The SRAO Story by Sue Behrens

The SRAO Story By Sue Behrens 1986 Dissemination of this work is made possible by the American Red Cross Overseas Association April 2015 For Hannah, Virginia and Lucinda CONTENTS Foreword iii Acknowledgements vi Contributors vii Abbreviations viii Prologue Page One PART ONE KOREA: 1953 - 1954 Page 1 1955 - 1960 33 1961 - 1967 60 1968 - 1973 78 PART TWO EUROPE: 1954 - 1960 98 1961 - 1967 132 PART THREE VIETNAM: 1965 - 1968 155 1969 - 1972 197 Map of South Vietnam List of SRAO Supervisors List of Helpmate Chapters Behrens iii FOREWORD In May of 1981 a group of women gathered in Washington D.C. for a "Grand Reunion". They came together to do what people do at reunions - to renew old friendships, to reminisce, to laugh, to look at old photos of them selves when they were younger, to sing "inside" songs, to get dressed up for a reception and to have a banquet with a speaker. In this case, the speaker was General William Westmoreland, and before the banquet, in the afternoon, the group had gone to Arlington National Cemetery to place a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. They represented 1,600 women who had served (some in the 50's, some in the 60's and some in the 70's) in an American Red Cross program which provided recreation for U.S. servicemen on duty in Europe, Korea and Vietnam. It was named Supplemental Recreational Activities Overseas (SRAO). In Europe it was known as the Red Cross center program. In Korea and Vietnam it was Red Cross clubmobile service. In 1953, when clubmobile service began in Korea, the prediction was that it would be short-lived; meeting an immediate need after the truce to supple ment military recreational services until they were fully established. But it was so successful in reaching the troops, however isolated in that rugged country, that it continued year after year, and when, in 1965, the troop build-up began in Vietnam, General Westmoreland asked for the service there. In Europe the center program began in 1954 and went on for thirteen years, fostering community relations so well, particularly in France, that it closed Behrens Foreword iv only because of military withdrawals. It all ended in the Far East in 1973, but the "alumnae" had a network among themselves and many of them had been clamoring for a "Grand Reunion" for several years. In 1981 I was personnel director for Red Cross national headquarters and worked long hours every day, and what I thought about this reunion, this pause in my busy life, was that it would be a happy diversion, going briefly back in time to recall a story or two when I had been a young clubmobile worker in Korea in 1953. Everyone at the reunion had stories to tell, just as I did, and that was what it seemed to be about. Well, partly. It was really about the enterprise, the achievements and the courage of these women. They had, most of them, joined Red Cross for a year of service immediately after college, when they were 21 and 22 years old, and had, in a matter of weeks, found themselves in Korea or in Vietnam, thousands of miles from home, in the midst of the military and men, of hardship and danger. Many went from Korea to the center program in Europe and by the time they were 25 years old they had seen a good part of the world. They were "the Red Cross girls". (They referred to themselves as "girls" and it was all right then. After all, the young soldiers for whom their program was intended were called "GIs", "you people" by their sergeants and "guys" by the "girls".) They were the Red Cross girls who brought home to the GIs, who looked like their girl friends and sisters, who came from their home towns, who smiled at them (how they smiled), who listened to them (God, how they listened), who Behrens Foreword v brightened Christmas and otqer holidays for them and who said they were proud to do it. And they did it in a time of turbulence in the world - in the aftermath of the Korean War, in the post war years in Europe and in the midst of the war in Vietnam where three of them lost their lives. They knew they were making a difference then, making things a little better, easing some of the hardship for the servicemen. But they were also, by their very action and enterprise, making a difference for themselves. As one of them put it, they were, before the burgeoning of the women's movement, becoming achievers and in the forefront of moving into careers. "In time," said one, "We all would have become mature and more confident, but that first job, that crash course in leadership, certainly speeded things up." At the reunion someone said, "Well, here we are - all grown up." They certainly were "all grown up". At the reception I was greeted in the first 20 minutes by three Ph.D's (two were university department heads and one was a psychologist), one of the first women selected