Fictional Look at Being Jewish in the U.S. Military

Website Best Army Wives Launches Book Club March 1 With Novel “Mrs. Lieutenant”

As some of you may know, my novel “Mrs. Lieutenant” is based on my experiences being a new Mrs. Lieutenant in the spring of 1970 during the Vietnam War. The character of Sharon Gold — who only shares some of my characteristics — experiences first-hand being Jewish in a U.S. military environment.

Here is the press release of the month-long book club discussion, and I do hope some of you will be joining in. Besides the novel, I’m sure we’ll be discussing the 5th season of the TV show ARMY WIVES, which premieres March 6th, as well as being a military spouse today:

The website BestArmyWives.com launches a book club March 1 with the Vietnam War-era novel “Mrs. Lieutenant,” which was a 2008 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award semi-finalist.

Irion Arce, creator of the site and the book club, has assigned chapters to each of the four weeks of the month-long website discussion. Chapter assignments are at http://bestarmywives.com/book-club/

In addition, at the end of each week of assigned chapters, an online discussion with author Phyllis Zimbler Miller will be held and everyone is invited to participate. Registration is at www.millermosaicllc.com/march-book-club/ along with links to read the entire novel online for free.

“Mrs. Lieutenant” takes place in the spring of 1970 – right after the Kent State National Guard shootings and President Nixon’s two-month incursion into Cambodia – when four newly married young women come together at Ft. Knox, Kentucky, as their husbands go on active duty as officers in the U.S. Army.

Different as these four women are, they have one thing in common: Their overwhelming fear that, right after these nine weeks of training, their husbands could be shipped out to Vietnam – and they could become war widows.

Sharon is a Jewish anti-war protester who fell in love with an ROTC cadet; Kim is a Southern Baptist whose husband is intensely jealous; Donna is a Puerto Rican who grew up in an enlisted man’s family; and Wendy is a Southern black whose parents have sheltered her from the brutal reality of racism in America.

The author was a new Mrs. Lieutenant in the spring of 1970 when her ROTC husband attended Armor Officers Basic at Ft. Knox before training at Ft. Holabird as a Strategic Intelligence Officer (MOS 9300) and being assigned to the 18th Military Battalion in Munich, Germany, from September 1970 to May 1972.