Caring For Servicemen And Their Families: A Republic Of Vietnam Social Worker

Republic of Vietnam Marine Corps Major Tran Thi Huy Le was born in northern Vietnam, but came south in 1954 when the country was partitioned. Following graduation from high school, she became a social worker before being commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam in 1962. She was initially assigned to the 4th Division in Da Nang. In 1968, she transferred to the South Vietnamese Marine Corps, eventually rising to the rank of Major. As a social worker in the armed forces of the Republic of Vietnam, she was responsible for counseling Soldiers and Marines, caring for their families when they were in the field, taking care of children and orphans, and comforting families when their service member was killed in battle. She recalls comforting wounded Soldiers, and recovering five Marines a year after they were killed. In that incident, one of the Marines was a Major, and his wife died in an automobile accident before his funeral, orphaning their children. Major Huy Le describes helping to support the children for years after. After the war, she fled to Guam and Camp Pendleton, and after working in a restaurant, in a laundry, and as a seamstress, she was hired as a community worker in the Los Angeles County Health Department in 1980.