The REAL Women of Vietnam by Nancy Lynch

THE REAL WOMEN, VETERANS OF VIETNAM PRESS RELEASE Inspired by best-selling author Kristin Hannah's hit historical novel, The Women, award-winning journalist Nancy E. Lynch presents The REAL Women, Veterans of Vietnam on Oct. 22 at 4 p.m. at the Lima Public Library. Lynch's program is sponsored by the Lima Public Library at 1872 Genesee St., Lima, NY. She will read selected war letters, all addressed to her, from REAL nurses and a REAL Donut Dolly on the frontlines. All correspondence-nearly 1,000 letters and hundreds of pictures-was published in her award-winning News Journal column, Nancy's Vietnam Mailbag, from 1968 to 1972 in Wilmington, DE. Contrary to public perception, about 10,000 REAL military women served in Vietnam. Not all were nurses. Barred from combat, they also worked in communications, intelligence, and administrative jobs. Hundreds of REAL civilian women also volunteered for duty in Vietnam and served as Donut Dollies with the American Red Cross, and in various positions with the Army Special Services, USO, and as news correspondents. Women can be heroes was a revelation to Hannah's fictional nurse, Frankie McGrath, but a non-negotiable reality for the REAL women who served, and died, in Vietnam. Lynch promised in her final News Journal column in December 1972 to publish all the war correspondence she'd received during those five years in a book to honor Vietnam veterans throughout the country. She fulfilled her mission on Veterans Day 2008 with the release of her acclaimed Vietnam Mailbag, Voices From the War: 1968-1972, a gold medal winner from Independent Publisher Book Awards. __________ Since 2009, Lynch, whose maternal grandparents lived on Canandaigua Lake where she always summered, has saluted Vietnam veterans in the Finger Lakes each May and October to increase awareness of their service and many sacrifices. She has written seven books, all non-fiction, and lives in Bethel, DE.