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Casualty Info
Home Town Wirral, Merseyside
Last Address Brighton, MA
Casualty Date Jul 08, 1968
Cause Non Hostile- Died of Illness, Other Injury
Reason Suicide
Location Gia Dinh (Vietnam)
Conflict Vietnam War
Location of Interment Mount Hope Cemetery - Boston, Massachusetts
Wall/Plot Coordinates 53W 043 / Gr 26, Svcmen Lot Row 14 Laurel AveVE
1st Lt. Pam Donovan joined the Army Reserve Nurse's Corps, and she attended additional jungle training prior to departing for her tour in South Vietnam on 10 April 1968.
She graduated from St. Elizabeth's Hospital School of Nursing in 1965 and became a Registered Nurse. By this time, she was living in Allston, Massachusetts. She graduated from the Newton Country Day School, but also attended schools in Ireland, England, and Canada.
Pamela Dororthy Donovan was born on March 25, 1942 in Wirral, Merseyside, England to Irish parents. Her family later returned to Ireland, and In 1956 they immigrated to the United States. The family settled in Brighton, Massachusetts, and Pamela became a U.S. Citizen in 1967 prior to leaving for service in South Vietnam.
"She was much affected by battlefield portrayals on the news, and she shared with us her distress that all the [American soldiers] were in such dreadful circumstances. She had learned that all the nurses were volunteers, and she told us that she had decided she should volunteer."
"Second Lieutenant Pamela Donovan contracted an unusual Southeast Asian variant of pneumonia at the 85th Evacuation Hospital in Qui Nhon, where she was stationed, and died on July 8, 1968. "
Note:
1LT Pamela Donovan is remembered in the book Potpourri of War by Noonie Fortin which was published in 1998 by Langmarc Publishing.
She is one of only eight women listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. All these women were nurses.
The Greater Cleveland Chapter of the Vietnam Veterans of America honored Pamela Donovan, an Irish-born nurse in the Vietnam War in March 2008 during the Cleveland, Ohio St. Patrick's Day Parade. The theme of the parade was "Famous Women of Irish Descent." There are at least 20 persons from Ireland listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
The New England Center for Homeless Veterans established the Lt. Pamela D. Donovan Memorial Residence for Women in 1996. In 2007, through a generous grant from Charlesbank Homes, the dormitory was extensively renovated.
Note 1: One file at the National Archives and Records Administration states she was not posthumously promoted (Combat Area Casualties Current File, 6/8/1956 - 1/21/1998) while another states that she was posthumously promoted to 1st Lieutenant (Coffelt Database, December 2005 Update). Source: http://aad.archives.gov
Note 2: Died July 8, 1968. The "Combat Area Casualties Current File, 6/8/1956 - 1/21/1998" states that she commited suicide. Her obituary states that she died of pneumonia. The obituary is in the photo section (need newspaper name and date of article). The suicide information appears to be incorrect in the National Archive and Record Administration (NARA) files.
