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LADIES WHO DIED IN VIETNAM

2nd Lt. Carol Ann Elizabeth Drazba
Dec. 11, 1943 – Feb. 18, 1966
Carol Ann Drazba
was one of the first two women to die in Vietnam.
Described by family and friends as always adventurous, Carol joined the Army while in
her second year of nursing school.
After basic training she was assigned to Fort
            Huachucha in Arizona, where she built her reputation as an excellent OR nurse.
As the Vietnam conflict escalated, the need for
            nurses and physicians also grew. In 1965, Carol
      volunteered for service in Vietnam.
She arrived in November 1965 and was attached to
            the Third Field Hospital near Saigon.
After weeks of endless hours in surgery, Carol was
            finally able to take off for a weekend of rest.
She never made it.
The helicopter that was taking her to her weekend
            R&R crashed, killing Carol, 2nd Lt. Elizabeth Ann
            Jones, another Army nurse, and five others.

2nd Lt. Elizabeth Ann Jones
  Sept. 12, 1943 – Feb. 18, 1966
Even as a little girl growing up in South Carolina,
Elizabeth Ann Jones
wanted to be a nurse.
She graduated from the Medical
College of South Carolina School of Nursing in 1964,
    and the following year joined the Army Nurse Corps.
She was an ICU nurse at Fort Jackson, S.C., before
 she was assigned to the Third Field Hospital along
with Carol Ann Drazba.
She was engaged to be married to a soldier she'd
    met "in country," Lt. Col. Charles M. Honour Jr., and
 the wedding was to be in Vietnam. Her mother had
            even sent her a wedding gown.
She died along with 2nd Lt. Drazba and five others
            in a helicopter crash. The helicopter pilot was her fiancé.
 

1st Lt. Hedwig Diane Orlowski
            April 13, 1944 – Nov. 30, 1967

            Hedwig Diane Orlowski was a graduate of the Hurley
            Medical Center School of Nursing in Flint, Mich.

           She had been in Vietnam for nearly a year, assigned
            to the 67th Evacuation Hospital in Qui Nhon, when
            she was temporarily transferred to Pleiku to assist
            with the wounded.

            She was returning to her permanent post in Qui
            Nohn aboard a C-47 transport when it crashed,
            killing all aboard...

Capt. Eleanor Grace Alexander
Sept. 18, 1940 – Nov. 30, 1967

Though no "flower child," Eleanor considered herself a political activist
     concerned with the conflict in Vietnam.
Six years as a surgical nurse in New
            York City's Madison Hospital left her feeling restless.
In 1967, she joined the Army Nurse Corps and
            asked to be assigned to Vietnam. She was stationed
            at the 85th Field Evac Hospital at Qui Nhon.
She was on the same C-47 as 1st Lt. Hedwig Diane
            Orlowski, returning from Pleiku, when it crashed.
            Everyone aboard was killed.
The city of Riverside, N.J., named a park in honor of Eleanor, a native.

2nd Lt. Pamela Dorothy Donovan
March 25, 1942 – July 8, 1968
Pamela was born in Ireland, but grew up in Boston.
After graduating from nursing school in 1965, she stayed on at the
            hospital, where she learned her profession until 1967.
In November of that year she joined the Army Nurse
            Corps and was assigned to the 85th Field Evac
 Hospital at Qui Nhon.
She was only there for three months when she became seriously ill and died.
A road leading to the St. Gabriel's Monastery in
           Brighton, Mass., where her parents worked, was
            named in her honor in 1969.

Lt. Col. Annie Ruth Graham
Nov. 7, 1916 – Aug. 14, 1968
Annie Graham had been a career Army nurse since graduating from
 nursing school in 1942.
She served in Europe during World War II and left active duty in 1945, becoming a
            reserve officer as she completed her Bachelor of
            Science in Nursing degree at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
She returned to active duty in during the Korean
            War, and in the following 13 years completed tours
in Europe, Africa and the United States.
In 1967, she was assigned as chief nurse, 91st Evac
Hospital in Tuy Hoa, Vietnam.
While on duty, she suffered a sudden internal
            hemorrhage and was taken by air to Japan for
            surgery. Never regaining consciousness, she died three days later.

1st Lt. Sharon Ann Lane
July 7, 1943 – June 8, 1969
Sharon Ann Lane was the only nursein Vietnam to die under enemy attack.
She was stationed at the 312th Evac
Hospital at Chui Lai. To the west and south were
American marine bases, which often came under enemy mortar fire.
On the morning of June 8, after coming off duty
            from caring for Viet Cong prisoners, she returned to
            her hut for a brief rest. A rocket, overshooting one
            of the nearby Marine bases, struck a metal supply
            shed next to her hut and exploded. Sharon died
            instantly from flying shrapnel.
Though she joined the Army Nurse Corps in 1968,
            she had been in Vietnam for only two months when
            she was killed.
In her home of Stark County, Ohio, a statue of
            Sharon was erected to honor the men and women
            who served in Vietnam.
She was posthumously awarded the following medals:
the Purple Heart
the Bronze Star with a "V" for gallantry
the National Defense Service Medal
the Vietnam Service Medal
the National Order of Vietnam Medal
the (South) Vietnamese Gallantry Cross (withPalm) .

Capt. Mary Therese Klinker
Oct. 3, 1947 – April 9, 1975
Mary Klinker was the last nurse, and the only member of the Air Force
Nurse Corps, to be killed in Vietnam.
She entered the service just a year after graduating from nursing school and was
            assigned to Travis Air Force Base in California. There
she worked with U.S. servicemen wounded in
Vietnam and released American POWs.
She was later assigned to the 10th Aeromedical Evac
            out of Travis, where she cared for seriously wounded
            soldiers as they were being flown from hospitals in
Vietnam to hospitals in Japan, the Philippines, Hawaii or the mainland.
While on assignment at Clarke Air Force base in the
            Philippines, she volunteered for a humanitarian call
            to airlift orphans out of Saigon as the city was falling to the North Vietnamese.
She and her medical crew were on the plane, a C-5,
            with the infants and toddlers, when just after
            take-off, an explosion ripped through the rear of the
            fuselage. As the cabin lost pressure, the pilots tried
            to turn back toward the airport, but the plane
            crashed in a rice field two miles short of Saigon.

            Mary was posthumously awarded the Airman's Medal