Hometown: Dunmore, PA
Branch: U.S. Army
Unit: 44th Medical Brigade, 3rd Field Hospital, Army Nurse Corps
Date of Sacrifice: February 18, 1966 - near Saigon, South Vietnam
Age: 22 
Conflict: Vietnam War, 1959-1975

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 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 Caramel 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 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 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.”

2LT Drazba recognized DeSarno from the Idle Hours Lanes in Dickson City, a bowling alley near both of their hometowns.

One other familiar face for 2LT Drazba was her friend and State General classmate 2LT 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.

On February 18, 1966, 2LT Drazba and six others boarded an Army UH-1 Iroquois “Huey” helicopter for a well-earned period of R&R (rest and recuperation leave) in Dalat, South Vietnam.

Ten miles north of Saigon, just 20 minutes into their flight, the low-flying Huey struck high-tension power lines and crashed. All seven passengers were lost. 2LT Carol Ann Drazba was 22 years old.

Drazba’s remains were accompanied home by her friend and fellow nurse, 2LT Fischer. Drazba was laid to rest near her hometown. 2LT Drazba is honored at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C., where her name is inscribed on Panel 05E, Line 46.

On June 16, 2012, a statue of 2LT Carol Ann Drazba was dedicated on the grounds of Scranton’s Gino Merli Veteran’s Center—where the Scranton State General Hospital once stood.

On November 11, 2014, the “2nd Lt. Carol Ann Drazba Memorial Bridge” in Dunmore was dedicated in her honor.

Sources
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund—Wall of Faces: Carol Ann Elizabeth Drazba
The Times-Tribune, February 19, 1966: Dunmore Nurse Among Six Killed In Helicopter Crash Near Saigon
The Times Leader, June 10, 2012: One-of-a-kind-nurse
ABC WNEP-TV: Memorial Honors First Woman Killed in Vietnam
The Historical Marker Database: 2LT Carol Ann Drazba, RN
Eyewitness News, WBRE/WYOU: Hidden History—Keeping the Legacy of Carol Ann Drazba Alive
Honor States: Carol Ann Elizabeth Drazba
Together We Served: Drazba, Carol Ann Elizabeth, 2LT
Burial Site: Find a Grave