The REAL Women: Veterans of Vietnam

Speaker: Nancy Lynch

Suitable for Schools · Grades 9–12

Inspired by Kristin Hannah’s best seller, The Women, a fictional account of Army nurse Frankie McGrath’s experiences in war-torn Vietnam, journalist Nancy E. Lynch reads and discusses actual correspondence she received from REAL Delaware women in Vietnam. Delaware military nurses wrote to Ms. Lynch’s award-winning newspaper column, Nancy’s Vietnam Mailbag, a popular read from 1968 to 1972 in The Morning News, then a statewide paper. And a special civilian “Donut Dolly” visited her newspaper office in 1970 to share her experiences.

Ms. Lynch included these women’s letters, among the nearly 900 she received from Delaware troops in Vietnam, in her acclaimed book, Vietnam Mailbag, Voices From the War: 1968-1972. She has since gifted these war letters to Delaware Public Archives for their preservation.