“I Was Raised With Red, White, And Blue Blood”: A WAC Volunteers For Service In Vietnam

Cheri (Asmus) Halsey joined the Army for the G.I. Bill, and deployed to Vietnam on January 10, 1967 for a one year tour. While in Vietnam, she served as a clerk typist in a communications and electronics section of the United States Army, Republic of Vietnam (USARV). She was one of the first women to deploy to the WAC Detachment when it was stationed at Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Saigon. One of her favorite things about being deployed was the people she worked with, and her most vivid memories of Vietnam are how green and noisy it was. In this interview, she discusses her deployment to Vietnam and her service in the WAC Detachment. She describes how seeing helicopters bringing casualties to the 24th Evacuation Hospital brought her face to face with the reality of war, and how she was accosted by protestors when she returned home to the United States. Despite this, she feels like she made a difference, and she remains very proud of her volunteer service in Vietnam.