Women in Vietnam Remember

Written by Stephanie Kriner , Staff Writer, RedCross.org

September 6, 2001 —  A recent college graduate, Debby (Griffith) MacSwain experienced many disturbing moments as a member of the American Red Cross Supplemental Recreation Activities Overseas (SRAO) program in Vietnam. But it was that first, shocking encounter with the realities of the Vietnam War that still shakes her.

Images from Vietnam

After just a few weeks in the warring country, MacSwain, who was in Vietnam from Jan 1969-Jan. 1970, traveled with a fellow SRAO girl to the demilitarized zone, where they visited a field hospital for seriously sick and injured soldiers. When the two girls arrived, MacSwain's companion abandoned her to visit the malaria ward. She directed MacSwain to the surgery ward, and MacSwain naively followed her orders. Later, MacSwain learned that her companion opted for the malaria ward, because she could no longer emotionally endure visiting soldiers in the other.

MacSwain walked to one of the makeshift huts that were set up to serve as a hospital for those too seriously injured to be transported to a hospital. The hut was filled with beds of bandaged men, some with missing arms or legs. A surgeon pointed MacSwain toward one of the many young men lying wounded and listless.

"He told me, 'Go talk to that young man because he is going to die.' I held his hand and talked to him and then I had to leave," MacSwain said. "It was a critical time for me. After that experience, everything else fell into place."

MacSwain was part of a group of young female college graduates the Red Cross sent to Vietnam in response to a request by the U.S. military. The women conducted "recreation activities" for men stationed in the area's most remote jungle posts. Games ranged from trivia to board games to paper fights. Sometimes the women simply chatted with the men who gathered around them at the bases.

These young women from across the United States witnessed firsthand the tragedies of the Vietnam War. They huddled in tents during armed attacks, watched friends die and visited units that were later completely wiped out. Far from family, friends and their once sheltered lives, Vietnam was a violent way for them to grow up.

In the midst of the horrors, many of them found a way to make something positive of their experiences. Although they can't say for sure how the events changed them, many know deep down that somehow the war was a turning point in their lives.

At the end 1968, before MacSwain arrived in Vietnam, she had little interest in the politics of the war. After earning a degree in fine arts and recreation, she was eager to develop her career. She didn't fully realize the ramifications of her decision to go to Vietnam.

Later she learned that her experience was about much more than advancing her career. "It was my defining moment. I learned a lot. I grew up a lot and it was a tremendous experience," MacSwain said.

The women lived together in tents, trailers and apartments. They traveled by jeep, truck or helicopter - often accompanied by armed guards — to remote military stations in the Vietnamese jungle. They lived by rules that governed where they could go at night, what time they had to be home and how long their skirts could be.

A monthly average of 280,500 servicemen took part in the activities. The idea was to take the soldiers' minds off the fighting — even if for just a moment. The women also tried to listen to the men who needed to talk about their fears or grief. "Every day, you were somebody's sister or mother or friend," said Mary McDivit, who was among the first of the SRAO program members to arrive.

"They were a very tangible reminder of what everybody left behind — a sister, a mother, a friend or a girlfriend," said Randy Weddle, an engineer in the army during the war. "From my recollection, they were the only folks who smelled good over there, too," he added jokingly.

Diverting the men wasn't always so easy for the women, who always had to put on a happy face. Some of the most trying moments came during hospital visits. "That was very difficult for me. I blocked it out of my mind for a long time, after I returned home," said Ann Stingle, who served in the program from Nov. 1966 to Dec. 1967. "As I went from bed to bed, I'd keep my nails dug into the palm of my hand so that the tragedy and horror of what I saw wouldn't show on my face."

In the face of such tragedies, many of the women often felt helpless. "No matter what we did, the men still faced war. In the deepest part of me, it just seemed so futile. What the men needed was to be safe and to go home, and I couldn't provide that for them," Stingle said.

In the end, though, the women learned that they also drew strength from the men. "It was always the men who cheered us up. How they still joked with each other even under the circumstances was amazing. It was how they kept each other going," Stingle said.

At the end of her assignment, MacSwain also learned to find a piece of joy from the men she was helping. She was at the lowest point of her time in Vietnam after one of the SRAO women who she lived with died after bouncing out of a jeep on a bumpy dirt road.

Still, she had learned that tragedy was part of her experience and there was work to be done. It was December of 1969, and she and the other women hung Christmas decorations in a mess hall for a unit that was away on a mission. The following week, after the men returned, the women came back to greet them.

"It was so wonderful. We walked into the mess hall and there was a sea of American men. They all were wearing street clothes, and they stood up and clapped. For us — the ones who always had to smile — this was wonderful."