Donut Dollies in Vietnam BabyBlue Dresses and OD Green Nancy Smoyer 9780692878002 Books
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The young women who served in South Vietnam with the Red Cross Supplemental Recreation Activities Overseas (SRAO) program were known informally as Red Cross recreation workers. To the American men who served during the Vietnam war they were simply Donut Dollies.
Ask any Donut Dollie why she was in Vietnam and she would tell you that she was there because the men were there. Ranging from large bases such as Cam Ranh Bay to forward Landing Zones and firebases, their job was to provide GIs with a brief respite from the war through games, Kool-aid, or just their presence.
In Donut Dollies in Vietnam Baby-Blue Dresses & OD Green, Nancy Smoyer, who served as a Donut Dollie during 1967-68, writes a poignant memoir of her Vietnam experience, both during and after the Vietnam war. Based on Nancy’s photographs and letters and tapes home, as well as emails written to veteran groups since 1993, she pulls together material from others to share the emotions and events she and other Donut Dollies experienced.
Donut Dollies in Vietnam BabyBlue Dresses and OD Green Nancy Smoyer 9780692878002 Books
Many people have a touchstone moment, which divides a life into before and after. It is only in retrospect that they can point to it and say “This was It.” Nancy Smoyer had such a moment in Vietnam in 1967. She counts her year-long experience there as such, but one moment in particular that summed it all up. That year has informed the rest of her life, and her contribution to the well being of the men who were boys she met over there continues to this day.Anxious to serve in whatever capacity she could, Nancy Smoyer made the decision to join the Red Cross recreational workers known as Donut Dollies. Despite her gentle upbringing, her decision was based on the feeling that if the men had to be over there, she needed to play a part herself. In those days, the draft was in force and the men didn’t have a choice, whereas, she did. Basically a non-political person, Nancy’s motivations were purely to be there for the men. In addition, this was decades and several wars before women would be able to serve in combat, so the Red Cross provided her with the opportunity she craved. Now 50 years later, she has published her memoir based on recollections and letters, of that experience and on the strong bonds forged during that year that have endured into this century. She reunites with the enlisted men she met then, regularly travels to volunteer at the Memorial Wall in Washington. Their objective was to provide a respite from the pressure cooker of war by playing games (mostly of their own invention), talking, basically acting as a sounding board for homesick GIs, in other words, boosting morale. She had her ups and downs mood wise like anybody, but her overall “I’ll try anything” personality was usually optimistic, and whether it was flying in open helicopters or eating C Rations off overturned buckets decorated with flowers, she was mostly upbeat. She indicates that despite the difficulties of establishing friendships due to the necessary abrupt departures and troop movements, she regarded them as individuals and not faceless cannon fodder. The fact that her younger brother Billy, special by any scale, became one of that war’s victims, is handled with compassion and pain, but a great deal of cathartic hope too.
Generous with her memories, Nancy tells her story through letters, reminisces, emails and photographs. This book is a special addition to the collection of literature about Vietnam.
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Tags : Donut Dollies in Vietnam: Baby-Blue Dresses and OD Green [Nancy Smoyer] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The young women who served in South Vietnam with the Red Cross Supplemental Recreation Activities Overseas (SRAO) program were known informally as Red Cross recreation workers. To the American men who served during the Vietnam war they were simply Donut Dollies. Ask any Donut Dollie why she was in Vietnam and she would tell you that she was there because the men were there. Ranging from large bases such as Cam Ranh Bay to forward Landing Zones and firebases,Nancy Smoyer,Donut Dollies in Vietnam: Baby-Blue Dresses and OD Green,Chopper Books,0692878009,HISTORY Military Vietnam War
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Donut Dollies in Vietnam BabyBlue Dresses and OD Green Nancy Smoyer 9780692878002 Books Reviews
Donut Dollie is displayed at the CA.Surf Museum for the Viet Nam beach display for a year. go to the site.
Thank you Nancy. I was Marine infantry (Walkingdead) up on the DMZ 66-67 so never met you gals. Sure enjoyed your recollections.
Purchased this book after a chance meeting with the author at the Vietnam Memorial. It was an extremely personal accounting of her time spent in Vietnam. Definitely made the reader aware of the toll on everyone who provided assistance to the military and who lost loved ones during the war. These women were left out of the history books and their contribution should be noted.
