The True Story of an Army Nurse in Vietnam
Published in 1983
Author: Lynda Van Devanter
with Christopher Morgan
Graphic horror: were words numbers to be added, that might total the sum of them. If it were possible to actually do so. Her wartime experiences as a young and naive nurse in Vietnam full of hope and compassion, who was not long out of nursing school, came vividly alive in gory detail. The book is an odyssey of a girl growing up, gallow's humor, suffering and healing, despair and redemption.
So too for the narratives that described her mental anguish and emotional suffering of the tortured existence she and so many others laboriously endured while giving the best of themselves to patch and help heal the broken bodies, minds, hearts, and spirits - including their own -of the grievously injured and sick under terrible conditions. They even persevered many times while under attack.
The PTSD she and others experienced from the uncaring hands of fate slowly built as she described PTSD's inextricable escalation. She then gave an account of what her life became during its harsh control, and the self medication by consuming copious amounts of alcohol, smoking grass, and failed relationships. And finally, she laid out the long and anguished journey back to a plateau of normalization by many hours of therapy, working with other veterans, a trip back to Vietnam, and help from friends.
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