Dorner Carmichael, shown here at age 20, volunteers in Vietnam as a Red Cross “Donut Dolly." Now 76, Carmichael recently completed a new tour as a volunteer supporting deployed U.S. military personnel in Powidz, Poland. (Sarah Williams/U.S. Army)

POWIDZ, Poland — In 1970, 20-year-old Dorner Carmichael had just graduated from college and wasn’t sure what she wanted to do next.

Her decision to leave her Georgia hometown and become one of the American Red Cross volunteers colloquially known as Donut Dollies on a one-year tour during the Vietnam War changed her life.

“Vietnam was everywhere. The draft affected every family, every school, every conversation,” she said. “I joined the Red Cross out of curiosity, a desire for travel and adventure, and a need to understand more about what was happening.”

More than five decades after venturing through the jungles of Southeast Asia, Carmichael reprised her American Red Cross volunteer role. This time, it was to help give troops deployed to NATO-ally Poland a sense of normalcy while deployed far from home.

Now 76, Carmichael has spent the past six months supporting resiliency initiatives and morale programs in Powidz, a rural outpost about an hour and 20 minutes’ drive from U.S. Army Garrison Poland headquarters in Poznan.

She completed that tour last week. In Powidz, Carmichael organized therapeutic activities like crochet, art, painting, music lessons, guitar, piano and origami.

U.S. soldiers attend a farewell for American Red Cross volunteer Dorner Carmichael in Powidz, Poland. After volunteering more than five decades ago during the Vietnam War, Carmichael signed up for another stint in a Red Cross program that supports overseas U.S. personnel. (Dorner Carmichael)

While the environment is vastly different from the one she experienced in Vietnam, Carmichael noted the underlying similarity.

“The purpose is still being there for service members, offering comfort and reminding them they’re not alone,” she said.

The nickname “Donut Dolly” traces its roots to World War II, when Red Cross Clubmobiles brought refreshments to service members across the globe.

While Vietnam-era volunteers rarely served actual donuts, they filled a similar role of offering connection, entertainment and respite to troops.

After college, Carmichael left her Georgia hometown to join what is officially called the American Red Cross Supplemental Recreation Overseas Program

During the war, volunteers often traveled by helicopter to remote firebases to provide morale-boosting activities, games and conversation for service members in combat zones.

Those informal interactions often turned into deeply personal conversations.

“Sometimes they would catch you alone and want to talk,” Carmichael said. “They wanted to confess things they had done or seen, things that shocked them, and they wanted to talk to someone from home.”

Carmichael had no formal training for those moments, relying instead on empathy and reassurance.

Dorner Carmichael, second from right, celebrates the holidays with deployed soldiers in Powidz, Poland. Carmichael organized therapeutic activities meant to help service members relax and decompress during deployment. (Dorner Carmichael)

Deployed soldiers open care packages donated to the American Red Cross in Powidz, Poland. In addition to emergency messaging, the Red Cross provides respite and resiliency programming for deployed service members around the world. (Dorner Carmichael)

“What I told them was the only thing I knew to say: that they were in a war and that this was not who they were,” she said. “I told them that when they got home, they would go back to being who they were.”

After her own return home, Carmichael pursued a career as a physician assistant, a path influenced by the medical personnel she worked alongside in Vietnam.

“Being surrounded by other women who wanted to follow their passions was freeing,” she said. “It opened my eyes to what my life could be.”

Her recent stint in Poland created a bookend to her decades of service. She was driven by a desire to share the sense of perspective she had gained in the years since her Vietnam tour.

“I have a lifetime of experience,” she said. “I’ve raised children. I’ve taken care of my parents. I know more than I did when I was 20, and I wanted to do a better job and to be better than I was back then.”

For service members rotating through Poland, many experiencing their first overseas assignment or extended time away from family, Carmichael’s presence offered stability amid the constant operational tempo.

The activities she led were designed to help the military personnel there relax and decompress, said Michael Wolfe, deputy director of contingency operations with the American Red Cross Service to the Armed Forces

“Dorner represents people who live a life dedicated to service,” Wolfe said. “She found a way to serve when she was young, and she found a way to serve again decades later. That’s a powerful example for soldiers, Red Crossers and the public alike.”

Her presence bridged generations and reminded those stationed in Poland that the need for compassion and connection remains constant regardless of time and place.

Dorner Carmichael, 20, is shown in this 1970 photo serving with the American Red Cross Supplemental Recreation Overseas Program, whose volunteers were dubbed “Donut Dollies.” Five decades after her one-year tour during the Vietnam War, Carmichael volunteered again for the program and did a six-month tour in Powidz, Poland. (Dorner Carmichael)

“For many younger service members, it was eye-opening to see both the differences and the similarities between how the mission was carried out then and how it’s carried out today,” Wolfe said.

As her time in Poland comes to a close, Carmichael leaves behind more than programs and events. She leaves a legacy rooted in listening, empathy and service.

“I’ve kind of become the grandmother here,” she said. “I don’t have grandchildren of my own, but these young service members come in and just want someone to listen. Sometimes there isn’t a war around them, but there’s a war inside them.”

Although Carmichael has no intentions of extending her tour, she’s not sure yet what her next step will be. She declared herself “not very good at retirement” because she needs “something to do.”

“I’m going to go home, and a friend is loaning me his river cabin,” she said. “I’m going to sit at the river cabin for a couple of weeks and just plan.”

But as she prepares to start looking ahead, she took the opportunity to look back on her generation-spanning guidance.

Reflecting on her Red Cross volunteerism with the military abroad, Carmichael emphasized the lasting impression it formed.

As she put it, “there’s something about the military culture and how people look out for each other that has always stayed with me.”