2 LT Carol Ann Drazba, RN

2 LT Carol Ann Drazba, RN, a Dumore native, answered her country's call to minister to the sick, wounded and dying soldiers serving in Vietnam. Upon arrival at the 3rd Field Hospital in Saigon, October 13, 1965, she worked tirelessly attending to the injured and dying. On February 18, 1966, Carol, fellow military nurse 2 LT Elizabeth Jones, RN, and physician CAPT Thomas Stasko, boarded a helicopter with a crew of four for a short, well-deserved period of R&R in Dalat, South Vietnam. Tragically, their helicopter crashed 20 minutes into flight. All seven brave and patriotic Souls were lost. Carol was escorted home by her nursing school classmate and lifelong friend, Dunmore native 2 LT Marianne Fisher Mooney, US Army who also volunteered to go to Vietnam and was stationed at the 93rd Evac Hospital in Long Bin, Vietnam. There are only eight women listed on the Vietnam Memorial Wall. Carol's name can be found on panel 05E, Line 046. She is buried at the Sacred Hearts Cemetery located in the Minooka section of Scranton, PA. Carol Ann Drazba together with Elizabeth Jones were the first American women military nurses to die in the Vietnam War. In 1964, Carol Ann Drazba, RN, graduated from The Scranton State General Hospital School of Nursing, that stood on this site, now The Gino Merli Veterans Center.