Air Force Women in the Vietnam War by Jeanne M
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Air Force Women in the Vietnam War By Jeanne M. Holm, Maj. Gen., USAF (Ret) and Sarah P. Wells, Brig. Gen. USAF NC (Ret) At the time of the Vietnam War military women Because women had no military obligation, in the United States Air Force fell into three either legal or implied, all who joined the Air categories:female members of the Air Force Nurse Force during the war were true volunteers in Corps (AFNC) and Bio-medical Science Corps every sense. Most were willing to serve (BSC), all of whom were offlcers. All others, wherever they were needed. But when the first offlcers and en-listed women, were identified as American troops began to deploy to the war in WAF, an acronym (since discarded) that stood for Vietnam, the Air Force had no plans to send its Women in the Air Force. In recognition of the fact military women. It was contemplated that all that all of these women were first and foremost USAF military requirements in SEA would be integral members of the U.S. Air Force, the filled by men, even positions traditionally authors determined that a combined presentation considered “women’s” jobs. This was a curious of their participation in the Vietnam War is decision indeed considering the Army Air appropriate. Corps’ highly successful deployment of thousands of its military women to the Pacific When one recalls the air war in Vietnam, and Southeast Asia Theaters of war during visions of combat pilots and returning World War II. prisoners of war come easily to mind. Rarely do images emerge of the thousands of other When the U.S. became involved in Vietnam, dedicated Air Force women and men who many Air Force women saw no reason why performed the support roles essential to the they should not take their fair share of duty in overall success of the air operations, or the the war zone wherever their skills were needed flight crews who daily risked their lives to pick and insisted they were capable of coping with up casualties from the battle-field and the combat theater environment. Command- transport them to medical facilities in-country ers, however, expressed practical concerns and to hospitals outside the war zone, or the about having to divert precious resources and people who participated in the repatriation of energy to provide for the women’s safety, our prisoners of war. Nor does one generally housing and other special needs. While most of think of the dedicated members of the Air these concerns were without merit, they might Force Reserve and Guard aeromedical well have foreclosed on the deployment of Air evacuation units who were called upon to put Force women to SEA had it not been for aside civilian pursuits to fly missions into growing shortages of men in some fields and Southeast Asia to bring the wounded home. for the persistence of women volunteering for SEA tours. By the time U.S. forces were withdrawn from the Southeast Asia (SEA) theater of war, In reality, female officers required little or no hundreds of Air Force women had served tours special arrangements. They could easily be in South Vietnam and neighboring Thailand. accommodated in bachelor officer quarters Working side-by-side with their male (BOQs) as were the female of ficers of the other comrades, they faced the same challenges and services and the civilian women (civil service were exposed to the same risks and hardships employees, Red Cross workers, librarians) as the men in the same units. And, like the working in the theater. However, Air Force men, many received wartime citations and policies dictated that lower grade enlisted decorations. One gave her life. Many other Air women be quartered in separate all-female Force women volunteered for duty in the dormitories supervised by a WAF squadron, combat zone but, because of a lack of a commanded by a female officer. As a result, coherent Air Force or Defense Department enlisted women with skills needed in the policy on the wartime deployment of women, combat theater war were exempted from tours their requests were denied. because of their gender. Meanwhile, many men 1 in the same fields were facing involuntary a more normal way of life, a reminder of home. second and third tours. “It’s really something to see a lonely, hospitalized GI perk up when he looks up and The first Air Force women to receive orders sees that his nurse is a woman,” said one of the for SEA were the nurses. Initially, as planned, first female nurses on duty in the hospital at only male nurses were deployed to the combat Cam Ranh Bay. “I have even had them take my theater, but in very short order the demand picture while I was on ward rounds.” outstripped the supply a because women great- ly outnumbered men in the Air Force Nurse With the successful deployment of female Corps. As the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam nurses the policy of excluding other military War escalated and casualties mounted, the women from SEA duty became moot. In June supply of male nurses to meet theater require- 1967, at the request of the Military Assistance ments in some specialties was Command (MACV), the first soon exhausted and the female WAF, a lieutenant colonel and nurses began getting their Wounded men in an five enlisted women, arrived for marching orders. alien world thousands duty with the headquarters in of miles from home Saigon. Others soon followed for In 1966 the first sixteen female were astonished and duty in the Saigon area in MACV nurses arrived in country for reassured at the sight of an and 7th Air Force headquarters duty at the USAF base at Cam American woman and Tan Son Nhut air base on the Ranh Bay in the new 12th USAF so close to the battlefield outskirts of Saigon. A few Hospital and the casualty staging sharing this officers were subsequently unit. Within a short period grotesque experience. assigned to duty at Bien Hoa and women were filling the full range Cam Ranh Bay air bases. of nursing specialties normally found in a modern military hospital. Also Because of the requirement for WAF assigned to the hospital were female physical squadrons and separate dormitories, only a therapists to help in patient rehabilitation and limited number of enlisted women were dieticians to plan meals and provide special stationed in South Vietnam at any one time. diets. Female nurses were soon serving at the Most enlisted women served in Thailand dispensaries and casualty staging units at Tan assigned to units of the 13th Air Force at Korat, Son Nhut and Da Nang air bases, and in the Udorn, Ubon, Nakhon Phanom, Takhli, and previously all-male 903d Aeromedical Don Muang. They also served with the Military Squadron (AMES) operating out of Tan Son Assistance Command Thailand (MACTHAI) in Nhut that provided crews for in-country air Bangkok and at U-Tapao. evacuation flights. As USAF operations expanded into Thailand, some female nurses WAF officers and enlisted women were were assigned to medical units at Korat, Udorn, assigned as routine replacements for male and Ubon air bases and to the hospital at the personnel with the same skills who were Strategic Air Command (SAC) base at U-Tapao. rotating out at the end of their one-year tours. Unlike the nurses, who were in a field still As women began to take up nursing duties in dominated by women, the WAF were some- the combat area, the Air Force soon discovered thing of an anomaly because they were what armies in earlier wars had learned: that assigned to jobs normally filled by men. WAF the presence of the female nurse added a officers were in a wide variety of noncombat special dimension to the care of war casualties. fields including supply, aircraft maintenance, The men seemed to gain a sense of security and public affairs, personnel, intelligence, photo- comfort from the women’s presence, a sense of interpretation, meteorology, and administra- 2 tion. Except for living in all-female of ficers data processing. quarters, WAF officers were fully integrated in the units to which they were assigned as Many of the women stationed in South replacements for male line officers and, in gen- Vietnam became involved in Vietnamese eral, they adapted to the combat environment activities. The WAF stationed at Tan Son Nhut as well the men they replaced. Nevertheless, raised money to help the more than 1,000 they were always aware of their status as female children, mostly war orphans, at a refugee officers in what was still regarded as a male camp near Da Nang who were in desperate world and were conscious of living under a need of the barest essentials of life. A WAF microscope twenty-four hours a day. captain served as an advisor to the Vietnamese Air Force in their efforts to recruit and Each WAF in SEA realized that she was on organize a military women’s program patterned trial. In addition to adapting to the combat after the WAF. Many of the nurses volunteered theater environment, she was conscious of to work with the Vietnamese in providing med- living in a fishbowl where her professional ical care to civilians, setting up medical care competence, her personal character and her units, and providing casualty care for South courage were always subject to critical scrutiny. Vietnamese troops. They also served in A female major assigned to the 600th provincial health assistance teams developing Photographic Squadon at Tan Son Nhut village level health and sanitation programs.