Most people know about Bob Hope's trips to Vietnam. But meeting registered nurse and entertainer Martha Raye – better known to the troops as Colonel Maggie – was the highlight event on my tour of duty.

I met Raye in Phu Loi, South Vietnam, in the early part of 1967. She came to the small airfield base camp of my unit, the 128th Assault Helicopter Company. She just arrived and began casually talking to us guys. We, of course, knew of Raye from all her old movies. We'd never had any big-named entertainers come through our camp, so her visit was something very special to all of us.

At that time, Raye's reputation was rapidly growing among veterans. We heard many stories about her from the Special Forces Units out in the boondocks. She had been traveling to Vietnam (I am told that she paid her own way) and spent weeks, sometimes up to six months, at a time in country. Raye kept up this pace for more than nine years during the Vietnam War. She was not there just to entertain the troops, but also engaged in nursing work wherever it was needed. She spent most of her time out in the field or in the hospitals; she went to some of the most dangerous and remote locations in 'Nam.

But Raye was not looking for any publicity or photo opportunities; she went where she knew the need was the greatest. She visited base camps that no other entertainers dared to go to. She walked through the mud and rain and took the heat and mosquitoes all in stride, and she spent time at places that did not have hot showers, let alone places for women to use a restroom. She had to endure the same hardships that the GIs did. Her job was to keep our spirits up and make us feel loved and appreciated. She didn't come to 'Nam for a visit; she came to work. That, for Raye, meant sometimes using her nursing skills to help with patients.

There were many stories going around about all the battles she had been in while in country. She did not try to shelter herself from harm's way, and she refused over and over again to allow anyone to risk his life to protect her or to evacuate her to a safer place if she happened to be subjected to any kind of enemy attack.

There is one story that made the rounds with the Special Forces units, but, somehow, never (that I can recall) made it into the newspapers or on the evening news.

The story relates how Colonel Maggie went to visit a very small Special Forces camp. (It could have been at Soc Trang around the early part of 1967.) I was told that she and a clarinet player had gone to entertain, but, while they were there, the North Vietnamese attacked the camp. Mortar rounds and small arms fire were incoming. It appeared that there was a full-scale assault on the base camp: it was uncertain if the camp would be able to hold off the assault. The camp medic was hit, and so, with her being a nurse, Colonel Maggie took over and began to assist with the treatment of the wounded, who kept pouring into the aid station.

For several hours, the camp was in great danger of being overrun. The higher-ups in the military were trying to dispatch helicopters to the camp, but a combination of very bad weather and heavy fighting made that task a very dangerous mission. All this time, Raye was in t