Red Cross

   emily
  donut dollie

 Red Cross

when someone asks me what I did in Nam, my usual response is:

"I flew around in helicopters and played games with the guys."

That usually stops the conversation. Occasionally, when I feel like someone really wants to know, I will give them a copy of this poem I wrote:

i flew to desolate fire bases
filled with the tools of war
and the men who used them

it was my job to perform the miracle
of making the war disappear
(however briefly)
for boys who had been trained to kill

it was my mission to raise the morale
of children who had grown old too soon
watching friends die

it was my calling
to take away fear and replace it with hope
to return sanity to a world gone insane

i was the mistress of illusion
as i pulled smiles from the dust and heat
the magical genie of "back-in-the-world"
as i created laughter in the mud

but when the show was over
i crawled back into my bottle
and pulled the cork in tightly behind me

© 1992

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See also, Emily's other spot in cyberspace:
An American Red Cross Donut Dollie with the 9th Infantry Division and Mobile Riverine Force in VIETNAM

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Bullet Women in Vietnam Bullet Many Women Served Bullet Red Cross
Bullet Military Nurses Bullet In Memoriam Bullet Get Back in Touch
Bullet Bibliographies Bullet Locater Service/Remarks Bullet Free Monthly Newsletter
Bullet Videos/Stuff to Buy Bullet Books Bullet Health Stuff
Bullet Photo Tours   Bullet Help for Students

My Vietnam Related Websites:
button Women in Vietnam ~ Read about ALL the women who served . . .
The Irish on the Wall ~ An effort to locate the Irish who died in Vietnam
button Tim O'Brien's Home Page ~ National Book Award Winner and Americal Vet
button Emily's Poetry ~ By a Red Cross Donut Dolly
button Shrapnel in the Heart ~ The most moving book you will read on Vietnam
button All About Vietnam    ~ An annotated bibliography of books about Vietnam for sale thru Amazon Worldwide!
button Battle Dressing ~
button Project Hearts and Minds ~ Help put Viet Nam back together
button Photos from a Holts' Military History Tour ~ My trip to Vietnam, February 1998

My Other Websites:
Maybe Later . . . ~ My Creative Nonfiction
Irish in Korea ~ Irish men and women who gave their lives in the Korean War
Literature of the Korean War ~ Don't let the literature be forgotten
Samuel Pepys ~ One of my favorite authors
Chicago Theatre Z - A ~ This is the best theater town in the country!
Soccer Literature ~ I'm a fan and I read
O'Leary Lantern ~ Fire! Fire! Fire!
 Gil Thorp ~ THE Coach (apologies to The General!)
Poetry of the First World War ~ Owen, Hardy and others
 Chi-COW-go ~ Cowz plus Commentary (this used to be a cow town)
 Graham Fulton, Scottish Poet ~ Charles Manson Auditions for the Monkees

Other Important Websites:
Remember Oklahoma City ~  The Civil Service and Military will NEVER forget!

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