Doughnut Dollies' forgotten role with U.S. troops overseas in wartime

It's a universal truth that in times of great stress, an ordinary cup of something hot and some form of pastry on the side can give extraordinary comfort. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that such a simple activity as serving soldiers a cup of coffee and a doughnut expanded into one of the more memorable forms of respite, and even, at times, solace, for soldiers near the front lines of war from World War I, on through World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

Supplemental Recreational Activities Overseas workers, also known as SRAOs or, more frequently, Doughnut Dollies, were attached to the International Red Cross, which coordinated service with the American military worldwide. Two veterans of the Red Cross Doughnut Dollies, one who served during World War II and one during the Vietnam War, came together recently in Lakeville to compare experiences and to reminisce. They were brought together by Lakeville's Stuyvescent Bearns, who had heard stories from his friends of their war experiences separately.

Leslie-Hart (Fenn) Tapscott of Salisbury, 88, who served in Europe during World War II, and Beth (Bryan) Critton of West Hartford, 59, who served during the Vietnam War in both Korea and Vietnam, found they had some experiences in common, but some that were profoundly different, reflecting the differences between the two wars.

Both remembered times when they donned their metal helmets in the middle of the night, only then realizing how close they were to the action of the wars and that they, too, along with the troops they served, could be in immediate danger. Critton recalled diving under a mattress along with her Red Cross colleagues during such incoming fire, thinking, "We could die here." But both women agreed that usually they were so concentrated on their task at hand, serving and providing recreational activities for those coming off the battlefield, that they didn't really worry about their own safety.

The Doughnut Dollies' clubmobiles of World War II

How does a young woman become involved with serving in the Red Cross during times of war? For Tapscott, her willingness to volunteer to serve overseas originated with her family in Hartford, which was very active in working to support the soldiers stationed in Connecticut before and during World War II. "I drove for the Red Cross in Hartford when I was 23 years old," Tapscott said. Then, in the summer of 1941, she drove for Gertrude Ely, working through the YWCA and in the process of forming the USO (United Service Organization), around North Carolina as "her Girl Friday," Tapscott said. They drove through small towns to warn them of the impending visit of "1000 to 5000 soldiers on leave. We'd help them make plans for dances, socials, general events to keep them busy."

Tapscott eventually wound up in Washington, D.C., applying to help out through the Red Cross, "training for the tropics, or the cold climates, as gray ladies doing hospital work or with clubmobiles, in the Pacific or in Europe, we didn't know where we'd end up," she said. Clubmobiles were the creation of Harvey D. Gibson, a New York banker who was the Red Cross Commissioner to Great Britain. "He came up with the idea for vehicles American girls could drive, traveling service clubs," in which they could make doughnuts, and coffee, to serve the troops near the front lines. Tapscott was assigned to a clubmobile, and served as a section captain in Group A of the Red Cross clubmobiles.

The clubmobiles were made-over two-and-a-half ton, double-clutch trucks that were configured to carry 100-pound bags of doughnut mix ("It was like Bisquick with a lemon flavor to it"), 200 gallons of water, giant cans of fat in which to fry the doughnuts, and all the equipment to make it come together. "We had a sink, faucet, loudspeakers, and gave out candy, cigarettes, soap, and chewing gum as well as the coffee and doughnuts. There were about 500 clubmobile girls.

 "We shipped over to Scotland first, in 1943," Tapscott said, "and learned to make doughnuts in the trucks." They made doughnuts in 12-hour shifts in Liverpool, serving coffee and doughnuts along with the British Red Cross. Then, in July of 1944, they landed in Normandy, France. There were slit lights only at night, and the town road signs were all down, she said, in both France and England, "so it was easy to get lost."

They worked under Special Service of the U.S. Army in France, Belgium, Luxumbourg and finally Germany. "We had to keep a book of where we were every day, but couldn't really say where we were," because of security, so had codes and passwords worked out in order to communicate. Group A was assigned to travel with the troops into the Battle of the Bulge, and were pulled back from the front lines as they set up to serve the battle-weary and injured soldiers.

"We were attached to the 78th Infantry Lightning Division," Tapscott said. "We lost a lot of people crossing the Rhine, and we served boys with frozen feet on gurneys. One of them had just received a "˜Dear John' letter, I remember. We served GIs and Navy SEALS working with the 1st Infantry Division. We saw SS troops taken prisoner in the Harz Mountains in Germany."

They were the only clubmobile unit sent into Berlin after the war was over, and stayed in Berlin from 1945 through 1947. "But life changed in Berlin after the summer of 1946," Tapscott said. "There were no more clubmobiles. It broke my heart and everyone else's." She tried to get people to write letters to keep the clubmobiles going, but it was not to be, and she spent the rest of her time in Berlin with the Army of Occupation.

The experience of Vietnam and Korea, 1969-71

For the Vietnam War Doughnut Dolly, Beth Critton, the opportunity to serve in the Red Cross came from an ad in her hometown newspaper, the Philadelphia Inquirer: "Overseas Opportunities for College Graduates." Like Tapscott, she went to Washington, D.C., to apply, but when she realized she was being sent to Vietnam, "got scared, and a nice lady there offered me the chance to switch and go to Korea instead." She went home and worked for several months, then left for Korea, where she served for 13 months.

"We were travel units," Critton said, living on military bases with Quonset huts and showers, then leaving for daily trips to remote missile bases with bags of doughnuts and other food, developing recreational programs and playing games with the soldiers. There were eight to 12 women in her unit. "We wore uniforms, jackets and skirts and one-piece dresses," she said. "We played Concentration and other TV quiz show games. We met local people, and we met men who came through Korea after being in Vietnam." Curious about Vietnam after meeting those troops, she served there for eight months following her tour in Korea.

A typical day for her in Vietnam meant leaving relatively comfortable quarters and going into the front lines, if there was no fighting going on at the time, and putting on a one-hour program. "The troops were kind of isolated," Critton said. She had a vivid memory of standing in a circle of armored vehicles playing Concentration with troops who had been in battle the day before. They were very polite, she said, but she had mixed feelings, in that she felt injecting recreational activity could be disorienting for all of them under those conditions.

Critton's return home in 1971 held relief in leaving the war behind, but also the difficulty of coming home to a fiance who couldn't really understand what she had been through, and to whom she couldn't explain the war, she said, resulting in estrangement. "While World War II had support, the Vietnam War did not," she said.

Tapscott and Critton agreed that it was good to hear one another's experiences. There was common ground in that they both provided support for troops fighting far away from home, seeing them near or at the battle lines. And in talking about their experiences, both women revealed to those observing the courage and resilience it took to work during their times of service in the Red Cross, and to adjust to life at home in the United States once the wars were over.

For more information on the Doughnut Dollies, go to redcross.org.