‘History’ Archives
Donut Dollies Re-Unite
Surely it hasn't been almost 40 years since I returned from Vietnam. Surely the intervening years didn't disappear like smoke from a summer campfire. Surely the very real events of my youth haven't already been relegated to the unreality of history. Surely not, yet I have in my hands a piece of paper that suggests otherwise. This week [...]
A Soldier’s Christmas Carol
As stewardesses on an international airline, we flew troops into Vietnam at the height of the war. Naturally the flights didn’t stop when holidays were celebrated at home, and my roommate found herself on a military charter bound for Saigon, on December 23, 1968. The cabin was full of young men, and the pain was palpable. I’m certain the [...]
O Christmas Tree …
Christmas 1969 was probably my most memorable holiday, but it was definitely not the most enjoyable. Still, what began as a depressing experience was somehow transformed by a fairly insignificant symbol. I was stationed at Camp Enari, near Pleiku, in the Central Highlands of Viet Nam, one of four Red Cross Donut Dollies whose mission was to [...]
The Walk on the Moon
Forty years ago Neil Armstrong and "Buzz" Aldrin walked on the moon. As they were doing so, I was trudging around another stark landscape - a fire support base in Vietnam. I was one of 125 American Red Cross Donut Dollies who were stationed in-Country at the time. My co-workers and I were sent mostly to forward areas, so we got to know the [...]
