She left for Vietnam after graduating from college in 1972 to cover the war for ABC and NBC radio news and to write for Time and Rolling Stone magazines. For Shrapnel in the Heart, Laura Palmer located people who left letters and poems at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., and told their stories of the war from the perspective of being the family and friends of the soldiers who died in Vietnam. They mattered passionately to the people who loved them, and that has never changed. Sadly, it is not a love that can stop war, but it is one that defeats death. The Vietnam Era Educational Center is located adjacent to the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans Memorial off the Garden State Parkway exit 116.
Regular admission is free for veterans and active-duty military personnel.