여성간호장교의 베트남전쟁 참전 체험

Abstract

1948년부터 양성된 우리나라 여성간호장교는 1964년 최초의 해외 파병인 베트남전쟁에 제1진으로 참전하여 한국군은 물론 현지인과 베트콩에게 인도주의적 관점에서 전문적인 간호를 실천하여 생명을 보호하고 국위를 선양하였다. 또한 여성의 섬세함으로 대민지원 업무에 적극적으로 참여하여 베트남 현지인들에게 한국군의 우호적인 이미지를 구축하는데 크게 기여하였다. 이러한 성공적인 업무 수행은 현재까지 50여 년 간 우리나라 간호장교들이 걸프전, 이라크, 아프가니스탄 등에서 평화유지군으로 활동하는 발판을 마련하였다. 그럼에도 불구하고 우리나라 간호장교의 참전 경험에 대한 연구는 미국이나 호주에 비해 미미한 실정이다. 따라서 본 연구는 우리나라 최초의 파병이었던 베트남전쟁에 참전한 여성간호장교의 체험의 의미와 본질을 van Manen (1990)의 해석학적 현상학 연구방법으로 탐색하여 간호사 및 일반 대중들에게 여성간호장교의 생생한 참전 체험을 알리고자 한다. 본 연구의 참여자는 1964년부터 1973년까지 베트남전쟁에 참전했던 여성간호장교 14명으로 목적적 표집과 눈덩이식 표집을 하였다. 자료수집 기간은 2016년 9월부터 11월까지로 서울 등 5개 지역의 대상자를 방문하여 심층 면담을 실시하고 필요시 전화면담을 통해 자료가 포화될 때까지 충분히 수집하였다. 또한 다양한 체험의 원천으로 시, 소설, 수기 등 문학작품 12편과 회화, 동상, 사진 등 예술작품 13점을 통해 여성간호장교의 베트남전쟁 참전과 관련된 자료를 탐색하였고 해석학적 현상학 반성을 통해 자료를 분석하고 8개의 본질적 주제를 도출하여 글쓰기를 하였다. 본 연구의 결과 여성간호장교의 베트남전쟁 참전 체험은 '겁 없이 참전을 선택하고 떠남', '낯설고 극한 상황에 맞닥뜨려 혼란을 겪으며 참아냄', '긴장된 일상에서 죽음도 불사하고 업무에 몰두함', '타국에서 한국군과 생사고락을 함께하며 전우애가 돈독해짐', '주도적 업무 수행으로 보람을 찾고 새 영역을 개척함', '남성 위주의 전쟁에서 여성이 겪는 아픔, 제약, 차별을 실감함', '여성·간호리더로 성장·발전한 자신을 발견함', '애국심이 절로 우러남'으로 8개의 본질적 주제가 도출되었다. 참여자들은 모두 미혼 여성이었고 대부분 20대였으므로 해외에 대한 강한 호기심을 갖고 자신의 능력을 실전에서 기여하고 싶은 마음과 참전을 통한 미래의 풍요로운 삶을 기대하며 가족의 걱정은 뒤로한 채 겁 없이 베트남전쟁 참전을 선택하였다. 충분한 준비 없는 출발로 혼란을 겪으며 야자수와 해변 등 이국적 낭만과 함께 전쟁의 위험이 공존하는 전쟁터인 베트남에 도착하였다. 죽음의 위협이 상존한 공포스러운 전장에서 참여자들은 생존을 위해 나름대로의 방식을 터득하며 적응을 시도하였고 때때로 떠나 온 고국과 가족이 너무나 그리워 눈물을 흘리기도 했다. 그러나 주어진 임무를 완수하기 위해 강한 정신력으로 무에서 유를 만들어내었고 충분한 수면과 휴식이 부족함에도 불구하고 부상병을 살리기 위해 고군분투하였으며 필요하다면 자신의 혈액을 기꺼이 내놓기도 하였다. 전쟁터는 죽음이 늘 가까이에 있는 곳임을 실감했지만 긴장과 불안이 일상화되면서 오히려 무뎌져가고 무감각해져갔다. 참여자들은 자신의 임무를 완수하기 위해 죽음도 불사한다는 의지를 불태우며 업무에 몰두하였고 스트레스는 스스로 대처하며 극복해나갔다. 참여자들은 타국에서 한국군들과 강한 동지애를 가지고 서로 피를 나눈 형제라는 감정을 가졌으며 특히 타국에서 외롭게 죽어가는 한국군의 사망에는 너무도 고통스러운 애절한 마음뿐이었다. 참여자들은 베트남전쟁에 참전한 유일한 여성 군인으로서 계급을 떠나 한국군에게 누나, 엄마와 같은 따뜻한 마음으로 대했고 조국이 그리운 부대원들에게 김치나 만둣국을 만들어 나누어주는 등 간호전문직을 떠나 여성으로서 돌봄을 실천했다. 참여자들은 한국군뿐 아니라 베트남 현지인과 베트콩에게도 전문성과 진정성을 갖춘 간호를 실천하였고 간호업무 외에 대민지원, 항공환자후송, 심리전영역 등 국내에서 수행하지 않았던 새로운 업무 영역을 개척하고 전문성을 증명하였으며 성공적인 결과에 뿌듯함과 성취감을 느꼈다. 참여자들은 남성 전투병과 위주의 전장에서 비전투병과 여성으로서 늘 소수였다. 이들은 여성의 관점에서 현지 여성들이 겪는 전쟁의 상처를 헤아릴 수 있었고 여성간호장교에 대한 제약을 실감하게 되었으며 때로는 비합리적인 차별에 항의하기도 하였다. 베트남현지에서 베트남, 베트남-프랑스 문화와 교류하며 국제적인 감각을 익혔고 우리보다 한발 앞선 미국의 간호수준을 접하며 장기적인 한국 군진 간호의 비전을 수립하는 계기가 되기도 했다. 또한 참전 전에는 인식하지 못했던 전쟁의 이면을 알게 되면서 비판적인 시각으로 전쟁의 의미를 성찰하게 되었다. 전쟁터에서 생사를 넘나들며 한국군, 베트남 현지인, 베트남 군인을 간호하는 과정에서 추진력과 무엇이든 해낼 수 있다는 강한 자신감을 습득하며 여성․간호리더로 성장․발전한 자신을 느꼈다. 참여자들은 베트남전쟁 참전을 통해 절로 우러난 강한 애국심을 50여 년이 지난 지금까지도 소중히 간직하고 우리나라의 발전에 책임감을 느끼고 있으며 앞으로도 국가발전에 기여하겠다는 의지를 불태우고 있었다. 본 연구는 미혼 여성간호장교의 베트남전쟁 참전 체험이라는 독특한 경험을 탐색하였다는데 연구의 의의가 있다. 전쟁이라는 특수한 상황에서 여성, 간호사, 장교로서 겪었던 체험의 의미와 본질을 탐색하여 그들의 체험을 이해하고 군진 간호에 있어 귀중한 자료로 활용 가능하다는데 역사적인 의의가 있다.;The female Korean military nursing officers, who began to be commissioned from 1948, participated in the Vietnam War in 1964, which was the first overseas deployment in the history of Korea. They served as the members of the first contingent stationed in Vietnam to protect lives and to boost national prestige by carrying out professional nursing care with the humanitarian point of view not only for the Korean military but for the local people as well as the Viet Cong. In addition, by actively participating in the support of the people with the delicacy of women, they contributed greatly to building a friendly image of the ROK armed forces to the Vietnamese people. Such successful task performance has established a foothold for the Korean nursing