IT WAS THRILLING TO WRITE a book that put me in direct contact with so many history makers. My gratitude to the following women for our clarifying and rewarding communications: Geneviève de Galard de Heaulme, Le Ly Hayslip, LCDR (Ret.) Bobbi Hovis, Jurate Kazickas, Anne Koch Voigt, Xuan Phuong, Kay Wilhelmy Bauer, and Tracy Wood. Many thanks to the Buckley family for providing the images of Lynda Van Devanter and to the Vietnam Women’s Museum in Hanoi for providing images of Dang Thuy Tram.
I was completely overwhelmed when Diane Carlson Evans agreed to write the foreword, and I get chills every time I read it. Thank you, ma’am, for your wartime service and all you’ve done for women veterans since.
The following people—all cognizant adults during the Vietnam War—were kind enough to offer me their valuable time, answering a multitude of questions and reading portions of the book: the brilliant and well-read Bob Blomquist, who reviewed the general introduction; Brian Flora, Vietnam veteran and retired diplomat, who read all the introductory materials; and Dr. Robert Messer, associate professor emeritus of 20th-century history at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who reviewed the entire manuscript and who, I’m very proud to say, pronounced it an A– before his corrections.
Chicago Review Press, thank you for your enthusiastic green light. Specific gratitude to: Lisa Reardon, for skillfully helping me launch the proposal; Lindsey Schauer and Ellen Hornor, for their brilliant editorial suggestions; and Sarah Olson, for her beautiful cover design.