DOB/DOD: December 11, 1943 (Waterbury, CT) – February 18, 1966; 22 years old
MARITAL STATUS: Unmarried
ENLISTMENT: January 13, 1965
MILITARY OCCUPATIONAL SPECIALTY: 0344 = Nurse Corps
SERVICE NUMBER: N5417476
TOUR START DATE: October 13, 1965
UNIT: 51st Field Hospital (Attached), 3rd Field Hospital, 68th Medical Group, 44th Medical Brigade, Saigon
CASUALTY LOCATION: Bien Hoa Province
THE WALL: Panel 5E, Line 46
FAMILY: Born to Joseph P., Sr. (1916-1963) and Marcella B. Shipkosky Drazba (1920-2005). One brother, Joseph P., Jr. (1941-). One sister, Joanne Drazba Katula (1942-).
CIRCUMSTANCES: Helicopter crash near Saigon.
Dunmore High School (PA) Class of 1961 yearbook photo
From The Pacific Stars and Stripes on February 21, 1966
Two Army nurses, the first American military women killed in the Republic of Vietnam, were among seven victims of an Army helicopter crash near Saigon, the Defense Department reported Saturday. The exact cause and circumstances of the crash are being investigated, the Pentagon said. The Army nurses were identified as 2d Lt Carol A.E. Drazba, Dunmore, Pennsylvania, and 2d Lt Elizabeth A. Jones, Allendale, South Carolina. Both nurses were attached to the 51st Field Hospital. All seven people aboard the helicopter, including two Army officers, were killed. The pilot of the craft was Captain Charles M. Smith, Jr., of Elizabeth City, North Carolina. His father is Merriman Smith, White House correspondent for United Press International. The aircraft commander was Lieutenant Colonel Charles M. Honour, Jr., of Norcross, Georgia. Honour was the commander of the 145th Aviation Group. The other crew members killed were Specialist Fourth Class Christopher J. Lantz, East Cleveland, Ohio, and Specialist Fourth Class Gary R. Artman, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The seventh person aboard was Captain Thomas W. Staske, Aurora, Colorado. Stasko was attached to the 51st Field Hospital.
From The Tribune (Scranton, PA) on March 3, 1966
Army Nurse Died in Viet Helicopter Crash
Final Tribute Is Paid to Lt. Carol A. Drazba
Final tribute was paid Wednesday morning to 22-year-old Lt. Carol Ann Drazba, 703 Butler Street, Dunmore, Army nurse who was killed in a helicopter crash on February 18 in South Vietnam. Requiem Mass was celebrated in St. Mary of St. Carmel Church, Dunmore, by Msgr. Raymond E. Larkin, pastor, Reverend Hugh McGroarty was deacon, and Reverend William B. Healey, subdeacon. Interment was in Sacred Hearts Cemetery, Minooka section, where full military rites were rendered. Pallbearers were: Private Carl Thomas, Private Thomas Hines, Private Carl Meinhardt, Private Richard Schofield, Private Howard Davis, and Private John Martakis, all from Fort Dix, New Jersey. The detail was under the direction of Sergeant James B. Ullom. The entire senior class of Scranton State General Hospital School of Nursing, 32 members, attended, along with Miss Ellen Gillard, RN, director of nursing; Miss Stefanie Kenowski, RN, assistant director of nursing service; and Mrs. Carolyn Partridge, RN, assistant director of nursing education. Eighteen members of the 1964 Class, SSGHSN, of which Miss Drazba was a member, were honorary pallbearers. Tuesday, members of the 1964 class, two each hour, were honor guards. W. Boyd Jones, hospital administrator, was unable to attend the funeral. He was in Harrisburg. Members of the firing squad from the 2d Basic Training Brigade from Fort Dix were Corporal John W. Renner, Corporal Kenneth Rush, and Corporal Woodrow Quinn. They were commanded by Staff Sergeant Samuel H. Williams. Bugler was Private James Duffy. Other aides were Specialist Fourth Class William Reidont, Fort Dix, and Cadet Thomas Earley, University of Scranton. Captain Richard A. Wilson, attached to the Reserve Officer Training Corps at the University of Scranton, was the coordinator of the burial details from Fort Dix. Members of the U.S. Army Recruiting Station in this city served as color guard. Master Sergeant Edward Bilder was the flag bearer. Other guard members were Sergeant First Class James Decker and Staff Sergeant James Pallore. Msgr. Larkin, eulogizing Lt Drazba, said: “Our Divine Lord will not forget her sacrifice. He has included her among those who shall be called ‘the children of God.” Lt Drazba had been serving in South Vietnam for only four months when she was killed in the crash that claimed the lives of another Army nurse and five other personnel. Her body arrived in this city on Monday, accompanied by Lieutenant Marianna Fisher, 1223 Clay Ave., Dunmore, friend and classmate of Lt. Drazba at State Hospital School of Nursing, who went to Vietnam with Lt. Drazba last October. She was assigned as a military escort to the body. Following a blessing service at the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad Station, the body