Waiting Wives: The Story of Schilling Manor, Home Front to the Vietnam War [Paperback]

In 1964, as the first B-52s took flight in what would become America's longest combat mission, an old Air Force base on the plains of Kansas became Schilling Manor -- the only base ever to be set aside for the wives and children of soldiers assigned to Vietnam. Author Donna Moreau was the daughter of one such waiting wife, and here she writes of growing up at a time whenThe Flintstoneswere interrupted with news of firefights, fraggings, and protests, when the evening news announced death tolls along with the weather forecasts. The women and children of Schilling Manor fought on the emotional front of the war. It was not a front composed of battle plans and bullets. Their enemies were fear, loneliness, lack of information, and the slow tick of time.
Waiting Wives: The Story of Schilling Manor, Home Front to the Vietnam Wartells the story of the last generation of hat-and-glove military wives called upon by their country to pack without question, to follow without comment, and to wait quietly with a smile. A heartfelt book that focuses on this other, hidden side of war,Waiting Wivesis a narrative investigation of an extraordinary group of women. A compelling memoir and domestic drama,Waiting Wivesis also the story of a country in the midst of change, of a country at war with a war.Donna Moreauwas born in Fort Meade, Maryland, and raised on Army posts throughout the world. She now lives and writes in Leominster, Massachusetts.Waiting Wivesis her first book. Donna Moreau can be contacted at waitingwives.com or at donamore@aol.com.Questions and Topics for Discussion
1. Along with her family's story, why do you suppose -- out of the thousands of women who called Schilling Manor home -- Donna Moreau chose to tell Lorrayne's and Bonnie's stories? How does each of these three accounts contribute something different to the narrative?
2. In the Preface, the author says that for the women she interviewed, Schilling la