In our third installment of Memorabilia Monday, we are honored to share a piece of memorabilia from the personal archive of Donut Dollie Emily Strange (July 23, 1946 – July 12, 2016). Emily served from 1968 – 69 with the 9th Infantry Division and Mobile Riverine Force in Vietnam.
The “short timers” calendar below is an original from Emily’s time in Vietnam, featuring Snoopy’s doghouse with Snoopy on his way out at the left side margin. Short timer calendars were handed out by the Donut Dollies to the men who were approaching their last 100 days in-country. Each day would be colored in to count down those last 100 days.
We found 5 other short timer calendars in Emily’s archive, including a couple more cartoon versions and a couple others that showed GIs preparing for DEROS (Date Eligible to Return from Overseas). As you can see, the Donut Dollie versions of these calendars were G-rated. Some short timer calendars were designed by the men for the men, which at the beginning depicted an unclothed woman and once each day’s segment was filled in, the woman’s body would be covered.
We are so thankful to Emily Strange’s sister, Peggy Michel, for having the foresight to keep Emily’s Donut Dollie archive and for sharing these materials with us. This collection included photos, slides, training materials, personal writings, poems, and audio recordings. We look forward to sharing more of Emily’s memorabilia to help tell the story of the Donut Dollie’s service in Vietnam.
You can see more of Emily’s materials throughout the bonus features included with the purchase of the Donut Dollies documentary. You can learn more about the Donut Dollies and how to purchase the Donut Dollies documentary at www.donutdollies.com
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