The Rubicon

About the Book

A group of ten Vietnam veterans from the Akron-Cleveland, Ohio area traveled to Vietnam in November of 1988. This was one of several trips put together by the Akron Chapter 34 of the Vietnam Veterans of America to help veterans deal with the aftermath of the Vietnam War.

The BBC in England was working on a TV series called Everyman and requested that a film crew be allowed to join the Akron contingent and film their journey as they traveled from Saigon and the rice paddies and jungle of the Mekong Delta; to the mountains of Da Lat; to the sunny beaches along the South China Sea near Da Nang; to the windswept heights of Marble Mountain; and north to Hue and the wreckage of the Citadel and Dong Ha; then finally to their journey's end in Hanoi. The finished product was called Everyman: A Return to Vietnam and has never been shown in America.

The author was the only woman among the American group on the trip to Vietnam, and was a volunteer with the VVA at that time. This was a learning experience that she undertook in the hopes that by so doing she could understand a little more why many Vietnam veterans were still so troubled by the war. During the trip she contracted a parasite that destroyed her health and contributed to an illness that would span the next nineteen years, from which she is still recovering.

About the Author

Nanette Challenger was born in Warren, Ohio and attended Lakeview High School in Cortland, from which she graduated in 1965. She attended one quarter of college at Kent State University before moving to San Francisco, where she lived in the Haight-Ashbury district and became acquainted with the counterculture of the hippies. She married and moved to Portland, Oregon where she lived until 1975, at which time she returned to Ohio with her daughter, Kathy, upon her divorce. It was while living in Akron some years later that she became a volunteer with the Akron Chapter 34 of the VVA.

The author's health deteriorated significantly after the trip to Vietnam, but during a brief respite she lived in the mountains of Easter West Virginia for several years. Upon the death of her sister, Leanne, she moved to North Carolina when she could no longer tolerate the harsh winters of the North. She presently resides in Franklin, North Carolina, near the Smoky Mountains, with her cat Missy.