Nancy Smoyer oral history interview

The Scope and Contents note of this oral history was originally generated by feeding the electronic transcript into OpenAI’s ChatGPT 4o on 2024 August 19. It was then reviewed and edited by a human.

Oral history interview with Nancy Smoyer for the Dartmouth Vietnam Project. Smoyer recounts her early life and education, growing up in Princeton, New Jersey and attending University of Colorado, Boulder. While at the University of Boulder she studied abroad in France. She describes her experiences as a Red Cross “Donut Dollie” during the Vietnam War, entertaining and boosting morale for American troops stationed in Vietnam. She discusses running recreation centers and visiting remote fire bases in combat zones and encountering mortar attacks during the Tet Offensive. Smoyer recounts how her brother, a Dartmouth graduate, was killed in action after she returned to the U.S. She details her continued efforts to support veterans by working in recreation at a military hospital and as a counselor helping veterans cope with PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). She also describes her volunteer work at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial supporting visiting veterans and their families.