Women Who Died in the Vietnam War

A Place on the Wall and in Our Hearts
American, Australian and New Zealand
Civilian and Military Women
Who Died in the Vietnam War (1959-1975)

Here is a more printer friendly version if you want a list of names and panel numbers of women on the Wall to take with you on your visit to the Wall. I am looking for photos and remembrances of those women who died in Vietnam to post here.

Civilian - American Red Cross
Hannah E. Crews	Died in a jeep accident, Bien Hoa, October 2, 1969
Virginia E. "Ginny" Kirsch	Murdered by a U.S. soldier in Cu Chi, August 16, 1970
Lucinda J. Richter	Died of Guillain-Barre Syndrome, Cam Ranh Bay, February 9, 1971
Civilian - Army Special Services
Rosalyn Muskat	Died in a jeep accident, Long Binh, October 26, 1968
Dorothy Phillips	Died in a plane crash, Qui Nhon, 1967
Civilian - Catholic Relief Services
Gloria Redlin	Shot in Pleiku, 1969
Civilian - Central Intelligence Agency
Barbara Robbins	Died when a car bomb exploded outside the American Embassy, Saigon, March 30, 1965
Betty Gebhardt	Died in Saigon, 1971
Civilian - Entertainer
Cathy Wayne (aka Warnes)	Australian murdered by a soldier who shot at his commander, but she was in the way.
Civilian - Journalists
Georgette "Dickey" Chapelle	Killed by a mine on patrol with Marines outside Chu Lai, November 4, 1965
Marguerite Higgins	Died after picking up a parasite on her last visit to Vietnam, January 3, 1966
Philippa Schuyler	Killed in a helicopter crash into the ocean near Da Nang, May 9, 1967
Civilian Volunteers - Knights of Malta
Maria L. Kerbeer	Dental Assistant, age 20, died due to illness in a POW camp in late 1969. Her remains have never been recovered.
Hindrika Kortman	Nurse, age 29 Both women were assigned to a Knights of Malta volunteer hospital called the "Maltaserhildienst Hospital" in the Danang area. On April 27, 1969, they were lured to a village in Que Son district by a female communist agent also working at the hospital as a nurse under the pretext of taking pictures of the local scenery. On April 10, 1986, the communists repatriated what they said were the remains of an American Marine captured and held as a POW during the war. An examination of the remains determined that they were actually the remains of Ms Kortman.
Civilian - Missionaries
Evelyn Anderson	Captured and burned to death in Kengkok, Laos, 1972
Carolyn Griswald	Killed in a raid on the leprosarium in Ban Me Thuot during Tet 1968
Beatrice Kosin	Captured and burned to death in Kengkok, Laos, 1972
Janie A. Makil	Shot in an ambush, Dalat, March 4, 1963. She was four months old
Betty Ann Olsen	Captured during a raid on the leprosarium in Ban Me Thuot during Tet 1968. Died in 1968 and was buried somewhere along Ho Chi Minh Trail by fellow POW, Michael Benge.
Ruth Thompson	Killed in a raid on the leprosarium in Ban Me Thuot, February 1, 1968
Eleanor Ardel Vietti	Captured at leprosarium in Ban Me Thuot, May 30, 1962. Still listed as POW.
Ruth Wilting	Killed in a raid on the leprosarium in Ban Me Thuot, February 1, 1968
Civilian - United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
Marilyn L. Allan	Murdered by a U.S. soldier in Nha Trang, August 16, 1967
Dr. Breen Ratterman	American Medical Association - died from injuries suffered in a fall from her apartment balcony in Saigon, October 2, 1969
Civilian - U.S. Department of the Navy OICC (Officer in Charge of Construction)
Regina "Reggie" Williams	Died of a heart attack in Saigon, 1964
Civilian - New Zealand Foreign Affairs Ministry (?)
Sister Lesley Cowper	Died May 2, 1966 (68?) Member of the New Zealand Surgical Team based at Qui Nhon. Buried in Auckland NZ.

"They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old,
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn,
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them."
~Binyon

Important Sources

Vietnam Women's Memorial Project (Military)
Vietnam Women's Memorial Project
2001 S Street NW, Suite 302
Washington, D.C. 20009

Phone: 202-328-7253

A Circle of Sisters/A Circle of Friends (Civilian)
A Circle of Sisters/A Circle of Friends
1015 South Gaylord, Suite 190
Denver, CO 80209

Phone: 303-575-1311

Revised, September 2002.

This list is subject to correction and addition as further information becomes known.
You can e-mail questions and comments regarding this page to Ann Kelsey

Thanks to Ann Kelsey and others for updating this information here and elsewhere online.

I don't like reducing these names to numbers, but here are the totals.
67 Civilians (Please note I include 4 Australians, 1 New Zealander and 2 Volunteers with the Knights of Malta)
8 Military Women totaling
75 women (and one baby girl) who should be remembered . . .

