Her uniform in Vietnam was a powder blue gown.
Connie Dugan Popel was a recreation aide for the American Crimson Cross for a year-long tour. Of the 1,200 girls who labored for the American Crimson Cross in Vietnam all through the Vietnam Struggle, 627 had been a part of the Supplemental Leisure Actions Abroad Program — higher often called the "Donut Dollies" — who had been there from 1965-72.
The Donut Dollies program was first created in World Struggle II and was introduced again in the course of the conflicts in Korea and Vietnam.
Popel was a Donut Dollie from September 1969 till November 1970.
"You needed to be a school graduate. I went to Washington, D.C., for 2 weeks of intensive coaching," she mentioned.
Popel was a school senior in Ohio majoring in sociology when she noticed a recruitment poster for Donut Dollies on a bulletin board. "No. 1, the massive factor was I did not know what to do after school. Then, I noticed the poster and I assumed, 'This sounds fascinating,'" she mentioned. "Plus I like to journey. And I used to be used to household sport nights at residence."
A recreation background was not required, only a school diploma. The army needed a bunch of younger girls to go to Vietnam to develop troop morale packages on the request of Gen. William Westmoreland, the then-commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam.
"Most of us had been between 21 and 24. And many of the guys [in Vietnam] had been a lot youthful. We had been like their huge sisters. I actually like individuals. I am very, very outgoing."
The Perry, Ohio, native graduated from Baldwin-Wallace Faculty in 1969 with a bachelor's diploma in sociology. She mailed her software to the American Crimson Cross and acquired a cellphone name to go to the Crimson Cross chapter in Alexandria, Virginia, for her interview. Her dad and mom, Charles and Joyce Dugan, weren't thrilled to see the oldest of their three kids go away for a conflict zone. However she had traveled to the Netherlands as an American subject service scholar throughout her senior yr in highschool, in order that they weren't totally stunned.
The ladies had been flown by helicopter to the varied touchdown zones and fireplace bases the place the troops had been positioned. They'd journey in pairs to the items and host recreation packages round themes that the troops preferred — resembling soccer or music trivia. They'd use flashcards and lead video games on poster boards.
"We might in all probability do like six stops per day," Popel mentioned. They'd meet their teams in an open space. The troops would collect round after which play video games as a welcome diversion from the conflict.
"We had been just like the lady again residence. We represented a ‘contact of residence' or the lady subsequent door," Popel mentioned. There might be from 5 to as many as 100 troopers, sailors, airmen or Marines at these visits. Often, the group would common from 20-30.
Apart from the ladies who went out on these "membership mobiles," two would keep again on the recreation facilities the place they'd lead the troops in taking part in pool, ping-pong or playing cards.
"And we additionally had espresso and Kool-Help," Popel mentioned. In contrast to their World Struggle II counterparts, the Donut Dollies did not serve doughnuts in Vietnam.
Popel was stationed at three totally different army bases throughout her tour. She was a recreation aide at Cam Ranh Bay with the Air Pressure's twentieth Assist Group and the Military's 578th Sign Firm from September 1969 to March 1970. She was a program director in Da Nang with the third Marine Amphibious Pressure from March to June 1970. She was the unit director at Bien Hoa from June to November 1970 with the Military's 1st Cavalry Division and the twentieth Engineer Brigade.
Throughout a go to to Quang Tri with the fifth Infantry Division, a mortar assault despatched her scurrying to a bunker in her flak jacket and helmet.
"And it is the oddest factor, I by no means was afraid [in Vietnam]," Popel mentioned. "I do not know why."
After returning residence, she labored briefly for a journey firm. From 1970-72, she served as a Crimson Cross recreation aide at Valley Forge Normal Hospital outdoors of Philadelphia. That they had a recreation heart for the psychiatric ward the place she offered video games, readings, songs and films for troops getting back from Vietnam.
"I feel my function [as a Donut Dollie] was to be myself," Popel mentioned, "I am recognized for my smile and I smiled and smiled and smiled. And I feel that I represented possibly an American lady who cared, who hoped that I introduced some form of happiness for a second in a horrible, horrible conflict."
"It was one of the best yr of my life," she mentioned. "I used to be very naive. However I grew up, like all of us did. The camaraderie between the ladies, we made lifelong associates. The truth is, in September I will a mini-reunion. I am flying to Denver the place one of many ladies has a cabin. So we determined to get collectively. I feel there's like seven of us."
She labored for Continental/United Airways as a flight attendant from 1999 till she retired in 2016 after greater than 17 years.
She has a daughter, Suzanne, a son, Johnny and two granddaughters. Now 75, Popel is a member of the American Crimson Cross Abroad Affiliation. She has volunteered with the Madison County chapter of the American Crimson Cross on a catastrophe motion group since January 2019 and he or she works on the workplace Monday mornings. She is a member of Studying Quest in Huntsville.
"I knew we had been doing what we had been requested to do [as Donut Dollies]," she mentioned, "once you would simply see this forlorn GI smile."
(Skip Vaughn is an editor on the Redstone Rocket at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama.)
