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Recently in Salon Mothers Who Think

DYR MOM: WY R YOU SO LAVEABL?
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What is a Jewish lesbian punk folk singer to do?
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[11/05/99]

The other woman
I can't wish she were dead; she may be dying.
By Jane Underwood
[11/04/99]

Complete archives for Mothers Who Think

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Name: Peggy E. Ready
In country: Tan Son Nhut, Long Binh, 1966 to 1969
Rank: First lieutenant
Job: first WAC commander of the first WAC detachment
Age in Vietnam: 29
Current age: 61
Current home: St. Augustine, Fla.

If a man had problems with me, I mostly ignored it. I tried not to take an abrasive approach to anything. But I do recall one funny incident when we were still down at Tan Son Nhut.

We were in a briefing with my commander's staff one morning and they had come up with a plan for what everyone was supposed to do if we were under attack. Everybody had all these opportunities to go hide here or go do that, and what they wanted the women to do was rally around the flagpole in front of the headquarters.

So, I'm thinking, This is the most absurd thing I have ever heard in my life. The flagpole was right outside of headquarters. I let the S3 -- the operations guy -- go through his speech. When he finished, I raised my hand and said, "I really don't know much about tactics and strategy of war, but if it would seem that if the enemy were trying to get our headquarters, they would aim right at the flagpole, no?"

People just started falling out of their chairs, laughing. And he turned beet red. He had not thought of that. And the next day, they started building the first sandbag bunker for us women.

Karen Offutt: I remember feeling like I should be out there fighting. I really wished that they would have let us, even though I guess there are some problems about women and men fighting. I felt guilty about that.

Towards the end, I felt something snapped in my head. We worked 12-to-15-hour days. We didn't get a lot of time off. I remember they called us in for special times at night after we worked all day. One day they were giving the dictation about where they were going to hit that night. It hit me right then that I was helping to kill people. And I started thinking about how many villagers, how many kids would be killed that night. And I started having a lot of conflicts.

I worked for several generals -- they just treated me like a daughter. One was especially concerned -- he would never let me ride with him. He would never get any hint of impropriety. The rest were pretty nice. I was a hard worker.

There were some people putting their arms around me. I was always such a weak little thing. I remember near the end this one colonel put his arms around me and kept putting his arms around me and I spun around and said, "I'll knock you flat if you do that again." I was 123 pounds! I didn't put up with anything after I was there for a while.

+ RELATIONSHIPS IN VIETNAM

Name: Marilyn Roth
In country: Long Binh, April 1968 to April 1969
Rank: E4
Job: Clerk typist
Age in Vietnam: 25
Current age: 56
Current home: Melbourne, Fla.

"I weighed over 200 pounds and I had dates every night. Thank God I have the memories because I haven't had a date in five years. I had a lot of action, because these guys didn't care what you looked like as long as you had round eyes. They stood in line at my door.

I made everybody laugh. I was fat and bubbly. I had a wonderful time in Vietnam. I did. We partied every night. It was a year of just bliss for me. I had a great time. Best year of my life in Vietnam.

Karen Offutt: I was 19 when I went. I went over in July and came back [to the United States] in October because my grandfather passed away. When I came back [to Vietnam], I was an emotional wreck from the funeral. I was determined to live my life -- all my poetry showed that I was thinking that I was going to die.

When I turned 20, I thought I had respected my parents' wishes and that I had lived a moral life. I was introduced to somebody [in Saigon] and it turned out that that was the first person I was intimate with.

We had a dayroom across the hall from my room. It had a couch and a TV, I would go in there and do my tapes home for my parents. That's where the dastardly deed was done. There wasn't a lock on the door. It lasted two minutes. I waited 20 years for two minutes.

Then, a couple of weeks later, they told me that they had all lied to me, that he was married. So not only did I sleep with somebody, but it was a married somebody. And I was raised really Christian. It affected me really deeply. I felt that not only was I going to die in Vietnam, I was going to go to hell.

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