Women Veterans Share Their Experiences During the Vietnam War

This video highlights the wartime experiences of four Americans; each woman exemplifies service in her branch of the Armed Forces. LTC Jay Ellen Barrett earned a commission in the Army Nurse Corps in 1968. In 1971 and 1972, she served in Vietnam as an Army nurse at the 85th Evacuation Hospital in Phu Bai, and the 95th Evacuation Hospital in Da Nang. LTC Barrett retired from the Army Reserves in 1991. Suzanne Devlin served in the Marine Corps from 1972 to 1975. She was an air traffic controller and a Drill Instructor. The Marine Corps gave her a foundation in leadership that she drew on as the first woman Chief of Police in Fairfax, Virginia; one of only ten in the United States at the time. After serving as a flight nurse in Korea, LCDR Vila Bobbi Hovis, was among the first Navy nurses to volunteer for Vietnam, where she lived through seven coups d état, and helped turn a hotel into the Naval Hospital in Saigon in 1963. Brig Gen Wilma Vaught blazed a trail for women in the U.S. Air Force. She was the first woman ever to deploy with a Strategic Air Command Bomb Wing, supporting B-52s and Operation Arc Light from Guam in 1966. She deployed to Saigon in 1968-1969 as a management analyst assigned to the Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV). She was the first woman to reach the rank of brigadier general from the Air Force s comptroller field. Moreover, she was the first woman to go to the Industrial College of the Armed Forces from the Air Force, ever, and was the third woman graduate in its history. In Recognition of National Women s History Month, the United States of America Vietnam War Commemoration salutes all women who served honorably during the Vietnam era.