Kissing Kevin

"War is hell for men. We've always known that. As you read this book, you will discover that war is hell for women too. Sara bravely walked into that hell and made a difference. Then she bravely wrote her deeply personal memoir. I applaud her raw honesty, her courage to relive the mud and blood of the Vietnam experience exposing the emotional price paid by her and her sister veterans while documenting the immense contribution and sacrifice of women in military uniform during the Vietnam War."-Diane Carlson Evans, Captain, Army Nurse Corps, Vietnam 1968-69. Author of Healing Wounds: A Vietnam War Combat Nurse's 10-Year Fight to Win Women a Place of Honor in Washington, D.C. and Founder, Vietnam Women's Memorial"In this compellingly readable narrative, Sara Berg describes improvising tools in a wartime field hospital to ease the pain of badly wounded American soldiers and helpless Vietnamese orphans. Her searing account would be almost too much to bear if it weren't for the emergence of an extraordinary counter-narrative: the constant struggle by Berg and some colleagues to hold onto compassion and love. She tears her heart out and shows it to you. These memories of war pulsate with the fierce glow of life itself."-Tom Kizzia, author of Pilgrim's Wilderness and Cold Mountain Path"Sara Berg's inspiring story, Kissing Kevin, shines a light in heart-wrenching detail on the arc of a young woman's life fresh from nursing school to a warzone in Vietnam. Her story takes us from northern California to the painful learning grounds of the 24th Evac Hospital in Long Binh, Vietnam, in 1970-1971. With clarity and urgency, Sara captures the experience of the kisses, touches, and losses of her time caring for her soldiers. She honors in every page the dignity and humanity of the young boys afflicted by the cruelty of an unpopular war... Sara Berg reveals to us her determination to help everyone from babies to families of the dying, to the young man asking for one last kiss. She knows the reality of war and its lingering damages..."-Diane Carpenter, author of In the Winter of the Orange Snow