By Todd DePastino
The Veterans Breakfast Club mourns the passing of Diane Carlson Evans, Army nurse, Vietnam veteran, and tireless advocate for women veterans.
Diane passed away on May 20, 2026, in Helena, Montana, after a long battle with cancer at the age of 79.
It’s because of Diane Carlson Evans that we have the Vietnam Women’s Memorial on the National Mall. As founder of the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Foundation, Diane was determined that the women’s service not be left out of the story of the Vietnam War. After attending the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in 1982 and seeing no acknowledgment of the more than 11,000 American military women who served in Vietnam, she began a decade-long campaign to create a memorial honoring them. Through bureaucratic resistance, public skepticism, and outright hostility, Diane persevered until the memorial was finally dedicated on Veterans Day 1993.
Diane served as an Army nurse in Vietnam from 1968 to 1969, working in evacuation hospitals at Vung Tau and Pleiku, where grievously wounded soldiers arrived by helicopter directly from combat. Like many Vietnam veterans, she carried the war home with her. She transformed memory and pain into public service and historical recognition.
Over the years, Diane became a valued friend of the Veterans Breakfast Club. She helped connect the VBC with veterans and women veterans around the country and encouraged honest conversation about service, trauma, healing, and remembrance. Most recently, she contributed the moving essay “The Healing Power of the Wall” to the Fall 2025 issue of the VBC Magazine, reflecting on the enduring emotional and spiritual meaning of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial for those who served and sacrificed.
The Women’s Memorial staked a claim to our nation’s memory of war and expanded our understanding of who veterans are.
The Veterans Breakfast Club extends its deepest condolences to Diane’s family, friends, fellow nurses, and the vast community of veterans whose lives she touched.
