Maj Corkey Addcox, USAF NC Ret. Oral History Part 1

title:

Maj Corkey Addcox, USAF NC Ret. Oral History Part 1

creator:

Addcox, Corkey Marie (Junkim) (1945 April 24 - )

subject:

Air Force | Air Force Nurse Corps

description:

Part 1 of 2. Corkey Addcox (formerly Junkim) was born on April 24, 1945 in Seattle, Washington. She was raised Catholic and attended Catholic schools throughout her childhood. One week after graduating from high school, she joined the Air Force on June 25, 1963. She attended basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, where she enjoyed being separate from the men in a female environment. After basic training, Addcox transferred to the hospital at March Air Force Base outside of Los Angeles, California. She worked in the OB-GYN department before being deployed as a medic to Vietnam. She worked as a surgical assistant in the hospital at Phù Cát Air Base in central Vietnam, where she was the only enlisted woman upon arrival. She rarely left the hospital block because it was so close to the front lines. She left Vietnam (dates unclear) and returned to March Air Force Base, retiring in 1967 to attend nursing school at Shoreline Community College in Seattle, Washington on GI Bill benefits. In 1976, she re-enlisted and went to flight school in San Antonio. She became a flight nurse, and then worked at an air staging facility at McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma, Washington and Vacaville Prison at Travis Air Force Base in Northern California. In 1991, she was deployed with 4 days-notice during Desert Storm, and went to Saudi Arabia. She served at a makeshift hospital in Riyadh from January to March of 1991, and then volunteered to stay longer. Most of the other nurses were married with kids, so she felt volunteering as the right thing to do, so she served several months after the end of the war in Dhahran. In this interview, she discusses her time in the service, her life before the military and during her break from the service, her Catholic faith and upbringing, her experiences and feelings as a woman and as a soldier during her deployment to Vietnam and Desert Storm, and the military's unpreparedness to handle women. She also briefly mentions pregnancy in the military, difficulty obtaining feminine hygiene products, her encounters with Sirhan Sirhan and Charles Manson, and Gulf War Syndrome. The highest rank Addcox reached when she retired was Major. For her service, she had been awarded the Meritorious Service Medal with an oak leaf cluster, Air Force Commendation Medal with an oak leaf cluster, Air Force Achievement Medal, Joint Service Achievement Medal, Joint Meritorious Unit Award, Air Force Outstanding Unit Award with 3 oak leaf clusters, National Defense Service Medal with device, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal with an oak leaf cluster, Vietnam Service Medal, Armed Forces Service Medal, Global Wat on Terrorism Service Medal, Air Force Longevity Service Award with 2 bronze stars, and Air Force Training Ribbon. A transcript of this interview is available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Scott, Kate M.

date:

2006-04-26

type:

Audio

format:

Cassette

identifier:

009.01; 2006.009

source:

CLIR - Recordings at Risk

language:

English

relation:

393179

coverage:

Vietnam War (1964-1975) | Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm—1990-1991 | 1963-67, 1976-95

rights:

Unrestricted