DOUGHNUT DOLLIES

You know who I'd like to hear from...some of those doughnut dollies that used to come through occasionally. I'd like to hear their stories. I'd see them occasionally down at the EM club in Phouc Vinh. I'm not talking about the ones that we'd see in the Bob Hope shows on TV or the ones that would get cut out of the herd and kept down at MACV. I'm talking about the gals that made it out to the boonies.

"Pow" was the battalion commander's driver. He was a good kid from Dell's, Wisconsin. His name was Ron Powell...but we just called him Pow. He had been driving the Colonel, his Sergeant Major Toady, and a couple of Doughnut Dollies around all day and came in, looking like a drowned rat, all hopped up about the gals. They were staying down at division and he was sure they were lonely. He had it all figured out as how in the evening, they would like some decent company other than the officers they had to tolerate all day. He'd been talking to these two round eyes and was sure one of them was going for him.

Well, the more he talked, and the more we drank...I forgot about that...someone had smuggled in a bottle of gin and we were on it! Well, about the bottom of the bottle, I wasn't convinced he was right, but I wasn't dead sure he was wrong, so I decided to throw in with him and make a run for division headquarters, in the absolute pouring rain in his open jeep, to go try to hustle these two gals. Now there we were, in the middle of Viet Nam, on a base with about 5,000 guys, and two round eyes...and Pow and I, being men of action and fortified with gin, were on our way to make ourselves available to these two doughnut dollies.

Well, we arrived at division, and the only reason we made it through the gate was that the guard saw the insignia on the bumper of the jeep and recognized Pow. We drove up to the door where they were staying and frog-marched our butts up to the door, and Pow knocked soundly.

One of the gals opened the door and asked us to step in out of the rain....and HooHaa, there also were two full bird colonels....having had the same idea as we had...but having acted earlier than us... I knew two things right off....Pow wasn't all wrong..the girls were up to entertaining a little and the second thing I knew, the colonel that was ducking his head and heading for the back room, was obviously married and didn't want to be seen with a doughnut dolly.

It was an awkward moment...Pow stammered some, excused himself, and we backed out the door, back into the rain. You know, we never fully made it inside the place, with the door shut behind us...they even had guys there before we ever thought about going over...but to this day, I laugh and think of us, in the pouring rain, dark of night, middle of a war, totally unannounced, Pow and me trying to hustle the only two round eye gals on a post of 5,000 men.... now that takes hair...and about a quart of gin.

Originally posted on 1st Cavalry Association Guest Book
by, and included here with permission from Steve Richey

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