June 29, 1971: Cloud Seeding and Cardiac Surgery
Send us a text On June 29, 1971, my mom — Captain Sarah Allgood — was seated on a prep table at Wilford Hall Medical Center in San Antonio, training two younger nurses through a triple coronary artery bypass. She was over 30, pregnant with me, and had just four days left in the Air Force. She was preparing to hand over her work — but not her standards. The procedure had been on bypass for over two and a half hours. And in the middle of it, she paused to write my dad in Vietnam. She also c...
On June 29, 1971, my mom — Captain Sarah Allgood — was seated on a prep table at Wilford Hall Medical Center in San Antonio, training two younger nurses through a triple coronary artery bypass. She was over 30, pregnant with me, and had just four days left in the Air Force. She was preparing to hand over her work — but not her standards.
The procedure had been on bypass for over two and a half hours. And in the middle of it, she paused to write my dad in Vietnam.
She also corrected something from the letter she wrote the night before. On June 28, she’d said the clouds were “salted,” but this morning, she heard it on the radio: they’d been seeded. She wrote it down.
It may sound small, but it matters. Because cloud seeding was real — a military weather modification program used during the Vietnam War. Some people still argue it never happened. But here it is, in her own words, in 1971.
And just like always, she ended with a line they both said to each other — like a rhythm, like a promise:
“I be loving you.”
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The Allgoods: Vietnam Through the Eyes of Love is a personal podcast project based on real letters exchanged between Capt. Richard Allgood and Capt. Sarah Allgood during the Vietnam War. Photos of the original letters, family snapshots, and behind-the-scenes commentary are available for supporters.
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