Meet Sue Lazar! Sue graduated from Central Catholic in 1965. After high school, Sue served 25 years in the US Army Nurse Corps. She enlisted in the Army as a nursing student in 1967. After graduation she was assigned to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas where she worked on the cardiology and orthopedic wards. In June 1969 she deployed to Vietnam and was stationed at the 45th surgical hospital (MUST). She had just turned 22 and had a little over a year of nursing experience. Sue also has six brothers and a younger sister who all graduated from CC.
“We were a small hospital located in Tay Ninh near the Cambodian border. I worked in the receiving/triage area and on the postoperative unit. Patients were evacuated to us by helicopter directly from the field. They were evaluated, given emergency treatment and surgery if needed,” said Sue. “Patients were evacuated usually within 24 to 48 hours to larger evacuation or general hospitals. I was so privileged to take care of these young men who often had experienced horrendous injuries. They never complained and were always concerned about their buddies and those of us caring for them.”
After returning from Vietnam, Sue was briefly stationed at Fitzsimons Army Medical Center in Denver, Colorado. She left active duty in September 1970 and joined the Army Reserves. She served in the Army Reserves/National Guard for 20 years in a variety of positions including chief nurse of a combat support hospital and commander of a medical clearing company with the 35th infantry. During that time she cared for actual patients during field exercises and on missions to Guatemala and Japan. Sue also provided training to army medics PA’s and nurses. After her active duty service, she returned to school and received a BSN from Indiana University in 1975, and a MSN from the University of Colorado in 1979 with a certification as a family Nurse Practitioner. She retired in 1992 as a Lieutenant Colonel.
Sue was a Nurse Practitioner for thirty years, including ten years at Frontier Nursing Service in Southeast Kentucky, where she had a rural health clinic. Sue also taught for three years at the Wishard School of Nursing in Indianapolis, and she served in the pulmonary/critical care department at Arnett Clinic in Lafayette before retiring in 2009.
How did your education at LCSS prepare you for college and your career?
“We are bound only by love - let this be your criterion of life. We may not always understand,
but we can love.” These words were written in my senior year book by Sister Kevin, our chemistry teacher. I’ve thought of those words many times over the years. During difficult times, when I couldn’t understand, I could love and felt God’s love. My time at CC strengthened my faith and allowed me to make lifelong friends. I know that with my faith, family, and friends, I can get through anything.
Pictured: Sue‘s classmate, Karen (Steill) Rankin and the Quilt of Valor Foundation, recently honored her service with a beautiful quilt that was designed and made for her by Karen and a friend Angie Pyc. Karen traveled from Greenville South Carolina for the presentation at the VFW in Carmel, IN.