The University of Iowa Libraries

Kathy Ormond served with the Red Cross Supplemental Recreational Activities Overseas Program as a recreation aide in Vietnam from July 1968 to October 1969. She left for Vietnam after two weeks of training in the United States shortly after her graduation from Mary Washington College in Virginia.

The Supplemental Recreational Activities Overseas Program, commonly known as the Center Clubmobile Program, accepted young women between the ages of twenty-one and twenty-four who were graduates of a four-year college. They served on a voluntary basis and were paid regular wages. These women, known to the men in Vietnam as Red Cross girls, donut dollies, chopper chicks, and kool-aide kids, flew by helicopter to fire bases where battalions manned artillery away from the main base, to provide a break and some recreation for the soldiers. They played games, supplied books, and created quizzes, puzzles, visual games, and stunts for the men. The women in the Clubmobile Program also ran recreation centers at some of the bases.

The Kathy Ormond papers date from 1966 to 2007 (bulk 1968-1970) and measure 1.25 linear feet. The papers are arranged in five series: Personal, Correspondence, Informational materials, Photographs, and Artifacts.

The Personal series (1968-2001) includes biographical materials, such as newspaper clippings about Ormond regarding her tour in Vietnam along with her passport and other identification cards. The biographical folder also includes a printout from a website that hosts a radio interview with Ormond from 1968. Some of the materials she used and prepared for her programs are also included in this series.

The Correspondence series (1968-1993) consists of letters Ormond wrote to her mother and brother while serving in Vietnam as well as many she received from friends and soldiers she met during her fifteen-month tour.

The Informational materials series (1967-1979) contains orientation instructions, news releases, newsletters, memos, regulations and orders, reports and brochures. Most of the materials were produced by the Red Cross.

The Photographs series (1968-2005) contains Ormond's photographs, in the form of prints and slides of her daily life, the men serving in Vietnam, the countryside, and the Vietnamese people and their villages. Many of the photographs and slides have been identified by Ormond. The series includes a DVD, "A.K.A. Donut Dollies," a slide show of photographs from 1966 to 1972 created for the 2005 Dollies reunion in Albuquerque. Ormond's patches and pins from the bases where she served are contained within the Artifacts series.

Alternate Extent Statement: 2 DVDs [d0038 and d0054]
Artifacts in box 4
Photographs scattered throughout.

Access: The papers are open for research.

Use: Copyright held by the donor has been transferred to The University of Iowa.

Acquisition: The papers (donor no. 385) were donated by Kathy Ormond in 1996 and subsequent years.

Preferred Citation: Kathy Ormond papers, Iowa Women's Archives, The University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City.

Repository:	Iowa Women's Archives
Address:	100 Main Library University of Iowa Libraries Iowa City, IA 52242
Phone:	319-335-5068
Curator:	Kären Mason
Email:	lib-women@uiowa.edu
Website:	http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/iwa

This collection is indexed under the following subject terms.

Personal Names:
Ormond, Kathy, 1945-

Corporate Names:
Red Cross Supplemental Recreational Activities Overseas Program

Dates:
20th century
2000-2009
1960-1969

Topics:
Women and war
Vietnam War, 1961-1975
Red Cross and Red Crescent
Vietnamese

Occupations:
Soldiers
Entertainers

Geographic Names:
Vietnam

Genre/Form of Materials:
Archives
Correspondence
Photographs
Slides (photographs)
Video recordings
Cultural artifacts
Personal papers

Browse:
Women and War
Women in Wartime