Military - U.S. Air Force
Capt. Mary Therese Klinker	On the Wall at 01W 122 The Virtual Wall	Capt. Klinker, a flight nurse with the 10th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron temporarily assigned to Clark Air Base in the Philippines, was on the C-5A Galaxy which crashed on April 4 outside Saigon while evacuating Vietnamese orphans. This is known as the Operation Babylift crash. From Lafayette, IN, she was 27. She was posthumously awarded the Airman's Medal for Heroism and the Meritorious Service Medal. Also remembered at: Westchester NY Memorial
Military - U.S. Army
2nd Lt. Carol Ann Elizabeth Drazba	On the Wall at 05E 046 The Virtual Wall	Lt. Drazba and Lt. Jones were assigned to the 3rd Field Hospital in Saigon. They died in a helicopter crash near Saigon, February 18, 1966. Drazba was from Dunmore, PA, Jones from Allendale, SC. Both were 22 years old. Also remembered at: Westchester NY Memorial
2nd Lt. Elizabeth Ann Jones	On the Wall at 05E 047 The Virtual Wall
Capt. Eleanor Grace Alexander	On the Wall at 31E 008 The Virtual Wall	Capt. Alexander of Westwood, NJ, and Lt. Orlowski of Detroit, MI, died November 30, 1967. Alexander, stationed at the 85th Evac., and Orlowski, stationed at the 67th Evac. in Qui Nhon, had been sent to a hospital in Pleiku to help out during a push. With them when their plane crashed on the return trip to Qui Nhon were two other nurses, Jerome E. Olmstead of Clintonville, WI, and Kenneth R. Shoemaker, Jr. of Owensboro, KY. Alexander was 27, Orlowski 23. Both were posthumously awarded Bronze Stars. Also remembered at: Westchester NY Memorial "Letter to Eleanor" by Rhona Marie Knox Prescott
1st Lt. Hedwig Diane Orlowski	On the Wall at 31E 015 The Virtual Wall
2nd Lt. Pamela Dorothy Donovan	On the Wall at 53W 043 The Virtual Wall	Lt. Donovan, born in Wirral, Merseyside, UK of Irish parents, and raised in Brighton MA, became seriously ill and died on July 8, 1968 in Gia Dinh, South Vietnam. She was assigned to the 85th Evac. in Qui Nhon and was 26 years old at her death. Buried Mount Hope Cemetery, Walkhill Street, Boston (Grave #26, US Servicemen's Lot, Row 14 Laurel Ave.) See also The Irish on the Wall. Also remembered at: Westchester NY Memorial
1st Lt. Sharon Ann Lane	On the Wall at 23W 112 The Virtual Wall	Lt. Lane died from shrapnel wounds when the 312th Evac. at Chu Lai was hit by rockets on June 8, 1969. From Canton, OH, she was a month short of her 26th birthday. She was posthumously awarded the Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Palm and the Bronze Star for Heroism. In 1970, the recovery room at Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Denver, where Lt. Lane had been assigned before going to Viet Nam, was dedicated in her honor. In 1973, Aultman Hospital in Canton, OH, where Lane had attended nursing school, erected a bronze statue of Lane. The names of 110 local servicemen killed in Vietnam are on the base of the statue. [More] Also remembered at: Westchester NY Memorial The Sharon Ann Lane Foundation
Lt. Col. Annie Ruth Graham	On the Wall at 48W 012 The Virtual Wall	Chief Nurse at 91st Evac. Hospital, Tuy Hoa. From Efland, NC, she suffered a stroke in August 14, 1968 and was evacuated to Japan where she died four days later. A veteran of both World War II and Korea, she was 52. Buried at Arlington National Cemetery
Military - Royal Australian Army Nurse Corps
Temp. Capt. Barbara Frances Black	Served at Vung Tau, 1st Field Hosp. RAANC, Vietnam, and died of illness in Australia on March 11, 1971. She is counted as a casualty of the war.

Operation Babylift
The following women were killed in the crash, outside Saigon, of the C5-A Galaxy transporting Vietnamese children out of the country on April 4, 1975. All of the women were working for various U.S. government agencies in Saigon at the time of their deaths with the exception of Theresa Drye (a child), Laurie Stark (a teacher) and Nova Bell (a student at the University of Maryland Far East Division in Saigon & the wife of an employee in the US Defense Attach� Office in Saigon.) Capt. Mary Therese Klinker was killed in the crash, but is listed above. Sharon Wesley had previously worked for both the American Red Cross and Army Special Services. She chose to stay on in Vietnam after the pullout of U.S. military forces in 1973.
Barbara Adams Clara Bayot Nova Bell Arleta Bertwell Helen Blackburn Ann Bottorff Celeste Brown Vivienne Clark Juanita Creel Mary Ann Crouch Dorothy Curtiss	Twila Donelson Helen Drye Theresa Drye Mary Lyn Eichen Elizabeth Fugino Ruthanne Gasper Beverly Herbert Penelope Hindman Vera Hollibaugh Dorothy Howard Barbara Kauvulia	Barbara Maier Lee Makk (Australian) Rebecca Martin Sara Martini Martha Middlebrook Katherine Moore Marta Moschkin Margaret Moses (Australian)	Marion Polgrean June Poulton Joan Pray Sayonna Randall Anne Reynolds Marjorie Snow Laurie Stark Barbara Stout Doris Jean Watkins Sharon Wesley

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Page last updated July 17, 2007