A concert in Vietnam 1968. Art inspired by Gil Elvgren

Image is perfect, direct contrast to the story, so sad.

Thanks for sharing the story. The image looks awesome! The dresses are beautiful! It is very sad that she died.

I miss the days when ladies looked like this.

Such a sad story, Melanie. Thanks for sharing it!😭

It was July 5, 1968, their truck left Saigon for Vung Tau near the end of the day and were halfway to their destination when they were ambushed from the side of the road by VC sympathizers. The attack caused the truck to run off the road and turn over in a ditch. The drummer and keyboard player Phil Willis + Kurt Pill, both only 17 years old, were killed, and the bassist and vocalist Jack Bone + Paula “Brandi Perry,” Levine were wounded.

Brandi Perry and the Bubble Machine.

She and her bandmates, none of them older than 20, traveled overseas to entertain the troops in Vietnam. They were there for less than a month when their vehicle was attacked.

Born Catherine Anne Warnes in Arncliffe, an outer suburb of Sydney, she soon became Cathy Wayne. She made records and recorded advertising jingles. She toured around Australia with the Bandstand Family, and though she was under the legal age to enter the joints, performed in nightclubs.

SWEETHEARTS ON PARADE arrived at the United States Marine Corps’ 1st Reconnaissance Battalion base, four miles southeast of Da Nang, on July 20. That evening, they performed at a club for non-commissioned officers. This meant that the other enlisted men on the base — the grunts, the infantrymen — were not allowed to be among the 75 higher-ranked soldiers and staff members enchanted by the charms of sweetheart Cathy Wayne and the go-go girls.