 Linda Earls
Chebanse, Illinois
Administrative assistant, Kankakee Community College - She went to Vietnam in May of 1968 as a 22-year-old Army clerk typist, later becoming a staff sergeant and non-commissioned officer
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| "If at that time it had been possible for women to be in combat, yes, I would have wanted to be. Now when I think about it, I don’t think women should be in combat. It think it would cause a lot of difficulties for both men and women. But at that time I wanted in the worst way to be able to be in combat. I even had down the exact job I wanted. I wanted to be a door gunner. … I rode I helicopters quite a bit, and I would always try to sit in that seat. I guess I thought it’d be exciting, adventurous, I don’t know. I was a 22-year-old kid."
The thing Earls missed most in Vietnam is mentioned in her letters home to her mom. "I wanted a clean white towel without the rusty red tone that everything got while it was in Vietnam. I wanted it to smell nice and fresh because everything smelled musty and moldy from the humidity."
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