was removed to the Morell Funeral Home, 301 Chestnut St., Dunmore, from where the funeral was held. Lt. Drazba was the daughter of Mrs. Marcella Drazba, of the Butler Street address, and the late Joseph Drazba. Msgr. Larkin said Lt. Drazba looked into the future and dedicated herself to the work of bringing peace to the hearts of men by selecting the nursing profession. “To provide peace of mind, relief to those who were suffering, to comfort them, was her life’s work,” he said. “When the call came to help those in Vietnam, she volunteered to carry peace to those afflicted—the sick, the wounded, the hurt—in that faraway land,” Msgr. Larkin said. “Our nation has committed itself to bring peace to Vietnam. She wanted to contribute her talents to bring such peace as she could to Vietnam. She was a peacemaker,’ the Monsignor stated. Representatives of the faculty and student body of Dunmore High School, of which Lt. Drazba was a 1961 graduate, were seated in the body of the church. Also represented at the funeral services were Victory American Legion Post and McHugh-Bushweiler Veterans of Foreign Wars Post, both of Dunmore; their women’s auxiliaries, and Rabiega–Gorgol VFW Post, South Scranton. Dunmore Mayor Martin Monahan supervised the police escort and detail at the church.
From herocards.us
Carol was the youngest of three children in the Joseph and Marcella (Shipkosky) Drazba family. Her father had been a private in the U.S. Army, serving in the Infantry during World War II (1939-1945).
Carol’s sister Joanne was a year older, and her brother Joseph two years older. The Drazba family lived in Dunmore, a borough adjoining Scranton in northeastern Pennsylvania. The family attended St. Mary of Mount Carmel Church.
After graduating in 1961 from Dunmore High School, Carol left to study at the Medical University of South Carolina. She returned closer to home in 1962 to complete her studies at the Scranton State General Hospital School of Nursing, where she graduated in 1964 as a registered nurse.
During her junior year, Drazba had enlisted in the Army Student Nurse Program. After completing her state board exam, she began active duty for the Army at Fort Huachuca in southern Arizona, 15 miles from the Mexican border.
Drazba’s brother Joseph told The Times-Tribune (Scranton, Pennsylvania), “She always wanted to be a nurse. She joined the Army Nurse Corps because she felt it would be helping our fighting men.”
With the rank of Second Lieutenant, Drazba arrived in South Vietnam in October 1965. She was scheduled to serve in-country for 13 months and was assigned to the 44th Medical Brigade, 3rd Field Hospital in Saigon.
One of her patients there was Army Sergeant First Class Pat DeSarno of West Scranton, Pennsylvania. In a 2012 interview with The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania), DeSarno recalled meeting Drazba after he was wounded by shrapnel:
I was out with a special forces unit in the woods, so I had to get [evacuated] with a couple other people, and when I went in there they took me to the 3rd Field Hospital in Saigon…[I] went right into surgery. I woke up in a bed, and my arm was in a cast, and she walked by and said, “I used to watch you bowl.”
2dLt Drazba recognized DeSarno from the Idle Hours Lanes in Dickson City, a bowling alley near both of their hometowns.
One other familiar face for 2dLt Drazba was her friend and State General classmate 2dLt Marianna Fischer, also from Dunmore, Pennsylvania. In November 1965, their alma mater back in Scranton held events to raise money for “Operation Christmas.” The students sent over 300 boxes of food, games, and cigarettes to the two nurses to raise the spirits of the 3rd Field Hospital patients. Drazba and Fisher played the role of Santa Claus for the soldiers that Christmas.
Remembered as “always full of life”, a bronze sculpture in Carol’s honor was dedicated in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in 2012. The memorial also honors Captain Thomas W. Stasko, Elizabeth Jones, Lt Col Charles M. Honour Jr., Captain Albert M. Smith, Specialist 4th Class Gary R. Artman, and SP4 Christopher J. Lantz, and the four helicopter crewmembers who died on February 18, 1966. The statue of Drazba stands near the Gino Merli Veterans Center in Scranton, Pennsylvania. [photo below from FindAGrave.com and contributor Incoronatella]
From Time Magazine on May 27, 2021
In a testament to Carol Ann Drazba’s care, Johnny Williams, whom she treated after an ambush left him severely injured, sent flowers to her mother every year until he passed away.
Buried in the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, Davis Street, Scranton, Pennsylvania; St. Joseph’s Garden Row 6, Grave 17. Photo from FindAGrave.com and contributor William Fischer, Jr.
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