This book is a collection of letters, recollections, and conversations that take you from place to place and episode to episode. Still, Nancy Smoyer makes this narrative style work because you watch her grow into a person with unquestioned authenticity and overriding purpose. She becomes the kind of young woman of the Sixties rarely if ever seen in the contemporaneous coverage of that era (at least as I recall that coverage). A world traveler a year out of college, Nancy landed in Vietnam as a Red Cross volunteer where she forged an extraordinary bond with the young men she encountered. She describes the men and her fellow volunteers vividly—at times, letting them speak for her. The indescribable loss of her brother in that war, a Marine lieutenant, three months after her return home, fortified that bond and made it life-changing. How she lived the Vietnam experience for the next fifty years, including her trip to Vietnam in 1993 and her volunteer activities at Veteran Centers and the Wall in Washington, keeps you engaged in her story, admirably recounted and a pleasure to read.
Finally, after 50 some years, a book that traces the contribution of the women of the American Red Cross during the Vietnam War. If the Vietnam Veterans are the "forgotten ones", the civilian women who supported the troops IN Vietnam, are the unknowns. Smoyer shares the rewards and the sadness that are only found in a war zone. Her book is a wonderful collection of letters written home, transcripts of tapes sent home and e-mail exchanges on an Internet List for Vietnam Veterans. Smoyer allows you to travel with her down that road of remembering and dealing with her "Vietnam War". The journey Smoyer reveals is an honor to share.
Maybe I'm prejudiced, because I was one of the wearers of those Baby-Blue Dresses. But I think that Nancy Smoyer has done an excellent job of describing what our lives in Vietnam were like. Of course, it was different, for each of us, no two had identical experiences. But this book will give the reader, whether they served in Vietnam or not, an idea of what we saw, did, lived through.
And Nancy has continued to support the Vietnam Veterans to an extent that most of us have note. That, in itself, is a terrific story.
For those who are interested in more of the history of the Vietnam War than just the battles, this is an excellent telling of a piece of the whole story.
Nancy Smoyer has done a great job of presenting her personal thoughts and experiences while sharing the writings and messages of others who served in Viet Nam. As a Donut Dollie in Viet Nam, she was college educated and decided that she could serve our troops and our country by heading off to a war zone.
This book captures her personal experiences, not only through her present day view, but through segments of letters and tapes that were sent home. Her personal reflection allows us to experience the dedication, commitment, fear, anger, and every other emotion of a young woman who served in Viet Nam. Through her writing we gain perspective of some of the emotions of all who served. It also allows us to get a glimpse of the feelings that are so strong today.
I appreciate that Nancy’s book presented the complicated experiences, challenges and relationships that contribute to an experience that is often summed up by using the term, “Viet Nam”.
Many people have a touchstone moment, which divides a life into before and after. It is only in retrospect that they can point to it and say “This was It.” Nancy Smoyer had such a moment in Vietnam in 1967. She counts her year-long experience there as such, but one moment in particular that summed it all up. That year has informed the rest of her life, and her contribution to the well being of the men who were boys she met over there continues to this day.
Anxious to serve in whatever capacity she could, Nancy Smoyer made the decision to join the Red Cross recreational workers known as Donut Dollies. Despite her gentle upbringing, her decision was based on the feeling that if the men had to be over there, she needed to play a part herself. In those days, the draft was in force and the men didn’t have a choice, whereas, she did. Basically a non-political person, Nancy’s motivations were purely to be there for the men. In addition, this was decades and several wars before women would be able to serve in combat, so the Red Cross provided her with the opportunity she craved. Now 50 years later, she has published her memoir based on recollections and letters, of that experience and on the strong bonds forged during that year that have endured into this century. She reunites with the enlisted men she met then, regularly travels to volunteer at the Memorial Wall in Washington. Their objective was to provide a respite from the pressure cooker of war by playing games (mostly of their own invention), talking, basically acting as a sounding board for homesick GIs, in other words, boosting morale. She had her ups and downs mood wise like anybody, but her overall “I’ll try anything” personality was usually optimistic, and whether it was flying in open helicopters or eating C Rations off overturned buckets decorated with flowers, she was mostly upbeat. She indicates that despite the difficulties of establishing friendships due to the necessary abrupt departures and troop movements, she regarded them as individuals and not faceless cannon fodder. The fact that her younger brother Billy, special by any scale, became one of that war’s victims, is handled with compassion and pain, but a great deal of cathartic hope too.
Generous with her memories, Nancy tells her story through letters, reminisces, emails and photographs. This book is a special addition to the collection of literature about Vietnam.
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