Somewhere in South Korea, April 1959: Judy Haag, one of some 50 Red Cross women operating the organization’s Clubmobiles across South Korea, hands out donuts to a servicemember.

Haag, who hails from Greendale, Wis. and admitted that before joining the Red Cross she never travelled farther than Minnesota, now travels to some five different military outfits a day, be it in truck, or by helicopter.

Dubbed “Doughnut Dollies” during the Korean War, the Red Cross Clubmobiles and the women who operate them date back to World War II when teams of three female Red Cross workers travelled to troops stationed in Great Britain and Europe in busses equipped with a stove for coffee and a built-in donut maker, carrying magazines, candy, playing records, and a friendly chat to U.S. troops.

From Stars and Stripes’ decades worth of articles on the women who signed up for “hard work in less than ideal conditions,” it’s clear that they, not the donuts, were the real morale boosters.

Read the original 1959 article on Judy and her Red Cross pals here.

related stories

• Korea’s “Doughnut Dollies”