Genie
~A Donut Dolly at Cam Ranh Bay
Mary Geyer © 1998
In the fall of 1968, I had just turned 12 years old. Of course I knew of
the Vietnam war, everyone did, it was in the papers and on television every night. What I
didn't know was that someone who would become very close to me had just joined the SRAO
volunteers, the "donut dollies" and with that my life would change.
Several years later, Genie, became my closest friend. She would tell me all the stories
about her Vietnam experience and I would listen but never really experience what she was
saying. I always noticed though, as she spoke, a far away, almost wistful look would come
into her eyes. Then, one day, she showed me some old home movies she had taken while she
was stationed in Cam Ranh Bay and pictures came on the screen of a soldier showing her his
large gun, how proud he was of it, and in the next moment of film, he was playing a game
or "program" as the dollies called them, all the while, laughing, cheering, and
smiling, not at all the sober young man a few minutes before.
I asked Genie about these guys who all seemed like they were no older than 17 and she
started telling me a story about a soldier who only had five minutes before a flight to
combat. He started telling her about a poem on how the character of a horse can be told by
the way it drinks water. I thought this was rather odd but all at once, Genie burst into
tears. She said these boys didn't know if in the next five minutes they were going to die
so they told the dollies the things that were the best memories they had.
That did it for me. I knew that, somehow, I would bring these people back to my friend.
The, in 1997, I began researching and found the In-Country
Women's List by Marilyn Knapp Litt. Through working with Marilyn and some of the
ladies on the list, I was able to find out about the women's memorial in Washington, D.C.
Genie and I planned a trip for Veteran's Day almost at once.
The weather was terrible as we drove from Indiana and I wondered if this had been a good
idea. Who could know what would happen?
The next morning, Veteran's Day, it was as if God had planned a very special moment
because the sun came through and the morning was bright with the autumn light through the
orange and red leaves.
As we approached the Vietnam Veteran's wall, it was not as I had expected. I had heard all
the stories about the thousands of names but what struck me most was that there must have
been 300 people around the wall, including the press, but everyone was as quiet as though
they were in a cathedral.
No one spoke about a whisper. The silence made the experience that much more moving as I
noted so many names. I was awestruck by the design of the wall itself. It reminded me of a
terrible tornado or storm, beginning with one breeze, building to a destructive pitch,
then losing strength to that last whisp of air. I will never forget it.
We then went to the women's memorial statue and I took pictures as Genie made her way
around the crowd. The night before, we had attend the Delta to DMZ dance and I recognized
several faces but I was beginning to have the feeling that something very unusual was
happening. This was not just one of those reunions where everyone stands around getting
drunk and telling war stories, as I had expected. This was a happening, an important
moment in these people's lives because, as the day went on, I began to realize that the
Vietnam veteran has something special from other veterans. Perhaps it is because the war
was so very unpopular and during a time of unrest in our country, I don't know for
certain, but as I carefully watched these men and women, they stopped being strangers in a
park and became a family sharing their memories, their laughter, their tears: every aspect
of who they were, then and now.
Then, a real miracle happened. Genie had placed a photo of herself and her unit wading on
the beach at Cam Ranh at the base of the statue and many people started looking at it.
After a few moments, a man picked up the picture and looked at it very intently.
Genie went over to him, they began conversing and the next sight I saw was the two of them
hugging and wiping tears away. It seems that this man, a young soldier 30 years ago, had
passed through Cam Ranh for three days on his way to R and R. He met Genie there and,
unbelievable as it may seem to those of my generation, he remembered her. I watched them
together, both in their fifties now, graying, a bit paunchy, and was amazed at how a mere
moment in time could keep them bonded over 30 years.
Genie told me later, tears in her eyes, that he was the first soldier to thank her for
what she had done for him so long ago.
Later, at the ceremony at the wall, I watched men who were called baby killer, spit upon
by their countrymen, and who were shunned for so many years, remove their hats and say
"God Bless America."
Can anyone look upon that and not be changed?
I will never be the same.
Thank you, Marilyn, Kammy and Genie.
My Vietnam Related Websites:
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
Tim
O'Brien's Home Page ~ National Book Award Winner and Americal Vet
Emily's Poetry
~ By a Red Cross Donut Dolly
Shrapnel in
the Heart ~ The most moving book you will read on Vietnam
All About
Vietnam ~ An annotated bibliography of books about Vietnam for
sale thru Amazon Worldwide!
Battle
Dressing ~
Project Hearts
and Minds ~ Help put Viet Nam back together
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:
The
Truth About Caroline ~ a really good Young Adult book by
my niece, Stacey M. Lane Grosh
Remember
Oklahoma City ~
The Civil Service and Military will
NEVER forget!
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| Page last updated July 18, 2007 | |
