The Vietnam war remains a controversial topic in American history, but as time has marched forward research has covered many aspects of the war. Research into the causes of war, the victories, and losses, as well as memoirs and the lasting effects of exposure to war are covered extensively. There are even studies that have been conducted on the post-traumatic stress of nurses, red cross volunteers, and women in other civilian volunteer positions. What about the other women who served in Vietnam, the clerks, linguists, and intelligence personnel? There are few resources which center on those women. So, why study women veterans of Vietnam? One reason is because they deserve to be studied, their contributions in Vietnam, especially in non-medical positions, have been largely overlooked. Another reason is the additional information to the historical record on the war in Vietnam. Much has been written about the men who fought in the war and the nurses who devoted their service to caring for them. Yet, the entire historiography of the Vietnam war is incomplete without the experiences of the women who served in other capacities. Finally, like the women who served in all previous conflicts, the women Vietnam veterans left a legacy of service which brought about legislative and social change in the United States. Though the scale of the project seems large, it is not. The number of women who served outside the medical field is relatively small and the years 1963-1975 keep the focus on a very specific window of service for research.
Preliminary research in this area has uncovered several women whose Vietnam experiences put them in unique situations. This inevitably leads to the questions of how did they find themselves first in the military and second in Vietnam? Men either enlisted or were drafted to serve, but every woman volunteered. Were they influenced by the Civil Rights movement, or the feminist movement, was it a sense of patriotism or something else that pushed them to serve? These are a few of the answers being pursued in this research. The answers will be examined considering political and cultural changes from 1963-1975 in both the civilian and military worlds. The conclusions reached will add comprehension to the history of women’s military service and the Vietnam record filling an area previously excluded. It was decided that purely academic research into secondary sources or records would not provide all of the desired information.
This research will be accomplished through research as well as oral history interviews and surveys. The research will be conducted at archival repositories such as the Library of Congress’ VHP, the West Point Center for Oral History, and the Sam Johnson Vietnam archive. Candidates for oral history interviews will be found through a survey that will be shared on social media outlets and veteran discussion boards. The surveys will be used mainly to identify candidates for interview, but also to compile as much data on women who served in non-medical positions as possible to present a clearer picture of women’s service. Each candidate identified and interviewed will also be asked for permission to contribute the interview and any provided information to the VHP or Sam Johnson Vietnam archive to preserve their voice for future generations. The questions for the interviews will be culled from the provided samples provided by the VHP tool kit as well as research specific questions developed by the researcher. Oral histories were chosen as the vehicle to collect first-hand narratives from the women who served because Vietnam was their experience, their voices can offer perspective not found in paper archives. In combination with archival and secondary sources, recorded interviews logically make the most sense for compiling necessary information. Providing the originals to the repositories allows for long-term storage and access.
The researcher for this project has spent much of her academic career focused on the military contributions made by women of the United States. Previous research has been conducted on female spies of the American Revolution, the life and work of Harriet Tubman, and the Hello Girls of World War I. Additionally, research has been conducted into the history of the United States military from pre-colonial days through Vietnam, how societal expectations for women have changed during this time, the suffrage movement, and how European women from the early through modern eras experienced similar trends in social change. She studied the history of public policy and legislation regarding the women and the continued battle for equal citizenship has played out from the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention through the 1948 Women’s Armed Forces Integration Act when women were formally admitted to the military. Additionally, in the United States change for women in the military was evident from 1960 to 1980, limits on the number of women who could serve were changed, retention factors changed, more specialties opened, and these women were in the middle of it all. It is her intent to provide information on these women whose service has been in the shadow of the combat soldier or nurse in Vietnam but was equally as important to the history of the Vietnam war.
Lady of History 
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