American and Australian Civilian and Military Women
Who Died in the Viet Nam War (1959-1975)

Military

U.S. Army --

Lt. Drazba and Lt. Jones were assigned to the 3rd Field Hospital in Saigon. They died in a helicopter crash near Saigon, February 18, 1966. Drazba was from Dunmore, PA, Jones from Allendale, SC. Both were 22 years old.

Capt. Alexander of Westwood, NJ, and Lt. Orlowski of Detroit, MI, died November 30, 1967. Alexander, stationed at the 85th Evac., and Orlowski, stationed at the 67th Evac. in Qui Nhon, had been sent to a hospital in Pleiku to help out during a push. With them when their plane crashed on the return trip to Qui Nhon were two other nurses, Jerome E. Olmstead of Clintonville, WI, and Kenneth R. Shoemaker, Jr. of Owensboro, KY. Alexander was 27, Orlowski 23. Both were posthumously awarded Bronze Stars.

Lt. Donovan, from Allston, MA, became seriously ill and died on July 8, 1968, in Gia Dinh Province, South Vietnam, at the age of 26. She was assigned to the 85th Evac. in Qui Nhon.

Lt. Donovan was born in Wirral, Merseyside (in England), UK, March 25, 1942, to Irish parents. The family returned to Dublin, Ireland; and Pam was raised and educated there before the family came to Brighton, Massachusetts.

Lt. Lane died from shrapnel wounds when the 312th Evac. at Chu Lai was hit by rockets on June 8, 1969. From Canton, OH, she was a month short of her 26th birthday. She was posthumously awarded the Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Palm and the Bronze Star for Heroism. In 1970, the recovery room at Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Denver, where Lt. Lane had been assigned before going to Viet Nam, was dedicated in her honor. In 1973, Aultman Hospital in Canton, OH, where Lane had attended nursing school, erected a bronze statue of Lane. The names of 110 local servicemen killed in Vietnam are on the base of the statue.

Lt. Col. Graham, Chief Nurse, 91st Evacuation Hospital, 43rd Medical Group, 44th Medical Brigade, Tuy Hoa, from Efland, NC, suffered a stroke and was evacuated to Japan where she died four days later on August 14, 1968. A veteran of both World War II and Korea, she was 52.

U.S. Air Force --

Capt. Klinker, a flight nurse with the 10th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, Travis Air Force Base, temporarily assigned to Clark Air Base in the Philippines, was on the C-5A Galaxy which crashed on April 4, 1975, outside Saigon while evacuating Vietnamese orphans. This is known as the Operation Babylift crash. From Lafayette, IN, she was 27. She was posthumously awarded the Airman's Medal for Heroism and the Meritorious Service Medal.

Australian Nurse Corps --

Barbara died at Vung Tau, Vietnam in 1971.

Civilian

American Red Cross --

Died in a jeep accident, Bien Hoa, October 2, 1969.

Murdered by U.S. soldier in Cu Chi, August 16, 1970.

Died of Guillain-Barre Syndrome, Cam Ranh Bay, February 9, 1971.

Army Special Services --

Died in a jeep accident, Long Binh, October 26, 1968.

Died in a plane crash, Qui Nhon, 1967.

U.S. Department of the Navy OICC (Officer in Charge of Construction) --

Died of a heart attack in Saigon, 1964.

Catholic Relief Services --

Shot to death in Pleiku, 1969.

Central Intelligence Agency --

Died when a car bomb exploded outside the American Embassy, Saigon, March 30, 1965.

Died in Saigon, 1971.

U.S. Foreign Service --

Shot and killed in a Viet Minh ambush on March 7, 1948 when their jeep was ambushed and set afire on the outskirts of Saigon. The Viet Minh later acknowledged the jeep was mistaken for a French patrol vehicle and was fired upon in error, describing the women's deaths as a regretful tragedy. James was a World War II WAC veteran in the South Pacific theater.

United States Agency for International Development --

Murdered by a U.S. soldier in Nha Trang, August 16, 1967.

Died from injuries suffered in a fall from her apartment balcony in Saigon, October 2, 1969

Died February 1, 1968, Vinh Long

Journalists --

Killed by a mine on patrol with Marines outside Chu Lai, 1965.

Killed in a helicopter crash into the ocean near Da Nang, May 9, 1967.

Entertainers --

Australian Singer, Murdered during a performance in Danang, July 1969

Missionaries --

Killed in raid on leprosarium in Ban Me Thuot during Tet 1968.

Shot to death in an ambush, Dalat, March 4, 1963. Janie was five months old.

Killed in raid on leprosarium in Ban Me Thuot during Tet, February 1, 1968.

Killed in raid on leprosarium in Ban Me Thuot during Tet, February 1, 1968.

POW/MIA --

Captured and burned to death in Kengkok, Laos, 1972.
Remains recovered and returned to U.S.

Captured and burned to death in Kengkok, Laos, 1972.
Remains recovered and returned to U.S.

Captured during raid on leprosarium in Ban Me Thuot during Tet 1968. Died in 1968 and was buried somewhere along Ho Chi Minh Trail by fellow POW, Michael Benge. Remains not recovered.

Captured at leprosarium in Ban Me Thuot, May 30, 1962.
Still listed as POW.

Operation Babylift --

The following women were killed in the crash, outside Saigon, of the C5-A Galaxy transporting Vietnamese children out of the country on April 4, 1975. All of the women were working for various U.S. government agencies in Saigon at the time of their deaths with the exception of Theresa Drye (a child) and Laurie Stark (a teacher). Sharon Wesley had previously worked for both the American Red Cross and Army Special Services. She chose to stay on in Vietnam after the pullout of U.S. military forces in 1973.

62 civilians
9 military
--
71 total

Sources --

Vietnam Women's Memorial Project (Military) and
A Circle of Sisters/A Circle of Friends (Civilian):

Vietnam Women's Memorial Project
2001 S Street NW, Suite 302
Washington, D.C. 20009

Phone: 202-328-7253

A Circle of Sisters/A Circle of Friends
1015 South Gaylord, Suite 190
Denver, CO 80209

Phone: 303-575-1311

Revised: 09 December, 2020, by wgm
This list is subject to correction and addition as further information becomes known.

The data on this Page was compiled by --

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