officers to work as peacekeeping operations in the Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan. Nevertheless, the number of studies regarding the war experiences of Korean nursing officers is inadequate when compared to those of U.S. or Australia. This study was conducted with van Manen's (1990) hermeneutic phenomenological approach research method to explore the meaning and essence of the lived experience of the female nursing officers who participated in the Vietnam War. Moreover, the study intends to give a vivid description of the female nursing officers' lived experience of the Vietnam War to the nurses and the general public. Participants of this study were 14 female nursing officers who participated in the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1973, and were selected by purposive and snowball sampling. The data were collected from September to November of 2016. The participants were recruited in five different regions such as Seoul, Busan, Daegu, Gwangju, Gyeonggi province to conduct in-depth face-to-face interviews and telephone interviews were implemented when needed as well until the data saturation was reached. Interviews were recorded and transcribed with permission of the study participants. In addition, 12 sources of literature such as poetry, novels, and memoirs, and 13 different works of art such as paintings, statues, and photographs were explored for the data related to the war participation of female nursing officers in the Vietnam War. The data was analyzed through hermeneutic phenomenological reflection, and eight essential themes were drawn to hermeneutic phenomenological writing. As the result of this study, total of eight essential themes were extracted from female nursing officer's lived experience of participating in the Vietnam War. The essential themes include "Choosing and leaving for the war without fear", "Enduring confusion from facing strange and extreme situations", "Devoting to work despite tense daily life and even willing to risk their lives", "Establishing a good relationship with ROK armed forces as they shared all the joys and sorrows in a foreign country together", "Feeling satisfaction and rewards from actively conducting tasks and pioneering new territory", "Realizing the pain, constraints, and discrimination experienced by women in the male oriented war", "Discovering themselves as the people who have grown and developed into female / nurse leaders", and "Feeling a sincere patriotism naturally born in hearts." Participants were all unmarried women with most of them were in their twenties at the time of the war. Therefore, they seemed to have chosen to participate in the Vietnam War without fear or any regards for their families' concerns as they had a strong curiosity about the overseas, wanted to contribute their ability at the real field, and expected a prosperous life in the future through the participation in the war. They departed without enough preparation which caused confusion and arrived in Vietnam, a battlefield where battle threats coexist with the exotic romance such as palm trees and beaches. In the horrifying battlefield where the threat of death was still present, the participants tried to adjust to their ways of life in order to survive, and they sometimes shed tears longing for the family and country they had left behind. However, in order to accomplish a given task, they made things out of nothing to complete their missions with strong