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War letters, weapons, patches,
pins and pictures are front and center among the military
memorabilia showcased in Vietnam Mailbag: The Exhibit now through
Jan. 16, 2010 at the Delaware History Museum, 504 Market St.,
Wilmington.
This dynamic exhibit debuted at the Delaware Public Archives in
Dover on Veterans Day 2008 with the release of the award-winning
book, Vietnam Mailbag, Voices From the War: 1968-1972 by Nancy E.
Lynch was on view for six months before moving to the Rehoboth Beach
Museum for the summer. An important social history, the book is
based on Nancy's popular News Journal column, Nancy's Vietnam
Mailbag, which received nearly 1,000 war letters and hundreds of
pictures from our servicemen on the front lines.
For more information about the exhibit, call the Delaware History
Museum at 302-655-7161 or visit
www.dehistory.org. |
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Thanks to so many who
support our cause, we've had a fantastic
first year with Vietnam Mailbag, Voices From
the War: 1968-1972 but we're just getting
underway with our mission to increase
awareness of the service and the sacrifices
of our Vietnam veterans. Invitations
continue to roll in for presentations on the
book, including one to be the keynote
speaker at the Americal Division Veterans
Association annual reunion in Chicago in
October 2010 which we promptly accepted. Our
exhibit is booked for the next year and
we're delighted to have met so many Vietnam
veterans along the way. Check our events
calendar and join us!
Vietnam Mailbag, Voices From
the War: 1968-1972 won the 2009 Independent
Publisher Book Awards gold medal for best
regional non-fiction. Ours is the top
non-fiction book in the Mid-Atlantic region
which covers Delaware, Pennsylvania, New
Jersey, Maryland, Washington, D.C., Virginia
and West Virginia.
The IPPY Awards, established in 1996, are
intended to bring increased recognition to
the thousands of exemplary independent,
university and self-published titles
annually. This year's competition, with 65
national and 10 regional fiction and
non-fiction categories, received a total of
4,090 entries from the U.S., Canada, and 12
foreign countries. Judging was based on
content, originality, design and production
quality, with emphasis on innovation and
social relevance. View complete results at
www.independentpublisher.com. |
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Calling all veterans who wrote to Nancy's
Vietnam Mailbag from 1968-1972. We want you
to join us at any or all venues listed on
our calendar and be recognized for your
service. We're scheduling many events
throughout Delaware in 2009 and want to
honor you! |
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From the early 1960s through March 1973
hundreds of thousands of men and women served in
Vietnam, in an undeclared and highly controversial war.
During the peak years of that conflict, from May 1968
through December 1972, a young reporter, Nancy E. Lynch,
relayed the hopes and fears, the joy and tears of
hundreds of soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines from
Delaware through the Vietnam Mailbag column she wrote in
the Wilmington Morning News.
Nancy kept all those letters, and the pictures sent with
many of them, neatly folded in their original envelopes.
Now, 40 years after she began writing her column, Nancy
has written Vietnam Mailbag: Voices From the War,
1968-1972, giving a new generation a fresh look at
the first-person accounts of troops in the combat zone.
The full-color, 460-page book, featuring many compelling
photographs taken by the servicemen themselves, captures
the hopes, fears, joy and tears of all who served in
Vietnam, and a series of contemporary interviews with
veterans describes how the war shaped their lives. The
correspondence that forms the nucleus of this book is
the largest body of primary source materials known to
exist in this era.
“Delawareans indeed spoke for all Americans through their
letters and gave those of us at home an unprecedented
window on the war,” Nancy says.
Nancy and some of the veterans who wrote to her 40 years
ago are sharing their experiences at a series of free
programs at public libraries and other venues. Copies of the book will be available for
purchase. Here’s where you can see
Nancy.
You can also meet Nancy and purchase your copy of
Vietnam Mailbag: Voices From the War, 1968-1972 at one
of these book-signings.
Click
here for the schedule.
Vietnam Mailbag: Voices From the War, 1968-1972 can also
be ordered online.
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