You Are Loved and Not Forgotten

CAPT Eleanor Grace Alexander, USA
(Panel 31E Line 8)

2LT Pamela Dorothy Donovan, USA
(Panel 53W Line 43)

2LT Carol Ann Drazba, USA
(Panel 05E Line 46)

LTC Annie Ruth Graham, USA
(Panel 48W Line 12)

2LT Elizabeth Ann Jones, USA
(Panel 05E Line 47)

CAPT Mary Therese Klinker, USAF
(Panel 01W Line 122)

1LT Sharon Ann Lane, USA
(Panel 23W Line 112)

1LT Hedwig Diane Orlowski, USA
(Panel 31E Line 15)

Captain Mary Therese Klinker, USAF
(Panel 01W Line 122)

Capt. Klinker, a flight nurse assigned to Clark Air Base in the Philippines, was on the C-5A Galaxy which crashed on April 4, 1975 outside Saigon while evacuating Vietnamese orphans (“Operation Babylift”). From Lafayette, IN, she was 27.

Capt. Klinker was posthumously awarded the Airman's Medal for Heroism and the Meritorious Service Medal.

1LT Sharon Ann Lane, USA
(Panel 23W Line 112)

She arrived at the 312th Evac Hospital at Chu Lai on April 29, 1969 and went to work in the Intensive Care ward for a few days before being assigned to the Vietnamese Ward. She worked 5 days a week (12 hours per day) in this ward, and on the sixth day worked in Intensive Care.

"During the early morning hours of June 8, 1969, a Soviet-built 122-mm rocket slammed into Ward 4 of the 312th Evacuation Hospital in Chu Lai, Vietnam." 24-year old Lt. Sharon A. Lane died instantly. Though seven other American military nurses lost their lives serving in Vietnam, Lt. Lane was the only American servicewoman killed as a direct result of enemy fire throughout the war".

She was awarded the following medals: the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star with a "V" for gallantry, the National Defense Service Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal, the National Order Of Vietnam Medal, and the (South) Vietnamese Gallantry Cross (with Palm).

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Compiled by Pam Young - The Northwest Veterans Newsletter