“May 31, 1971: Holding You in a Different Way”
Send us a text In this May 31, 1971 letter, my father Dick writes to my mother Sarah from Vietnam. He’s on alert but has a quiet day—one of those rare moments in a war zone where nothing happens, and the waiting becomes the hardest part. But he fills that space with devotion. He buys cassette tapes and begins preparing to record messages she can play back when the letters aren’t enough. He jokes about sun tanning and bikini lines, but the tone of the letter quickly shifts into something dee...
In this May 31, 1971 letter, my father Dick writes to my mother Sarah from Vietnam. He’s on alert but has a quiet day—one of those rare moments in a war zone where nothing happens, and the waiting becomes the hardest part. But he fills that space with devotion.
He buys cassette tapes and begins preparing to record messages she can play back when the letters aren’t enough. He jokes about sun tanning and bikini lines, but the tone of the letter quickly shifts into something deeper.
He writes, “My thoughts are with you even if I can’t be there to hold you so. I am actually holding you in a different way.”
This episode is about emotional presence, about how love can stretch through space and still feel real. It’s also a reminder of the emotional labor soldiers carried—not just in surviving the war, but in maintaining the relationships that gave their lives meaning.
There are hundreds more letters to come, and reading them isn’t easy. But this one is a reminder of why I keep going. If he could write with this much tenderness from a place like that, I can read with the same kind of commitment.
Thank you for listening, and for helping me hold space for their love—one letter at a time.
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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