February 12, 2020
Hello ,
The cover of my new book was revealed to the public Wednesday!
I'm absolutely thrilled to see it out in the world! And I want to thank you for your support. I really could not write books without people like you.
Maybe a family member or friend enjoys reading about kick-ass women, or you know a teacher or librarian who could put the book in the hands of teenagers.
Some Vietnam veterans enjoy reading about the war. Others can't bare the memories, but they have children and grandchildren who could gain greater understanding of the conflict that so bitterly divided America in the late 1960s.
What appeals most to me about Catherine's story is her determination to succeed in the male-dominated sphere of combat journalism, and her courage in risking her life to show the world something she thought was crucial, a close-up view of individual faces, people caught in brutal circumstances beyond their control.
This may be my best book yet. You, forwarding this one email will make a difference in its success. Every eye on the cover matters. Marketers say readers must see a book five times before it registers and sticks in their memory. I'm really grateful for your help in telling people about it.
Plenty of Heroines in Vietnam
Catherine Leroy spent most of her time in Vietnam in the field with U.S. troops. She rarely saw American women, even female journalists who were there at the same time.
But there were many US women, military and civilian in Vietnam! More than 6,000 military nurses, most of them female, served during the war. Eight women died.
I first learned of former army nurse Diane Carlson Evans when she wrote the forward for my book Pure Grit. She was instrumental the fight to get a Vietnam Veteran's Memorial constructed in Washington DC.
Diane had been born and raised on a dairy farm in rural Minnesota and moved to the city to attend nursing school in Minneapolis, after which she joined the Army Nurse Corps.
Diane arrived in Vietnam in 1968, when she was twenty-two. The blast of heat and the smell of jet fuel hit me first, then the sight of GIs with MI6s and bandoliers of ammunition slung across their strapping chests.
Diane knew that her parents would be watching the war unfold on the nightly news. The saw the body bags, helicopters crashing into the jungle, napalm burning villages and civilians running from the flames.
Photo below shows Diane at the 36th Evacuation Hospital in Vung Tau, South Vietnam.
But what they did not see were the nurses in helmets and flak jackets running to the hospitals and treating the men whose torsos and limbs had been ripped open by high-velocity weapons.
They did not hear the sound of mortar thuds and rockets piercing our billets and hospital roofs and walls or see us throwing mattresses on top of the patients to protect them from shrapnel.
They did not see us hanging blood bags, suctioning tracheotomies, and frantically evacuating patients from the hospital to allow more room for mass casualties.
Army nurses, 93rd Evacuation Hospital, Long Binh, Vietnam, 1968.
Diane, shown below at work at the 36th Evac Hospital, had seen trauma close up as a nurse in Minnesota. But farm mishaps, auto accidents, drownings, and homicides, she says, could be understood and accounted for.
In Vietnam, I was overwhelmed by the hundreds of our young soldiers, Vietnamese and Montagnard civilians who had been blown apart by heinous weapons of war.
I hadn’t realized how much loving the soldiers would make me hate the war. I wanted to know what they were dying for.
Two decades after her year-long tour, Diane
founded the Vietnam Nurses Memorial Project, later expanded to include all American women of the Vietnam War. She had no idea it would take seven years of testimony before three federal commissions and two congressional bills to gain permission for a memorial to honor the women she had served with in Vietnam.
One man represents the kind of attitude Diane and her fellow veterans encountered. Carter Brown led the federal Commission on Fine Arts, which they hoped to get on their side. But when the group approached him for support, he demurred. Brown said if the committee considered installing a statue honoring women, "then they might find themselves having to consider doing one for the dogs who served."
After what these nurses accomplished in Vietnam, one misogynist bureaucrat and those of similar attitude would not stop them. After their steady efforts for nine years, this statue was dedicated, November 1993, on the Mall in Washington DC near the famous Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
The 15-foot bronze, designed by sculptor Glenna Goodacre, helps serve the mission of the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Project Foundation, including to promote healing of the 11,000 women, including nurses, other military women and civilians who served.
The sculpture also helps educate the public about women's roles in the conflict and helps facilitate research into the after affects of their wartime experiences.
Sources
https://vvmf.wordpress.com/2013/03/20/women-in-wartime-a-nurse-remembers/
https://www.startribune.com/women-in-wartime/130437313/
Besides Diane Carlson Evans, at least fourteen other nurses from Minnesota had tours in Vietnam "with little public notice" at the time.
To remedy that, the state historical society has published a book telling their stories. Sisterhood of War: Minnesota Women in Vietnam, by Kim Heikkila, includes frank first hand accounts from these brave and compassionate women.
I so appreciate your kind attention, and would be extremely grateful if you would please pass along this email to a friend.
Read a great book? Have a burning question? Let me know. If you know someone who might enjoy my newsletter or books, please forward this e-mail. I will never spam you or sell your email address, you can unsubscribe anytime at the link
below.
To find out more about my books, how I help students, teachers, librarians and writers visit my website at www.MaryCronkFarrell.com.
Contact me at MaryCronkFarrell@gmail.com. Click here to subscribe to this newsletter.
|
|
|
