Lynda Van Devanter
Lynda Van Devanter was an American Army nurse and author, born on May 27, 1947, in Washington, D.C. She graduated from the Mercy Hospital School of Nursing in 1968 and served in the U.S. Army from 1968 to 1970, primarily stationed in Vietnam at the Seventy-First Evacuation Hospital during intense conflict. Her experiences in Vietnam significantly impacted her, leading to lifelong struggles with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). After her military service, Van Devanter dedicated herself to advocating for women veterans and improved medical benefits, founding the Women’s Project of the Vietnam Veterans of America. She gained recognition for her autobiography, *Home Before Morning: The Story of an Army Nurse in Vietnam*, published in 1983, which highlighted the challenges faced by women in military service and sparked discussions about drug and alcohol use among medical personnel in combat zones. Throughout her nursing career, she held various positions in hospitals and dialysis centers and was actively involved in professional organizations related to nephrology. Van Devanter's contributions to nursing and veteran advocacy have resonated in discussions about the experiences of women in the military.
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Subject Terms
Lynda Van Devanter
Author
- Born: May 27, 1947
- Birthplace: Washington, D.C.
- Died: November 15, 2002
- Place of death: Herndon, Virginia
Biography
Lynda Van Devanter was born in Washington, D.C., on May 27, 1947. Her father worked for the government and her mother was a homemaker. She graduated from the Mercy Hospital School of Nursing in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1968 and received a bachelor’s degree from Antioch University in Los Angeles in 1980.
Van Devanter served in the United States Army between 1968 and 1970, attaining the rank of first lieutenant. She was stationed in Vietnam at the Seventy-First Evacuation Hospital in Pleiku, near the Cambodian border, during a period of particularly heavy fighting. After a hellish year, she underwent a tremendous psychological change from a dedicated nursing novice to an experienced Army nurse. After completing her military service, Van Devanter was plagued by posttraumatic stress disorder for most of her life.
In an effort to help other women who were injured in the Vietnam War, Van Devanter established the Women’s Project of the Vietnam Veterans of America and advocated for improved medical benefits for women veterans. She was honored for her work by being named Woman of the Year by the American Association of Minority Veteran Program Administrators in 1982.
Van Devanter is best remembered for her controversial autobiography, Home Before Morning: The Story of an Army Nurse in Vietnam, published in 1983. She described her experiences as a military nurse serving in a combat zone, reporting that many doctors and nurses operated on wounded soldiers while under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Although she was criticized by many army nurses for her claims of drug abuse and alcoholism, many other nurses supported her. The book brought much attention to the plight of American women war veterans.
During her long nursing career, Van Devanter was a staff nurse and evening supervisor at Torrance Memorial Hospital in Torrance, California, a charge nurse at the Bio Medical South Bay Dialysis Center, and a hemodialysis nurse clinician. She also was a mobile acute nurse for Dialysis Operations, Inc. in Los Angeles and the program coordinator for a course on chronic renal disease at the University of California at Los Angeles. She belonged to and held leadership positions in the National Kidney Foundation Council of Nephrology Nurses and Technicians, the American Association of Patients on Hemodialysis and Transplantation, and the Southern California Association of Nephrology Personnel. In 1977, she was the nurse chairperson and program coordinator for the Eighteenth Annual Southern California Kidney Foundation Symposium; in 1978, she was a consulting member of the National Core Faculty of Operation Outreach. In addition, she was a technical advisor for several medical television programs, including the series China Beach.