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An intimate portrait of tragedy, hope and humour in a war zone. An intimate portrait of tragedy, hope and humour in a war zone. Working as a journalist at the Adelaide Advertiser in 1966, Jean Debelle yearned to be involved in the biggest story of the decade - the Vietnam War. But only male journalists in Australia were being sent to cover the escalating conflict. Instead, she volunteered to work in Vietnam for the Red Cross to tend to the non-medical welfare of the sick and wounded ANZAC forces. Jean had planned to report on the war in spare moments - but there were none. For one year she lived in the spotlight- a young Australian woman among 5,000 men. This intimate personal account is told from the rare and compassionate perspective of a young woman living close to the battlefront. Jean tells of the resilience of the soldiers in the face of daily atrocities and of the international medical personnel fighting to save lives and to rebuild shattered bodies and minds. It is also the story of the Vietnamese, struggling to maintain not just their traditions but their very lives in the face of brutal hardship. With infectious humour, Jean tells of striving to be like a sister to the men when sex was in the very air they breathed. But she experienced stark terror when she faced a crazed gunman, had a close call in a minefield and was caught in the midst of a Vietnamese skirmish. Jean also offers an unvarnished look at the Australians' worst battle in Vietnam, Long Tan, and their worst landmine disaster. With unblinking candour, she writes of the harsh realisation that after nine months in Vietnam she had grown cold to the unrelenting horror of war. From diaries, letters and Red Cross reports, Jean Debelle Lamensdorf has researched and written a story not only of tragedy but also of hope and humour. It is a compelling adventure story - and one of love.

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9781740513937

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In 1966 Jean Debelle was 26 and working as a newspaper journalist for the Adelaide Advertiser when she volunteered to work for the Red Cross in the Vietnam War as a welfare worker with the troops. Jean spent a year caring for wounded ANZAC troops (from June 1966 until June 1967) in Vung Tau, Vietnam. Jean fulfilled another year for the Red Cross in Butterworth, Malaysia, and then returned home to Australia to work as a journalist for the Sydney Morning Herald, the Women's Weekly, Editor of the now defunct Woman's World, and co-Editor of Woman's Day with Jerry Lacey, until Fairfax sent her to New York in 1980. She retired in 1995 after eleven years as an executive at Ziff-Davis Publishing in New York where she maintained international editions of PC Magazine and other computer titles. Jean married Jack Lamensdorf in the US and now lives in Pennsylvania. She occasionally speaks to local groups (sometimes as many as 300 people at a time) about Australia and Vietnam.

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