The Woman with the Wine

I never really had any trouble being a woman in Vietnam. I was never propositioned or found myself in a difficult situation sexually. When you spend days and nights in the field, you’re just as miserable as the men – and you smell so bad anyway. Basically you’re just trying to survive. But I made myself quite popular because I’m tiny. I’m five feet tall and I have no strength, so what I did instead of carrying C rations was bring the wine. I had found a place in Saigon that was importing Beaujolais in a can. I’d take a six-pack and maybe one or two C rations, which was the maximum I could carry, in my poncho liner. Each time I joined a company, I would choose my group of friends, my crew, and we would share everything – you know, you take care of your buddy and your buddy takes care of you. The fact that I was a woman didn’t make any difference. I would help them dig a hole, and we would sleep in it, and there was never any problem, ever.

Catherine Leroy: Born in France in 1944 Leroy went to Vietnam at the age of twenty-one. She stayed from 1966 to 1968, during which time she was captured by the North Vietnamese and was wounded in action with the U.S. Marines. She covered many other conflicts including Lebanon and published a book with correspondent Tony Clifton titled God Cried.