Autor/-in: Nancy Smoyer

Nancy Smoyer was raised in Princeton, New Jersey, and attended college in Colorado. After graduating from the University of Colorado in 1965 she went on a 15-month round-the-world trip, traveling and working in England, Israel and Australia. During her trip, she came to appreciate how reminders of home could be a soothing balm for Americans far from the States.

It was also during that trip that she decided to go to Vietnam, even though she had no clear opinions about U.S. involvement in the Vietnam war, to try to bring a touch of home to the American servicemen stationed there. In early 1967, she joined the American Red Cross Supplemental Recreation Activities Overseas program and served as a Donut Dollie in Vietnam between April of 1967 and April of 1968.

That year-a year Nancy describes as "the high point of my life"-profoundly influenced her future. Since returning from Vietnam almost 50 years ago, she has worked to assist veterans and their families both in Washington, DC and Fairbanks, Alaska where she has lived since l972. She has volunteered with the Friends of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in DC and continues to volunteer at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial every year. After receiving her master's degree in Community Psychology, she volunteered as a counselor at the Fairbanks Vet Center and also organizes a yearly Stand Down.

In 1993, Nancy returned to Vietnam as part of the Veterans Vietnam Restoration Project. During that trip, she, along with three American combat veterans, worked side-by-side with former Viet Cong and NVA soldiers to renovate a clinic at Cu Chi-one of the places Nancy had been stationed during the Vietnam war.