Joan A. Furey - U.S. Army 1968-70

Joan Furey was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1946 and grew up in Terryville, a small town on Long Island. She graduated from the Pilgrim State Hospital School of Nursing, in Brentwood, in September 1967.
Joan began her career in Army service in 1968 as a second lieutenant in the Army Nurse Corps. She later volunteered to be deployed to Vietnam, where she received a Bronze Star as a staff nurse.
In 1970, the U.S. Army discharged Joan from Vietnam, and after leaving Southeast Asia, she dedicated her life to Veteran Affairs. She earned her master’s degree in nursing from New York University in 1975 and then moved to Florida, where she became involved in grass-roots advocacy for veterans returning from war.