They were “Donut Dollies,” young women who volunteered to fly to combat zones

Meet 'Donut Dolly' Judy Squire, one of Vietnam's forgotten veterans

WCPO News
By: Craig McKee
Sep 17, 2019 

She didn't fight. She wasn't a nurse. But she was in the thick of it.

Judy Squire didn’t live to see herself recognized as an honorary Vietnam veteran. The certificate welcoming her to Vietnam Veterans of America arrived in August, two months after her death of congestive heart failure.

But getting it all was a victory, her family said. Women like Squire spent decades unsure if they even had the right to ask for their service with the Red Cross Supplemental Recreational Activities Overseas program to be counted alongside that of soldiers, nurses and other members of the armed forces.

“She probably would never have told us she got it,” Squire’s sister, Mary Catherine Schneider, said.

They weren’t military. They were “Donut Dollies,” young women who volunteered to fly to combat zones as part of a morale-boosting effort during the war. There, in the heat and mud, they wore sky-blue dresses, served snacks and attempted to provide “a touch of home” that would distract soldiers from their daily losses. Smiling was required. So were perfect hair and makeup.

None of it protected them. In a 2017 interview with PBS, former Dolly Rachel Torrance recalled crouching behind barricades as artillery fired around her. Squire would later tell her family about a day she returned from serving lemonade in the field to discover her house had been bombed.
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Vietnam War Donut Dollie Remembered

Brookfield honors Vietnam War Donut Dollie who never came home

State Route 7 in Brookfield was named after Ginny Kirsch, who died in Vietnam in 1970 while serving as a Donut Dollie 
WKBN News Ohio
By Tyler Trill 
Published: July 30, 2017

BROOKFIELD, Ohio (WKBN) – State Route 7 in Brookfield was named after a local Donut Dollie on Sunday who never made it home from the Vietnam War.

During the war, the American Red Cross sent groups of women overseas called Donut Dollies. They would serve coffee and doughnuts, as well as participate in other programs, to boost the morale of the soldiers.

Brookfield High School graduate Ginny Kirsch was a Dollie in 1970 — and she was honored Sunday.

“It means the world to the Kirsch family to have all of you here today,” Ginny’s sister Ann Kirsch-Keag said.

The Kirsch family and dozens of people recited what they call Ginny’s Prayer on Brookfield’s center green.

Four of Ginny sisters shared stories of the Vietnam veteran.

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Vietnam Veteran Remembers Donut Dollie

Soldier remembers a 'Donut Dollie'
The Dispatch
June 4, 2106

"I came home from Vietnam on Jan. 22, 1971. Every year on Memorial Day I pause to remember several names of those I knew who will be “forever young.” Hannah’s name is one of those names." Vietnam Veteran Doug Rowe

Editor: In June 1969, I was a young Army soldier in Vietnam. Late in the summer a group of young ladies arrived in our unit. These young ladies were Red Cross “Donut Dollies.” Any war vet will recognize this title because Red Cross Donut Dollies have served soldiers in all wars since World War I including 627 who served during the Vietnam War. These young ladies went to Vietnam to give a year of their life to “bring home” to young soldiers like me.
I quickly struck up a conversation with one of the young ladies who came to visit us that day in the summer of ’69. One of the first questions she asked me was, “Where are you from?” When I told her I was from Lexington, N.C., her face lit up and with a measure of disbelief she told me that she was from Thomasville. Hannah and I made an instant connection, and although she was there to lift the spirits of all the men in our unit she spent her time exclusively with me. When Hannah left our unit we expressed hope that we would see each other again “back home.”
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