The ladies were Vietnamese civilians, often working for Uncle Sam as clerks, grass cutters, shop keepers, singers, Go-Go Girls & Dancers, band members, bar maids, laundress, and the most famous of all, the “hooch maid”. For many of us, these ladies did our cleaning, laundry, spit shined our boots, made our bunks, and sometimes even taught us how to disassemble a Chicom SKS or AK-47! Some were the proverbial “ladies of the night”. A few names were known, but most were anonymous. Some were merely pretty girls walking down the street and happened to catch the camera’s eye. Many were uglier’n sin, just plain PIGS, and I’ve saved them for the last on this page. Hope they don’t make you spill yer beer. Regardless, for good or bad, allow me to present the “ladies” . What would a war be without them?

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Thanh, Razorback hooch maid during 1965.

Crew Chief Jack Sebring and our little friend Thuy, a.k.a. “Toot” in front of one of the stores in lovely downtown Nha Be.

Ba Pham. My RMK hooch maid in Long Binh. She cleaned my room, polished my boots, did the laundry, and even showed me how to disassemble my captured SKS carbine. It was easy for her because her husband and youngest son each used one! She ended up getting fired because she was claiming wages for cleaning 10 rooms and there were only 9 rooms inhabited. For a box of Tide laundry soap and a carton of Salem menthol cigarettes a month, my room had fresh flowers and fruits daily. I thought she was cool. VC, but cool.

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