as a U.S. Secret Service agent, a lawyer and a friend who ran her own consulting firm. So, here they were - educators, entrepreneurs, administrators, managers, corporate executives, artists, writers, advocates of Civil Rights and equal employment and a multi tude of other causes, volunteers in community action programs. They had married and were raising children - a compelling reason, they said, to get involved, to make a difference. They were some people. It was some reunion. Behrens Foreword vi It was from the reunion that the idea was proposed to write down the story of the time when they were hthe Red Cross girls". When I retired in 1983 I agreed to do it, to tell the history of the Red Cross service that they gave and how they had touched the lives of millions of GIs. March 1987 Aerie Lake Alborn, Minnesota ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am greatly indebted to Mary Louise Dowling, who served as SRAO national director, for making her personal papers available to me and for her valuable suggestions, encouragement and moral support throughout this project. Before Leota Kelly retired from Red Cross in 1973, she had assembled background papers and notes for the eventual writing of the SRAO story. I relied heavily on this material for the prologue and for information about the beginnings of the Korea and Europe programs. I am greatly indebted to her. As assistant national director of SRAO in the latter part of her long Red Cross career, she trained hundreds of staff members who remember her wisdom and her humor with much affection. She died February 6, 1985 at the age of 77. I am grateful to Virginia Griffith Hannum and Metzie Van Vechten Sigerist for sharing their personal recollections of the club and clubmobile operations in Korea in 1950-52. The American Red Cross gave me access to the national headquarters general records and archives sections and to the photo library, and the help provided Behrens Acknowledgements vii by Dorothy Hackley and her staff was invaluable. I thank Hazel Braugh, archives volunteer, whose persistent searching turned up long buried reports and papers, and I thank Jan Baity who responded to an urgent request for further information. I am indebted to Janice Feye-Stukas for her research pertaining to Vietnam era events and for her reading the manuscript for accuracy. Others whose valuable observations and suggestions were used to revise certain passages are Myra Halpin, Lois Patten, Bobbie McHale, Barbara Crocker, Pat Gray, Gordon Behrens, Metzie and Fred Sigerist, Mary Louise Dowling and George M. Elsey. I am most appreciative of the letters and tapes I received from former staff recounting experiences and suggesting ideas and events for inclusion in the story. The names of these contributors follow. I was not able to use all of the material sent to me, but I hope my selections reflect what they wanted to express about their participation in the SRAO adventure. Finally, I thank my boxer dogs, Amy and DeeDee, for their patience. They sat by my side while I worked on the manuscript and when, in my preoccupation, I forgot to feed them, they gently reminded me by licking some of the pages. Behrens viii CONTRIBUTORS Penny Patston Berger, Mary Blanchard Bowe, Barbara Hudson Crocker, Mme. D.D. Dimancescu, Constance Mitchell Eichelberger, Dorothy Sherrard Faunce, Janice Feye-Stukas, Sally Beall Garcia, Eva Garvin, Margaret Neitzey Godson, Pat Toombs Green, Toni Rehrer Harper, Jacqueline Hill, Larry Young Hines, Shirley Hines, Margaret Goodrich Hodge, Evelyn Safford Jacobs, Rene Johnson, Katherine Britt Keane, Winnie Fatooh Kingsbury, Claudia Sudds Kocher, Charlotte Leedy, Joann Weesner Lester, Sue Lewis Lipoma, Marilyn Schmokel Lohrmann, Billie McCann, Bennett C. Macdonald, Mike Crawford McLaughlin, Debby Griffith MacSwain, Amber (Cindy) Oliphant Meadows, Mary Niedenthal, Barbara Mace Otaki, Kathi Neal Parsels, Lois Hartvigson Patten, Harriett Barnes Richards, Sheila Otto Rosenberg, Avis Watson Schwab, Gwenellen Scupholm, Jean Kellgreen Seltzer, Sara Tyndall Seymour, Esther Smith, Anne Smyth Stewart, Margaret Greene Thompson, Linda Goettman Wilson, Jennifer Young. Behrens ix ABBREVIATIONS AEF - American Expeditionary NCO - Noncommissioned Officer Force OG - Olive Green ARC - American Red Cross PX - Post Exchange ARVN - Army of the Republic R&R - Rest and Recuperation of Vietnam ROK - Republic of Korea ASCOM - Army Support Command SAF - Services to the Armed DMZ - Demilitarized Zone Forces DOD - Department of Defense S-l - Regiment/Brigade section EM - Enlisted Men for Personnel G-1 - Army/Division section SEATO - Southeast Asia Treaty for Personnel Organization GI - Government Issue SMH Service in Military Hospitals KATUSA - Korean Augmentation SMI - Service at Military to the U.S.

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