The following is an experience told during one of the trips "down Memory Lane" with a friend, who was a U.S. Army Medevac helicopter pilot in Vietnam.
It was just before Thanksgiving in 1967, and we were ferrying both dead and wounded soldiers from a large GRF west of Pleiku, Vietnam. We had run out of body bags by noon, so it was pretty rough in the back of the CH-47 CHINOOK (helicopter). All of a sudden, I heard a 'take-charge' woman's voice in the rear.
I later learned that she was the singer and actress, Martha Raye. She wore a SF (Special Forces) beret and jungle fatigues with subdued markings as she helped carry the wounded and the dead aboard. 'Maggie' had been visiting her SF 'heroes'.
We then took off, short of fuel, and headed to the USAF hospital pad at Pleiku.
As we started to unload the dead and the wounded at the hospital, a 'smart-ass' USAF captain told the actress: "Ms. Raye, with all these dead and wounded to process, there would not be time for your show!"
To everyone's surprise, she pulled on her right collar and said: "Captain, see this eagle? I am a 'full bird' colonel in the US Army Reserve, and on this is a cadeuceus which means I am a nurse with a surgical specialty. Now, take me to your wounded."
He said: "Yes Ma'am. . . ."
I also later learned that several times while she was in Pleiku with Bob Hope and the USO troupe to entertain the troops, in between shows, she covered a surgical shift at the Air Force Field hospital, in order to give a nurse a well-deserved break.
Martha Raye is the only woman buried in the SF (Special Forces) cemetery at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, North Carolina, the home of the U.S. Army's Special Forces known as the "Green Berets".
The old-time entertainers were made of a lot sterner stuff compared to many of today's crop (crap) of Hollywood & entertainment industry activists and whiners.
Author Unknown
It was just before Thanksgiving in 1967, and we were ferrying both dead and wounded soldiers from a large GRF west of Pleiku, Vietnam. We had run out of body bags by noon, so it was pretty rough in the back of the CH-47 CHINOOK (helicopter). All of a sudden, I heard a 'take-charge' woman's voice in the rear.
I later learned that she was the singer and actress, Martha Raye. She wore a SF (Special Forces) beret and jungle fatigues with subdued markings as she helped carry the wounded and the dead aboard. 'Maggie' had been visiting her SF 'heroes'.
We then took off, short of fuel, and headed to the USAF hospital pad at Pleiku.
As we started to unload the dead and the wounded at the hospital, a 'smart-ass' USAF captain told the actress: "Ms. Raye, with all these dead and wounded to process, there would not be time for your show!"
To everyone's surprise, she pulled on her right collar and said: "Captain, see this eagle? I am a 'full bird' colonel in the US Army Reserve, and on this is a cadeuceus which means I am a nurse with a surgical specialty. Now, take me to your wounded."
He said: "Yes Ma'am. . . ."
I also later learned that several times while she was in Pleiku with Bob Hope and the USO troupe to entertain the troops, in between shows, she covered a surgical shift at the Air Force Field hospital, in order to give a nurse a well-deserved break.
Martha Raye is the only woman buried in the SF (Special Forces) cemetery at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, North Carolina, the home of the U.S. Army's Special Forces known as the "Green Berets".
The old-time entertainers were made of a lot sterner stuff compared to many of today's crop (crap) of Hollywood & entertainment industry activists and whiners.
Author Unknown
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