Good title I like it .The church going bit is not some thing I would have thought of with my background ,but if it fits by all means do so
Classic story telling involves our hero [or in this case heroine] having adventures ,overcoming adversities and living happly ever after
Dont know if youve ever read them but the 'Hornblower' novels by C.S Forester are an excellent example.
So your heroine born say 1948? makes her 20 in 1968 about the right age I would say
What was her mother doing in WW2, she was in the Ardeness maybe?
Just a thought that last, maybe make it easier to explain the time line if you can personalise it from one famillies point of view
Say ,that's not bad, Mom was in a transport company when Bastogne was swamped by the Germans, nd so her Daughter takes thedraft notice more or less in stride and goes to report for induction more or less in stride.
I can tae her, and by extension, the reader, through the proccess of induction and she is impersonally stripped and examined by disinterested female members of the Recruiting command, then sent to BASIC at one of the training bases devoted to female recruit training, then she goes overseas and I take her through a combat tour. She signs up for a second helping because what the heck else is she going to do at this point, she feels closer to her squaddies than she does to any of the friends she had back home.
Then when "Vietnamisation" takes place, her unit rotates home and she recieves her honorable discharge.
That's whe nshe realizes that everyone expects her to be something she can never be again.
