Vietnam War, 1961-1975 -- Personal narratives

Abstract NA4193 Barbara Beal, interviewed by Amy L. Stevens, May 1, 2003, in Maine Coast Memorial Hospital in Ellsworth, Maine. Beal, age 56, talks about her service as an Army nurse in the Vietnam War; her family and friends’ reaction to her deployment; her anxiety prior to deployment; her training experiences; her preconceptions of the war vs. the reality; her emotional experience of the war; her typical day at the medevac hospital; the dangers of the job; her leisure time; socialization between...

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NA3203 Barbara Beal, interviewed by Laura Wheaton, November 14, 2001, in her home in Ellsworth, Maine. Beal talks about joining the Army Nurses Corps in 1970; being stationed in Hawaii; being sent to Vietnam where she served until 1972; her rank of Lieutenant. Text: 15 pp. transcript. Recording: mfc_na3203_c2304_01, mfc_na3203_c2304_02 (C 2304). Time: 01:06:45. Restrictions: None.

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NA3212 Bessie Fleetwood, interviewed by Elizabeth LaPierre, December 9, 2001, Kennebunkport Maine. Fleetwood talks about completing her basic training in Cedar Falls, Iowa; serving as a Yeoman First Class in the Vietnam War; being stationed in Endicott Rhode Island. Text: 18 pp. transcript. Recording: mfc_na3212_c2314_01, mfc_na3212_c2314_02 (C 2314). Time: 00:57:45. Restrictions: None.

Abstract NA3085 Beth Parks and Colonel Mary Cady, interviewed by Devida Kellogg, August 25, 2002. Parks and Cady, on the Veterans Panel, speak of their experiences in the military during the Vietnam War era; reasons for enlisting in the military; society’s reactions to the Vietnam War; propaganda, including “The Green Beret” by Robert Moore and “The Ballad of the Green Beret” by Staff Sergeant Barry Saddler; Beth’s experiences in a MASH (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital); Beth’s participation in...

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NA3236 Beth Parks, interviewed by Robin Arnold, November 8, 2001. Text: No transcript. Recording: mfc_na3236_c2343_01, mfc_na3236_c2343_02 (C 2343). Time: 01:12:49. Restrictions: None.

Abstract NA3328 Beth Parks, interviewed by Sarah Kneeland, February 16 and 23, 2005, Corea, Maine. Parks talks her experiences in the Vietnam War and how she dealt with it afterwards: reasons for becoming a nurse; training at D.C. General Hospital; volunteering as an officer in the Army Nurse Corps (ANC); Viet Cong tunnels underlying the base camp at Cu Chi; attacks against their camp; operating rooms in the MASH and evacuation hospitals; it was the peak of her career; army vs. civilian nursing;...

Abstract 1094 Clifford Chandler, interviewed by Susan “Sue” DeRose, November 17 – 22, 1976, Orono, Maine. Chandler discusses his childhood in Jonesport, Maine, including discipline, chores, and games; military service at a naval repair base in San Diego; his grandfather’s work as a rum-chaser enforcing Prohibition, competition among fishermen; seine fishing; working in a factory that canned seafood; similarities and differences in dating over the years; and his views on the Vietnam War as the father...

Abstract NA3207 Donna Loring, interviewed by Mazie Hough and Carol Toner, June 19, 2001, at the CATS Library in Augusta, Maine. Donna talks about enlisting in 1966; training in California and going to Vietnam; serving in the military occupational specialty signals corps and as a soldier of the Women’s Army Corps. Text: 9 pp. transcript. Recording: mfc_na3207_c2308_01, mfc_na3207_c2308_02 (C 2308, CD 1057, CD 1058). Time: 01:20:59. RESTRICTED pending TK review by the Penobscot Historic Preservation...

Abstract NA4196 Donna Loring, interviewed by Mazie Hough and Carol Toner, June 19, 2001, in Augusta, Maine. Loring, age 53, talks about enlisting in the Army in the Vietnam War; her experiences of discrimination as a Native American in Maine; boarding school; taking an aptitude test after enlisting; basic training; her role as a member of the Signal Corps; the dangers of the job; rising through the ranks; the detachment of the Women’s Army Corps from the rest of the Army; women soldiers and weapons;...

Abstract NA3242 Phyllis Sprague, interviewed by Kristen Frey on November 14, 2001. Sprague was born in Newbury, Vermont in 1943. Sprague talks about joining the Army in 1961; a typical day in basic training and then working for the Army; experience as a medical officer in the Army; Sprague’s attitude toward the military and government becoming more patriotic after her service; way soldiers were welcomed home after Vietnam compared to the Gulf War; relationship between men and women in the military in...

Abstract NA3224 Sharon Blair, interviewed by Caitlyn Barker, December 4, 2001, Augusta, Maine. Blair talks about her aspirations of becoming a legal secretary; attending Thomas College; reasons for joining the Marine Corps in 1965; struggles of boot camp at Paris Island, South Carolina; treatment of women in boot camp; the developed bond between members of Marine Corps, and those of the military; life at the base at Cherry Point in North Carolina; working at the Cherry Point base while fellow Marines...

Abstract 1004 Stephen E. Sterns interviewed by Colleen Keef on November 2, 1975, Orono, Maine. Stearns, from Biddeford, Maine, discusses his childhood, games, and chores; working during his youth; his parents' gender roles; the assassinations of President Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.; his views of the ideal man and woman; his service in Vietnam; his views on gun control, women's liberation, social hostility, hatred, and the media. Text: 35 pp. w/brief cat. and trans. Recording: T 1016. Approx....

Abstract 1012 Stephen “Steve” McGowan interviewed by Sara Treat, November 1, 1975, Orono, Maine. McGowan tells of his childhood and role of his stepmother; being laid off and its impacts; his experience in Vietnam as being better than many others; surplus of teachers in Maine; marijuana and how widespread its use was in the 1970s; Army control of media while in Vietnam and how that inhibited his understanding of the antiwar movement; and the women’s liberation movement and his objection to reverse...