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Three Donut Dollies are seen preparing to leave Camp Eagle
Episode 3234 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story about Vietnam War Donut Dollies. The featured story appeared on the Virginia Public Media website and is titled: New VPM PBS documentary explores the ‘Donut Dollies’ history. It was submitted by Phil Liles and Kimberly Strother
It was reported in the story that between 1962 and 1973, 627 young, college-educated American women volunteered with the Red Cross’s Supplemental Recreation Activities Overseas (SRAO) program during the Vietnam War. Known affectionately as the “Donut Dollies,” these women served a unique but vital role: boosting troop morale. Unlike earlier eras—such as World War I and World War II—when women provided coffee and donuts near the front lines, the Vietnam-era Dollies focused on interactive “programs,” including games and conversations designed to offer soldiers a brief emotional escape from the պատերազմի hardships.
Selected through a competitive process, these women—aged 21 to 24 and unmarried—underwent brief training before deploying to Vietnam for year-long tours. They lived on firebases and frequently traveled by helicopter or convoy to remote and often dangerous locations, where they faced threats like rocket attacks and sniper fire. Despite the risks, their presence brought comfort and a sense of home to soldiers stationed far from loved ones.
Filmmaker Libbie Hegvik, whose mother served as a Donut Dollie, created a PBS documentary to shed light on their largely overlooked contributions. Motivated in part by her mother’s exclusion from an honor flight due to non-military status, Hegvik sought to preserve these stories and highlight the courage of the women involved. The film also shares her parents’ love story, which began at a firebase in Vietnam.
Though the program disbanded in 1972, the Donut Dollies’ legacy endures as a powerful reminder of the importance of morale and human connection during wartime.
Listen to Episode 3234 and discover more about Vietnam War Donut Dollies.
