What started out as reading for a book club, turned into a research project, that finally led to the recommendation of two books. I believe that when a book leads me to my first non-work-related research project in almost 40 years, it is a book that I must recommended to others.

I love historical fiction and have read hundreds of books in that genre. Many of those books focus on the role that women played in World War I and World War II. As soon as I started reading The Women I realized that I had never read a fiction or non-fiction book about the role women played in the Vietnam War. This realization made me sad because I was alive during this war, all be it a very young child when it ended, yet so little has been written about the women who volunteered for Vietnam. Additionally, it made me determined to learn more about the women who so valiantly served their country during this difficult time. To that end I found the book A Time Remembered: American Women in the Vietnam War by Olga Gruhzit-Hoyt.

I hope that this post and these book recommendations will spread the awareness about these American women who served their country during the Vietnam War.

Fiction Book Recommendation: The Women by Kristin Hannah

Frances “Frankie McGrath is the main character in this book, and like most girls who came of age during the 1960’s she was raised to believe that her main job was to find a suitable husband and have children. A chance conversation at her brothers going away party before he heads off to serve his country in Vietnam changes Frankie’s perspective on her life. She decides that she too can be a hero and serve her country, so she joins the Army Nurse Corp. Her family does not support her decision, and this will play a role in her life for decades.

Like so many other nurses, she soon finds herself in Vietnam unprepared for her new life. First, the women were sent over in uniforms that were not practical for the unbearable heat and work in a hospital setting. Can you imagine assisting in an operating room in a military dress uniform? Additionally, the training the nurses received prior to shipping out did not prepare them for what they would soon encounter at the field hospitals. Nurses often performed tasks that only doctors were allowed to do in hospitals at home.

Frankie finds herself overwhelmed by her living conditions, exhausted by extremely long shifts at the hospital, and the heartbreak and mental toll that comes from watching so many people die. It is her hooch mates Barb and Ethel that are her lifeline throughout her experience in Vietnam. They provide Frankie with the support and comfort that she needs to keep going through the daily insanity.

Like so many others who served in Vietnam, Frankie did not receive a warm welcome when returning home. Her transition back home was filled with nightmares and PTSD, and she could not find an organization that was aiding nurses who had served in Vietnam. In fact, she was repeatedly told there were no female veterans from the Vietnam War. It would once again be Barb and Ethel who would serve as her lifeline for the next decade of her life.

This is a book that you curl up with and do not want to put down until you have read the last page. I would suggest you have a box of tissues by your side because Frankie’s journey is filled with struggles, demons, addiction, and victories. Kristin Hannah has captured those raw emotions in every chapter of the book.

As I said earlier, the story that Kristin Hannah wrote about Frankie made me want to learn more about the women who so bravely served their country in the Vietnam War. So, the book recommendation below is for any of you who want to find out more about these unsung heroes.

Non-Fiction Book Recommendation: A Time Remembered-American Women in the Vietnam War by Olga Gruhzit-Hoyt

This book contains stories of women who served in the Vietnam War with each branch of the military as well as other organizations like the American Red Cross and USO. All of these women volunteered to serve in Vietnam. Each women’s experience during the war and after were varied, but what I found amazing was how much each woman had in common and the bonds they forged in such difficult times.

Here are just a few of the things that I learned from reading the stories of the women who valiantly served their country.

• The women often refer to their time in Vietnam as insanity.
• Many of the women continued to serve in the military after they returned from Vietnam. Several of them spent decades in the military retiring as officers.
• They received warm welcomes home from family, but not from the public. This meant that many of them surfed in silence from PTSD for decades.
• Over 10,000 women served in the Vietnam war with almost all of them serving as nurses.
• The Women’s Vietnam Memorial Project was a turning point for many women who had served in the Vietnam War. This project brought many of them together for the first time and provided a support system that they did not have when they originally came home. This link will take you to information on the memorial, videos about the service of women in the Vietnam War, a tribute to the eight women who died in Vietnam, and a very moving podcast VVMF Women in Vietnam.
• Update: Thank you to Tee It Up For Troops for sharing their link to information and videos on women who served in the Vietnam War.
  Tee It Up For Troops-Women In Vietnam
  
• Thank you to Kristin Hannah and Olga Gruhzit-Hoyt for opening my eyes to the stories of these remarkable women who all volunteered to serve in the Vietnam War whether as a nurse or Donut Dollies. They like all the men who served in the Vietnam war deserve to be recognized and celebrated.

I hope you will choose to read these books and visit the website to learn more about these extraordinary women and what they did to serve their country.