Lynda Van Devanter (1947–2002)

Lynda Van Devanter wrote Home before Morning, which was published approximately 13 years after she returned home from her war service, as a form of therapy. Lynda vividly shows the effects of the war on her. She was a very optimistic person prior to serving; the beginning of the book about her nurse's training and traveling before going to Vietnam contains a lot of humor. The major part of the book describes in detail the horror of working as a nurse in Vietnam; how the Army medical center in which she served was inundated with service men (and some Vietnamese civilians including children) with severe injuries. The medical staff had to decide whom they could save; many of the people were seen as numbers instead of as human beings. Lynda had difficulty adjusting after returning home from her year in Vietnam; this adjustment is also described. Approximately ten years after returning, Lynda became involved in the Vietnam Veterans of America Women's Project, and found meaning in her life again.
This book was published eight years before Visions of War, Dreams of Peace, a volume of poetry about the Vietnam War by women who had been there, which Lynda edited.… (meer)