Lynda is pictured second from right, lower photos.
Over the next three days Lynda snatched bits of sleep whenever she could. She rarely knew if it was day or night. But when the mass-cal was over, Carl gave her the greatest compliment she could have wished for: "You're a good help, Lynda."
As they walked to the hooches, Lynda could hear the sound of guns and helicopters in the distance. She wondered how long it would be until the wounded of that battle would be brought to the 71st. The thought made her shudder.
Both too tired to sleep, Lynda and Carl talked for a long time, both "trying to sound philosophical about...death." Lynda finally broke down, crying and shaking. Carl tried to comfort her and wound up crying too.
"Why do they have to die, Carl?" Lynda asked.
"Who knows?" he replied.
"I don't understand," she said.
"Nobody does," he said.
From "Lynda Van Devanter: 'Why Do They Have to Die?'" from Courageous Women of the Vietnam War.
Quotes from Home Before Morning: The Story of an Army Nurse in Vietnam included with permission of the Buckley family.
Dana Delaney as Colleen McMurphy of the "China Beach" series,
which was loosely based on Lynda van Devanter's memoir.
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