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

By Donna Moreau and Dashka Slater

Book Overview

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 when The Flintstones were 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 War tells 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 Wives is a narrative investigation of an extraordinary group of women. A compelling memoir and domestic drama, Waiting Wives is also the story of a country in the midst of change, of a country at war with a war.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 074347077X
• ISBN13: 9780743470773
• Release Date: May 2005
• Publisher: Atria Books
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.6" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Brings back memories

I was there '72-'73. What memories this brought back! I shed many tears reading this book. This was a good place to 'wait' and Ms Moreau told a great story of the women that lived there during that time.

From a Waiting Wife

What an AMAZING book, really. I couldnt put it down. These women are in a completely different era and yet I guess the emotions of waiting wives dont ever change. When I finished the book I wish there was more to read, I feel like I left friends behind in the pages of the book. Nowadays you dont tend to find that sense of community among the wives, if you do you are lucky, it made me long for that. The book gave me hope, it made me feel like everything is going to be okay...even if my story doesnt end the way that I hope it will.

An Excellent Choice

Just an excellent book all around. It is a book you can't put down. You get deeply involved in the characters and feel their joy and pain as you are reading. It is a part of our history that I didn't know existed - I grew up in a military family and am now married to a military man - I still have never heard of this story until someone told me to read the book. I have since recommended the book to just about everyone I know.

It's about time

I cannot believe it has taken so long for someone to acknowledge the heroism of wives waiting for husbands to come home from war. Not only is Waiting Wives a much needed book, it is a fantastic, poignant, and extremely relevant story, written in a graceful style that illustrates the highs and lows of living on Schilling Manor, this unique base that I had never heard about. Bravo to Moreau!

a lost time

This is a very compelling story of one of the most divisive times in our nation. Donna does a great job of telling the story of what it was like to live at Schilling Manor while our Dad's were in Viet Nam. I know I was one of the kids. It was the best of times and the worst of times. It was a time when all of our emotions were on a heightened state. In one way or another we were changed forever. The Mom's that raised us, loved and nurtured us are honored in this book. Thank you for telling the story that needed to be told.