willpower, and despite the lack of adequate sleep and rest, they struggled and even donated their own blood if necessary to save the injured. They soon realized that battlefield was a place where death was always around, but as tension and anxiety became common in their daily lives, they became rather blunt and numbed to the fact. Participants devoted themselves to the task of burning their will to even die in order to accomplish their tasks, and coped and overcame the stress themselves. Participants had a strong feeling of comradeship with the ROK army forces as they were working together in a foreign land, as well as the feeling that they were bonding like brothers and sisters by blood; they felt especially painful and sad by the death of Korean soldiers dying alone on the foreign soil of Vietnam. Participants, as the only female officers who participated in the Vietnam War, treated Korean soldiers with kindness as if they were the soldiers' sisters and mothers without consideration for the rank of the patients and practiced caring as women apart from their nursing professions as they made kimchi or dumpling soup for the homesick troops. Participants practiced nursing with professionalism and authenticity not only for Korean troops but also for local people and Viet Cong. In addition to the nursing services, they pioneered into new fields of work that were not carried out in Korea such as military aid to civil authorities, aircraft evacuation of patient and military psychological warfare territory and proved expertise in the fields. They felt proud and accomplished by their successful results. Participants were a minority as non-combatants and females in male oriented battlefields predominately with male combatants. From a woman's point of view, they were able to understand the wounds local women experience from the war and to realize the limitations set for the female nursing officers, prohibiting them from doing certain tasks; they sometimes protested against unreasonable discriminations. Learning Vietnamese and Vietnamese-French culture in Vietnam, they familiarized themselves with the international sense and encountering the advanced level of nursing of the U.S. military which was ahead of Korea, they were able to achieve the opportunity to establish the long-term vision of Korean military nursing. In addition, learning the dark side of the war that was unable to recognize before the war, they were able to reflect on the meaning of the war from a critical point of view. In the process of providing nursing care to Korean soldiers, Vietnamese and Vietnamese soldiers hanging between life and death in the battle fields, they gained a strong sense of self-confidence and ability to do anything, and felt themselves maturing and developing as female and nurse leaders. Participants cherished the strong patriotism naturally developed through the war in Vietnam until the present after fifty years had passed, feeling responsible for the development of our country, and still willing to contribute to national development in the future. This study is historically meaningful in that it explores the unique experience of the unmarried female nursing officers' experience of the war in Vietnam. There is a historical significance in understanding their experiences by exploring the meaning and essence of their experience as women, nurses and officers in the special situation of war, and in using them as precious materials for military nursing.