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.

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.

 


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!

   

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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