ WARD 3 C ~ 1971

My name is Charles Winkler. I was born on April 18, 1954, at Balboa Naval Hospital, San Diego, California. I currently live in Nags Head, NC.

My father graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, class of 1948. He was a submariner and commanded the USS REDFISH from 1961 to 1963, then served as a squadron officer at the Ballast Point submarine base on Point Loma through 1968. He was then stationed in London, England, with the Military Sealift Command until 1970, when we returned stateside to Kensington, MD, where I was enrolled in Albert Einstein High School. (more background information) HERE

While working on the stage crew for the school's production of the play OKLAHOMA, I injured my foot after jumping down onto a catwalk above the stage and eventually wound up as an inpatient at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, MD.

The whole experience was like "MASH" meets "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest," with some "Empire of the Sun" adding to the mix. I was the youngest patient among an all-military cast, most of whom had been wounded in Vietnam. I spent my time on two orthopedic wards during my stay there, 3C & 5C.

It was a best of times/worst of times situation, culminating with me joining a half dozen Marines from orthopedic ward 3-C going to the May Day protest in Washington, D.C., in 1971.

A bolt holding the catwalk above the stage had punctured my foot, and it took almost 6 months to get that sorted out. A piece of my tennis shoe had lodged next to a bone in my foot, which caused a severe infection. which was compounded by an infection that had become entrenched in the operating rooms from the treatment of Marines who had been wounded in Vietnam.

"During the Vietnam War, infections among soldiers treated at facilities like the Bethesda Naval Hospital were a significant challenge, though they differed notably            from the multidrug-resistant outbreaks seen in            more recent conflicts." HERE

It was a best of times/worst of times situation, culminating with me joining a half dozen Marines from orthopedic ward 3-C going to the May Day protest in Washington, D.C., in 1971.

All the patients had injuries of some sort to their extremities and were either ambulatory or in wheelchairs, as I was. Most of them were alert and capable of normal activities. They were only constrained by the nature of their wounds.

The hospital staff on the wards consisted of military personnel ranging from young corpsmen to admirals, who occasionally came by during grand rounds on Fridays. We had access to all the areas in the hospital, including other wards, that were open to visitors as well as some that we discovered through exploration.

My stepgrandmother worked in public relations at the hospital, so I had visited there on occasion prior to my admittance. I also frequented the 9-hole golf course that wove its way around the perimeter of the hospital. There was also an indoor basketball court that I visited often in the winter months. These gave me a feeling of confident familiarity with the situation that proved invaluable in bonding with the other patients on the ward.

The movie would be based on the many experiences I had during my 4 1/2 month stay, ranging from tragic to euphoric, a truly unique and almost singular real-life journey.

I have compiled a list of some of those experiences and joined some pertinent social media outlets and Facebook pages in an attempt to find remembrances from wounded Vietnam veterans as well as service members from the medical ranks.

Regrettably, wounded veterans, across a wide spectrum of wars, including Vietnam, have faced difficulty in obtaining proper and appropriate medical care for decades. It is my belief this movie will shine a light on this injustice.

“For decades, military veterans have faced persistent and interrelated hardships, often centered around physical and mental health issues, challenges in transitioning to civilian life, and systemic difficulties in accessing benefits." HERE & HERE