The Women by Kristin Hannah might be titled The Women Who Served in Vietnam. If you recall, the Vietnam War was a difficult time for the United States, especially for the returning veterans. This book mixes Vietnam-era music, clothes, and protests in the United States with the military life in Vietnam. April 30, 2025, is the golden anniversary of the end of that war and now is a good time to revisit that period. I was not in the military, but I vividly recall the time. I highly recommend this review of the war.
The book follows Frankie McGrath, a 20-year-old woman from a well-to-do, conservative family on Coronado Island in San Diego, as she enlists as an Army nurse and ships out to Vietnam (1966). The book's first half is about her two tours in-country (The 36th Evacuation Hospital on the coast outside of Saigon and the 71st Mobile Army Surgical Hospital [MASH] in the jungle near the Cambodian border). The second half follows Frankie’s difficulties returning with PTSD and a common misconception that there “were no women in Vietnam.”
The author presents a balanced view of the period.
The book includes “sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll,” along for war injuries, deaths, suicide, and PSTD. Don’t expect a happy ending or easy answers.
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