Beach party maven Chris Noel starred in several beach party movies in the ’60s along with her first film playing Steve McQueen’s girlfriend in Soldier in the Rain. But she is best known for her work for Armed Forces Radio and Television Service during the Vietnam War. One of the most popular shows on radio was “A Date with Chris.” She was a favorite with veterans and of course, her pin-up pictures were also.
So how did Chris Noel become to be known as the Voice of Vietnam? In 1965 she had the opportunity to visit some VA hospitals. Among soldiers, with double and triple amputees, the first person she saw said something nasty to her and was not very happy. Sandy Koufax was also there and she watched him throw a baseball at a soldier with one arm, he caught it. This started everyone to laugh and that is when it hit her. She said “Wow, I have to find a way to learn to make them happy. Those moments changed my life and made me realize that I had to make a difference.”
(Photo AFRTS archive)
And a difference she did make. With some connections with Armed Forces Radio, she was hired for a radio show and eventually started doing her own. Noel made several visits to the troops despite having her helicopter shot down twice (that was according to Wikipedia). But in an interview with historynet.com, she talked about coming under fire and said that she remembered only one very serious time leaving a mountaintop. Lots of mortars and ground fire, but maybe it happened twice.
The Viet Cong hung a $10,000 bounty on her but she didn’t think they’d really get her as she felt protected with the troops.
And it didn’t stop there. In 1993 she opened a shelter for veterans in Florida.
There is so much more to her story.
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