Bob Thomas Writes

“Donut Dollie”

 The time was 1967.  Linda Jones had graduated from UNC Greensboro the previous year and was teaching at Stone Elementary schoolat Camp Lejeune,NC when she met Valerie Wilhelm.  Valerie had just returned from serving inVietnamas a Donut Dollie.  After hearing the stories of Valerie’s exciting travels and what the Red Cross services had meant to the troops, Linda was convinced that she needed to apply.  This was the beginning of what would be a lifetime of adventure with the Red Cross.

By the fall of 1968 Linda was in Munsan, Korea at Camp Pelham and later at Camp Red Cloud in Uijongbu.  “My fondest memories are of our daily travel out to the Army Compounds with our rec program and of course donuts”, Linda said in a recent conversation.  “On one helicopter run, our new-in-country pilot evidently became lost and we landed in a farmer’s field.  This was a bit of a concern as we were only a few miles from the DMZ.  A farmer came running out shaking his fist at us while our pilot was madly flipping through his little black book at what looked like coordinates.  We finally got on our way without incident.”

“Occasionally we would travel on our runs in a small Army Beaver plane with the Finance Officer who was carrying bags of cash to pay the troops on payday.  Twice I remember we had to land so that everyone could get off and reposition ourselves to even out the weight of the people and the money and then take off again.”

Linda recalls that traveling on Korean roads in the winter – especially to high elevation tactical sites – was especially exciting.  “I remember one particular time the roads (dirt of course) were deep in snow and ice.  Our Army driver was from South Georgiaand had never driven in snow.  The chains on the jeep came loose and made a deafening rattle.  The other Donut Dollie and I clutched each other in the back seat and screamed the entire way as the jeep slipped and slid almost over the edge of the mountain.  This went on for at least two hours”.

In addition to her service as a Donut Dollie, a Recreation Worker and a Station Manager – Linda was deployed to Desert Storm from December 1990 to April 1991 and to Bosniafor four months in 1998.  She also participated in a number of military exercises such as Gallant Eagle in the ‘80s in California.
When asked about her most rewarding deployment, Linda responded that it was “definitely Desert Storm because I learned the importance of the relationships you develop with your co-workers – both military and Red Cross.  Living and working together to accomplish the mission creates bonds that I never understood until then.”  It is not surprising that Linda also considers Desert Storm to be her most difficult deployment.  “We were dealing with being away from family”, she said, and “with extremely sparse living conditions, the threat of chemical attack and a constantly changing communication system which made our daily tasks a constant challenge”.
Linda told us that the thing she liked most about her Red Cross career was “having the knowledge and resources to immediately assist a serviceperson or their family member when they were having an emergency.”  She also loved working with volunteers.  “There was nothing more rewarding than to recruit a new volunteer, participate in his or her training and then follow their growth – both personally and in their Red Cross job – as they became a part

of the Red Cross family.”

Some of Linda’s fondest memories include working in recreation in Service to Military Hospitals (SMH).    She served as a recreation worker and supervisor in Charleston, SCand in Millington, Tennesseeat the Navy Regional Medical Centers.  She enjoys recalling her days of escorting rehab patients on day trips, organizing ward activities and ward events and of course working with the many community groups that came to support the patients. 

We asked Linda what she liked least about deployments.  “I least liked the preparation at your home station for turning over all tasks to another person and reassuming the same on returning home.”  She said that she also didn’t care much for the required shots and the constantly changing travel plans.  She told us that once she was in route, things always improved.

Linda assured us that she would choose the same career if she had it to do over again.  There is one thing she would do different.  She would have gone right from her Donut Dollie assignment in Korea to Vietnam for six months instead of returning to CONUS when her SRAO year was up.

We asked how she would advise another person considering the same career path.  She said that “any individual, male or female, who desires to experience life from an intensely demanding but immediately personally rewarding position, should consider it”.

After retiring in 1999 from SAF at Ft. Bragg,NC, Linda took a year off and then joined the SAF Reserve Corps in 2001.  She completed assignments at Travis AFB in California, Bethesda NRMC inMarylandand Ft. Bragg Army Base inNorth Carolina.  Her last assignment ended in June 2004.  Even though she has been retired for a few years now, Linda still volunteers at the Airborne andSpecialOperationsMuseuminFayetteville,NCwhere she lives with her husband – a USAF Reservist retired.  “This keeps me constantly in touch with young soldiers and their families as well as Veterans of our past conflicts and our Wounded Warriors”, she said.  “It is so special to be able to listen to a Veteran and to learn what he or she has encountered and where they have served and traveled in their career.” 

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That was the official version honoring Linda for her service. I’m going to tell you the un-official version.

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Linda is my cousin. She is our family’s ‘War Hero’. We’ve did our best to keep her supplied with cans of Tuna, Mayonnaise and Pickle relish so she could have her Tuna Salad Sandwich along with her MRE’s when she was in Desert Storm. We’ve adopted and watered her plants whiles she was gone for as long as a year. We cared for her pets and worried about her every hour of the day. She doesn’t mention finding bullet holes in her tent or wearing 40 pounds of Kevlar vest and helmet all day or seeing anti-aircraft shells explode near her plane – and she never will. But we who love her know what she’s done for our military. She’s comforted them when they lost a loved one. She’s helped them pack their bags and put them on a flight home.

Like most veterans she tells great war stories, but you’ll never hear that she spent her off duty time in the hospital tents – writing letters, comforting, letting young GI’s flirt with her… and flirting back!

I often thought that, if I were in my hospital bed and saw that flaming red hair, and slender body coming at me, I’d get better – hell, I’d get up and walk!

Now days Linda spends her days at the Airborne Museum telling folks what heroic things ‘her’ soldiers have done for us . . . she tell them that all she did was supply the donuts.

 The interesting thing – for our family – is that Linda was the ‘fragile’ kid in the family. Never rough housed with any of her cousins. Never played any sports. Unless you call ‘Doll Collecting’ a sport!

No one ever thought she’d be going to war zones all over the world and serving Donuts!

We are all so proud of her and love her very much.