Viet WACs: Too Many Volunteer

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363-04832.pdf

Digital Object Identifier

363-04832

Title

Viet WACs: Too Many Volunteer

Description

Article published in the New York Herald Tribune about the Women's Armed Forces Corps in the ARVN, page 2

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Draft transcripts were automatically generated via Google Document AI and are currently under review. Please report significant errors to Archives & Special Collections at archives@unl.edu.

Transcript

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- Page 1
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NOVEMBER 23,
1965
PAGE 2
econd Class Mail Matter
New York Herald Tribune
NEWS PERSPECTIVE
Tuesday, Noven
Viet WACs: Too Many Volunteer
By Beverly Deepe
A Special Correspondent
SAIGON.
Vietnamese women have
swarmed to join the Women's
Armed Forces Corps (WAFC-
pronounced wafsee)-a job
paying the equivalent of $10 a
month.
"The first day of recruiting
1,000 women applied," said
Maj, Kathleen Wilkes of Cobb-
town, Ga., adviser to the Viet-
namese commander.
"There
was a constant
stream of women coming in ao
dais (the flowing Vietnamese
dress). Recruiting is no prob-
lem. We have 10 volunteers to
one position. We had to cut
off recruiting after two or
three weeks, we
swamped," she said.
were
Maj. Tran Cam Huong
(Huong means perfume), a
cherub faced widow and
mother of four, is director of
the WAFCs and commandant
of the Women's Training
Center. The Center is an aus-
tere row of buildings where 120
recruits are trained in military
regulations, weapons famil-
iarization and first aid.
Maj. Huong who attended
psychological warfare school
in Fort Bragg, N. C., in 1963,
said that from 1952 to 1965
some 650 Vietnamese women
had joined the Women's Aux-
iliary Corps, largely as medics
and social workers. But, at
the beginning of 1965, the
program was enlarged to bring
in women as interpreters and
clerk typists who could re-
place male non-commissioned
officers.
Some recuits, for example,
will serve as interpreters and
security control guards to sup-
plement Vietnamese police
around Saigon's Tan Son
Nhut Airport.
1,103 WOMEN
"We now have 1,103
WAFCS," she said in a recent
interview, held in English.
"We would have 2,000 by now
if we had the training facili-
ties, but at this time we have
the capabilities of training
only 120 women in one cycle.
By January, 1966, we will be
training 200 women every five
weeks."
the
The WAFCs receive
same pay and have the same
promotion and allowances
scale as men in the Vietnam-
ese armed forces.
A private makes a basic pay
THE WOMEN'S WAR in Viet Nam can begin
with self-conscious smiles as salutes are prac-
ticed but soon becomes deadly serious for members
of the Women's Armed Forces Corps. Herald
Tribune Special Correspondent Beverly Deepe de-
scribes the corps in this third of five articles on
South Viet Nam's women in war.
Herald Tribune photo by BEVERLY DEEPE
of 1,100 piastres a month-
$10; a captain receives a basic
pay of 5569 piastres ($55).
WAFCS in all ranks are also
eligible for allowances-family
allowance, technical supple-
ment allowance, cost of living
allowance, personal soap al
lowance-in which the month-
ly take-home pay can be al-
most doubled.
requirements
Educational
to join the WAFCs are high
by Vietnamese standards-a
minimum of junior high
school study, plus some skill
such as typing. An officer's
candidate course for the
WAFCS is planned in which
the equivalent of a high school
diploma would be required.
Priority to enlist is given to
widows or daughters of sol-
diers. Beginning next year
married women will not be
accepted.
"The whole Vietnamese
economy is geared for war
and this is an honorable pro-
fession for educated women
from
good families," Maj.
Wilkes explained. "There's not
that much money in salary
to attract them."
Following the five-week
basic training the recruits re-
ceive specialized instruction.
Then they are funneled out to
the provinces.
Besides typing, security and
interpreter roles, WAFCS offer
professional
guidance and
orientation for the families of
the war dead and wounded,
visit wounded Vietnamese
soldiers, help organize depend-
ents' quarters, kindergartens,
maternity clinics and primary
schools for irregular soldiers'
families; assist wounded chil-
dren and orphans, and dis-
tribute food and clothing to
the needy.
First sergeant of the train-
ing center is Vo Thi Vui, a
27-year-old paratroopr medic,
and mother of a small daugh-
ter. The sergeant is a quali-
fied senior jump instructor
and frequently has para-
chuted with the highest rank-
ing Vietnamese and American
generals. Her American ad-
viser-counterpart is M/Sgt.
Betty L. Adams of Woodside,
New York-one of two Amer-
ican WAC advisers to the
WAFCS.
Reliable sources have re-
ported that in isolated gov-
ernment
towns Vietnamese
peasant women are trained to
fight to defend their villages,
but this is not a nation-wide
program.
In addition, several hundred
Saigon housewives, including
some of the best educated
professional women in the
city, have formed the Vietna-
mese Women's Association of
Good Will. They already have
for
established a "shelter"
war-torn families coming into
Saigon.
OPERATION
"One family that came into
the center this morning was
brought here by the U. S.
Marines from Da Nang," said
Mrs. Phung Ngọc Duy, a pro-
fessional pharmacist and
president of the group. "The
small baby in the family has
a harelip and the Marines
brought him to Saigon to
have the harelip operated on
at the American hospital. The
mother and the rest of the
small children will stay here
until they can go back to Da
Nang.
"In another case, a soldier
was killed in the battle of
Dong Xoai (scene of a bloody
Viet Cong attack in June)
and his wife with her five
children came here after they
were released from the hospi-
tal," Mrs. Duy continued.
"In one hospital, after that
battle, I saw a 6-year-old boy
crying. He told me, 'My
mother left this morning to
bury my father and two sis-
ters and she didn't take me
with her. The next day I saw
ing and told me her home was
his mother and she was cry-
destroyed, her husband was
killed and she didn't know
hospital. So she came here
what to do when she left the
with her three children.
"Later, we try to find
the mothers some kind of
work so they can support
themselves and their families."
Six women and 79 children
now live in the shelter, which
also serves as a kindergarten
for the children.
The Women's Association
was the first-and only-
major women's organization
to form after the overthrow
in November, 1963, of the re-
gime of President Ngo Dinh
Diem, his sister-in-law Mad-
ame Ngo Dinh Nhu and her
one-million-strong Woman's
Solidarity Movement. That
movement reached from Sai--
gon into the lower class vil-
lages.
Since the 1963 coup the or-
ganization of the
poorer,
peasant-class women has been
initiated by the Catholics or
the Buddhists-or
Communists.
by
the
TOMORROW: The differ-
ent worlds of the rich and
the poor.

Date

1965, Nov. 23

Subject

Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Women; Vietnam (Republic). Quân lực. Women's Armed Forces Corps; Women soldiers

Location

Saigon, South Vietnam

Coordinates

10.8231; 106.6311

Container

B4, F6

Format

newspaper clippings

Collection Number

MS 363

Collection Title

Beverly Deepe Keever, Journalism Papers

Creator

Keever, Beverly Deepe

Copyright Information

These images are for educational use only. To inquire about usage or publication, please contact Archives & Special Collections.

Publisher

Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries

Language

English