The Unsung Heroes: Donut Dollies in Vietnam

By Nikki Mayville, Red Cross Writer

Terry Farish

Between February 1962 and March 1973, hundreds of female American Red Cross workers logged over 2,000,000 miles flying among support bases and landing zones across the thick, tropical Vietnamese jungle. 

These women – nicknamed “Donut Dollies” as a homage to the Red Cross women who handed out donuts to troops in previous wars – were part of the Red Cross Supplemental Recreational Activities Overseas (SRAO) program. As service members, they were charged with bringing a bit of home to the combat zone. 

The SRAO looked to recruit young, college-educated women who could provide support and a sympathetic ear to soldiers in the war. Terry Farish was young, about to finish college, and curious about the complex and controversial war taking place on the other side of the world. 

“My college was in Denton, Texas, and not too far was the primary helicopter training school where a lot of men were training to be helicopter pilots in Vietnam,” said Terry, an author, humanitarian, and community organizer now based in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. 

Terry Farish in Saigon

“I didn’t know what the Donut Dolly program was when the recruiter came to my school,” continued Terry. “At first, I resisted the term ‘Donut Dolly’ – I found it trivializing. It was only many years later after I attended an event at a Veterans home in New Hampshire and reconnected with former Dollies that I saw it as a tribute.”

Despite the nickname, Terry doesn’t recall actually seeing a donut during her entire time in Vietnam. “One time a cook made a big flat tray of coffee cake. That’s as close as we got,” she recalled with a laugh. 

When asked to describe the program in her own words, Terry said it was all about morale. “They wanted young people who could bring something of home to the soldiers in the war and show them they hadn’t been forsaken.”

After a very brief training in Saigon, Terry and her fellow Dollies were assigned to different divisions: infantry, support, transport, etc. They didn’t have physical recreation centers in-country, and even if they did, the nature of the war required the servicemen to stay out “in the boonies” for almost the entire duration of their deployment. 

As such, the Dollies brought recreational activities to the servicemen, flying props and games by helicopter to the fire support bases and landing zones where the soldiers were. 

According to a Red Cross recruitment ad published at the time, the role required “capacity for hard work under less-than-ideal conditions.” In practice, this involved holding games of Jeopardy in the jungle all the while aware that the enemy might be just around the corner. 

Farish in Qhin Nhon, Vietnam

During her year-long tour with the 25th Infantry, which mirrored the deployment length of the soldiers she supported, Terry faced significant challenges. She learned to provide crucial emotional support to servicemen dealing with trauma and loss. 

"I remember being sent to a large tent filled with cots," Terry recalled. "The men there had just returned from a mission and were visibly traumatized." 

This experience taught her a valuable lesson about supporting those in distress: "I realized that often, these men didn't necessarily need conversation. They simply didn't want to be alone."

The average age for the servicemen Terry helped support was just 19 years old, two years younger than Terry and most of her fellow Dollies. 

“The men were often shocked. ‘Why would you want to be here?’ they would ask us,” recalled Terry. 

Indeed, many readers might be asking the same thing. 

Farish (second from right) in Qhin Nhon

“It was very terrifying. We had little control of survival, and we didn't know where the enemy was. There was no strategy,” explained Terry. “Not all in the south were opposed to uniting (with communist North Vietnam) and often the north and the south would work together to protect villages where their families or communities lived.”

Although Terry’s time in Vietnam could be trying, it did lead to meaningful connections.

“Many Vietnamese women worked in the base camps. They didn’t speak English, and we didn’t speak Vietnamese, but we established a relationship using gestures and our own invented English/Vietnamese slang.”

Farish attending a veterans' event

The experience sparked Terry’s interest in women and children impacted by war and the migrations that often happen as a result of wars worldwide. 

“I started reading everything I could about Vietnam once I got back,” explained Terry. 

But her new interest didn’t stop at reading.

“This experience shifted the whole course of my life; once you’ve been in Vietnam you don’t want a normal job,” Terry reflected. Her sentiment was shared by many former Dollies. Following their service, numerous women pursued travel and adventure, with many finding roles within the Department of Defense or Special Services.

As for Terry, her work has since revolved around refugees and giving a voice to those who lost theirs due to migration. 

“When people are forced to leave their homes, everything that was their culture, their social ways of living with each other, are broken. My experience shaped my understanding of migration due to war or political exile,” she said.

Though the program dissolved after the Vietnam war, the legacy of the Donut Dollies lives on.

“The Donut Dollies in Vietnam were the last women to serve in a strictly female capacity in war. After that war, women began progressing to eventually serve in all military capacities,” Terry explains. 

“I think we were a bridge to the next generation of women, or already had one foot in the future of non-gendered work. Maybe some of us were like the few female journalists who braved the male world of war correspondents. Those women boarded Chinooks like the Donut Dollies only they were going to photograph or report on a mission. I do know that the Red Cross women I’ve met years after we served have stunned me with the adventurous, brave, accomplished ways they are living their lives,” she concludes. 

Interested in learning more about the Red Cross Services to the Armed Forces and how you can help? Click here. 

Terry Farish is an award-winning author of picture books and young adult novels, many of them influenced by her experience as a Donut Dolly.