Mary "Larry Young Hines (b. 1946), of Lexington, North Carolina, served as a recreation aide in Vietnam with the Supplemental Recreation Activities Overseas (SRAO) American Red Cross program from 1968-1969. Mary "Larry" Young Hines was born 21 April 1946 in Lexington, North Carolina. She attended Robbins Elementary School, graduated from Lexington Senior High School in 1964 as part of the last class of segregated students, and began attending the University of Georgia in Athens in September of that year. During college, Hines was a member of a sorority, and served as a fraternity sweetheart for the Sigma Nu fraternity. She graduated in June 1968 with a degree in liberal arts. With an interest in learning more about the and the United States' involvement in the Vietnam and Southeast Asia, Hines interviewed with the American Red Cross in spring 1968 and then signed a yearlong contract with the Supplemental Recreational Activities Overseas program (SRAO). She traveled to the American Red Cross (ARC) Headquarters in Washington D.C. in July 1968 for training in American Red Cross history and the recreational programs they would present to the soldiers. After training, Hines traveled to the ARC Headquarters in Tan Son Nhut, Vietnam, for orientation, and then was sent to her first ARC unit in Dong Ba Thin. Her duties included going on runs to various firebases, where she and other ARC workers provided entertainment such as games and puzzles. Hines also helped run a recreation center, visited soldiers in hospitals, and assisted with memorial services. After five months, Hines relocated to the ARC unit at Cam Ranh Air Base in Cam Ranh Bay where she, again, helped run the recreation center, went on firebase runs, and performed voluntary hospital visits. She also traveled to Tuy Hóa Air Base with the SRAO program, and assisted a U.S. Navy-run Medical Civic Action Program (MEDCAP) at a local orphanage. Hines' third and final ARC unit was with the Americal division, or U.S. Army's 23rd Infantry Division, at Chu Lai, where she mainly performed forward runs to various brigades. By this time she has been promoted to program director, and her duties now included making sure the ARC staff had transportation to and from the military units, updating the programs they presented, and keeping records on the number of visits they made, how many troops they saw, and the amount of miles they traveled. In August 1969, Hines returned to the United States. That same month she volunteered with the ARC to assist with Hurricane Camille relief in the Gulf of Mexico. In February 1970, Hines began a graduate program at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, where she eventually met her future husband, Tom. They married 12 February 1972. For many years, Hines was a "link" in "Lessons of Vietnam" at Millbrook High School in Raleigh, N.C., where she would be paired with students and teach them about Vietnam. She has also volunteered with the United Service Organization (USO).
