Lynda Van Devanter, whose pained account of her life as an Army nurse in Vietnam focused attention on the burdens of American servicewomen in the war, died Nov. 15 at her home in Herndon, Va. She was 55.
At the Vietnam Veterans of America, where Ms. Van Devanter founded and administered a project dealing with the concerns and complaints of the 7,465 women who served in Vietnam, a spokesman said she had been ill with a vascular disease that she attributed to wartime exposure to chemical agents.
“She had an Agent Orange claim that we will continue to pursue for her daughter, Molly,” said the spokesman, Rick Weidman.
Ms. Van Devanter’s memoir, “Home Before Morning,” helped inspire the television series “China Beach.” In it, she wrote of her transformation in 1969 from “an all-American girl” and supporter of the war into an overworked, confused nurse at the 71st Evacuation Hospital in Pleiku, where the gore and horrors of war were constantly before her.
She wrote of surgeons’ sometimes working drunk or high; of overburdened nurses and medics who sought release in liquor, marijuana and casual relationships; of the way her early pro-war enthusiasm waned amid the blood and casualties.
After her tour of duty in Vietnam, Ms. Van Devanter returned to the United States to continue her service, only to discover another kind of pain.
“When I returned to my country, I began to learn a very bitter lesson. In the eyes of most Americans, the military services had no more heroes, merely baby-killers, misfits and fools.”
After her discharge she worked as a nurse in several civilian hospitals but failed to free herself of the traumas inflicted by Vietnam.
She drank heavily, she said, and cried continually.
Then one night in 1979 on Long Island, she was awakened by a siren from a nearby volunteer firehouse. Ms. Van Devanter found herself crawling out of the house.
That led her to enlist in a counseling program known as “walking through Vietnam,” which spurred her to write her memoir and to focus attention on female veterans.
Ms. Van Devanter also established the Women’s Project at the Vietnam Veterans of America.
