They had their whole lives to look forward to – if only their husbands could survive Vietnam.

In the spring of 1970 – right after the Kent State National Guard shootings and President Nixon’s two-month incursion into Cambodia – four newly married young women come together at Ft. Knox, Kentucky, when their husbands go on active duty as officers in the U.S. Army.

Different as these four women are, they have one thing in common: Their overwhelming fear that, right after these nine weeks of training, their husbands could be shipped out to Vietnam – and they could become war widows.

Sharon is a Northern Jewish anti-war protester who fell in love with an ROTC cadet; Kim is a Southern Baptist whose husband is intensely jealous; Donna is a Puerto Rican who grew up in an enlisted man’s family; and Wendy is a Southern black whose parents have sheltered her from the brutal reality of racism in America.

Read MRS. LIEUTENANT to discover what happens as these women overcome their prejudices, reveal their darkest secrets, and are initiated into their new lives as army officers’ wives during the turbulent Vietnam War period.

“Mrs. Lieutenant was a wonderful way for me to connect with what my daughter’s going through – congratulations on capturing the intensity of that experience with such great characters!”

— Bob Niemack, father of a daughter married to a brigade surgeon serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, April 2010

“I usually read action/adventure books that are typically called a man’s genre. So when I picked up Mrs. Lieutenant, it was a change of pace for me. I am a history buff, and I do enjoy reading books (fiction or non-fiction) set during historical times. Mrs. Lieutenant looks at the 1970′s, specifically events surrounding the Vietnam War, from a perspective that I have never considered before: Through the eyes of military officers’ wives.

“The author not only allows the reader to experience this historical event, but by the masterful telling of the story through the eyes of these women, she touches on societal realities that might make some people uncomfortable in reading (i.e., religion, racial issues, etc…) But in doing this, she creates a depth of character that really allows the reader to identify with, celebrate with, and cry with these women.

“You can’t read long into this book without pausing and contemplating what is going on in the lives of these characters. Often it’s wondering what it would be like to live in a culture where some of the things you are reading about really happens; at other times, you find yourself realizing that in many ways we have not changed a whole lot. But you do this, not out of an obligation to undergo literary interpretation per se, but because the book really does pull you into the story.

“When you are done reading the book, you realize that not only did you read a good story, but you read one that stays with you on so many levels. And when you learn that the author herself lived as an officer’s wife during this time period, it makes the unfolding story of these four women all the more intriguing.”

— Tony Eldridge, author of the novel THE SAMSON EFFECT

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