Creative Nonfiction Editor: Nancy
Nancy Stroer arrived in Germany as a newly-commissioned Army maintenance officer, two days after the fall of the Berlin Wall. She spent her entire European tour in a series of near misses—supporting the massive movement of equipment to the Middle East in the build up to Operation Desert Storm, but not having to deploy herself. Attending a Haus Rissen seminar on reintegrating East and West, attended by American military leaders as well as West German officers and recently repatriated East German officers—the same week there was a coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev in the Soviet Union. Planning, then putting the kibosh on a beach trip to Yugoslavia with her other slacker lieutenant friends because war was shaking the country apart.
Serving in the beer-soaked, post-Cold War trenches was so fascinating Nancy took a European separation from the Army so she could stay overseas. Since then she’s lived and worked in Germany, Turkey, Japan, and the United Kingdom. She’s written for the Stars and Stripes and Soldiers magazine, and is putting the finishing touches on a novel about women working together (or not!) in the peacetime Army. She’s also a certified book coach specializing in helping female veterans write about their experiences in the military.