The Allgoods: Vietnam Through the Eyes of Love

Send us Fan Mail On June 3, 1971, my mom did what only she could do: she powered through a brutal wave of early pregnancy symptoms — vomiting, diarrhea, and all — and still showed up for the night shift. She worked in the OR, short-staffed, with a drunk supervisor, missing paperwork, and major heart cases on the board. In the middle of it all, she told the U.S. Air Force she wouldn’t stay on past...

Send us Fan Mail On June 2, 1971, while Dick serves on alert in Vietnam, Sarah fights her own battle on the home front — against a broken military bureaucracy trying to force her into more months of work during her pregnancy. In this bold, funny, and sharply worded letter, she tells them exactly where to put it — and reclaims control over her own timeline. Through a haze of exhaustion, missing sli...

Send us Fan Mail In this heartfelt letter from June 2, 1971, Dick writes to Sarah with deep affection, offering updates from Vietnam while encouraging her to take care of herself and their unborn child. He assures her of his constant love, fantasizes about their reunion, and expresses excitement about a future filled with love, laughter, and possibly even home movies. As always, his humor, warmth,...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to a new month in The Allgoods: Vietnam Through the Eyes of Love. With this June 1st letter, we begin a new chapter—one that feels different in a deeply personal way. Until now, I had already read every letter. But from here forward, I’m reading them for the very first time. In this episode, my dad, Dick, writes to my mom, Sarah, from Vietnam. He shares what it feels like...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to The Allgoods: Vietnam Through the Eyes of Love. It’s June 1, 1971, and a brand-new chapter begins. In today’s episode, Sarah writes from San Antonio after receiving a surprise in the mail — a ring from Dick that fits perfectly and feels like it was made just for her. Her excitement over the ring is only matched by the five love letters that arrived with it. She sha...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail In this May 31, 1971 letter, my mom Sarah takes us on an emotional ride: from laughter and sarcasm to loneliness and back again. She starts the letter lightheartedly—listing all the things she and Joy somehow convinced someone to buy during a furniture shopping spree. But then the deeper truth emerges: she’s been struggling. She’s tried calling my dad in Vietnam nearly every night...

Send us Fan Mail It’s May 28, 1971, and my mother Sarah is “seepy,” early in her pregnancy, and missing my father with every fiber of her being. In this letter, she shares the small details of her day: breakfast with Joy, a quiet trip to the BX, and the joy of finding a surprise she plans to send him. She writes about the baby they’re already imagining—guessing it might be a boy, but saying all th...

Send us Fan Mail After 47 letters exchanged between April 27 and May 30, 1971, this recap looks back on the first month of separation between Captains Dick and Sarah Allgood—newlyweds, both serving in the U.S. Air Force, and already holding onto something much bigger than distance. In this special episode, their daughter reflects on the powerful truths uncovered in these early letters: that she wa...

Send us Fan Mail In this May 30, 1971 letter from Bien Hoa Air Base, Captain Dick Allgood writes to his pregnant wife Sarah, who’s serving as an Air Force nurse at Wilford Hall in San Antonio. He opens with flirtation, calling her “the best I ever had,” and confesses to reading a “sort of a sex book,” followed by a quarter to their private pot. But the real heart of the letter is his growing awe a...

Send us Fan Mail It’s Friday, May 28, 1971, and Captain Dick Allgood, a U.S. Air Force rescue pilot on alert in Vietnam, writes to his wife Sarah with aching tenderness. He’s been reading The Seven Minutes—a racy novel that stirs memories of their intimacy—and he can’t help but tie its themes to the passion they share. With each passing day, he saves himself for her and dreams of fatherhood, askin...

Send us Fan Mail This isn’t your typical Vietnam War letter. On May 29, 1971, my father—Captain Dick Allgood—wrote to my mother from Bien Hoa Air Base. She was thousands of miles away, working long hours as a military nurse at Wilford Hall in San Antonio and newly pregnant with me. And he was scared. Scared for her health, for the baby, for the pace she was keeping while he could do nothing but wr...

Send us Fan Mail On May 27, 1971, Sarah Allgood writes to her husband from San Antonio after a day that pushed her to the edge—physically and emotionally. Just a few months pregnant, she faints twice while scrubbing in for surgery, narrowly avoiding the floor thanks to a nearby sergeant. She’s frustrated, foggy, and overwhelmed—but still determined to reassure Dick that everything will be okay. A...

Send us Fan Mail On May 27, 1971, my dad, Capt. Richard Allgood, wrote two letters to my mom in one day—one in the afternoon, and one just before bed. Together, they offer a glimpse into the rhythm of his life in Vietnam: picking up mail at the post office, flying training hours over the base, eating meatloaf at the detachment, watching Flip Wilson and Ironside on TV, and thinking constantly of th...

Send us Fan Mail It’s the last week of May 1971, and Memorial Day is approaching. Sarah is writing from their apartment near Lackland Air Force Base — the one she and Dick once shared before he left for Vietnam. She writes with her usual mix of tenderness, humor, and deep emotional clarity. There’s longing in this letter — but also intention. Sarah had an intuitive spirit. She often sensed things...

Send us Fan Mail Sarah writes from Lackland Air Force Base at 4:45 in the morning, just off a night shift in the operating room. She’s been selected to assist with a cardiac surgery — one being scrubbed in on by the Surgeon General himself — and it’s clear: she’s not just a nurse, she’s exceptional. But this letter isn’t about accolades. It’s about love, perspective, and presence. In the quiet bef...

Send us Fan Mail On May 26, 1971, Captain Dick Allgood writes from Bien Hoa Air Base in Vietnam to his pregnant wife, Captain Sarah Allgood, stationed at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. It’s a quiet day—he’s on alert, flying just two hours, watching the Emmys, and aching for a letter that didn’t arrive. Still, his focus never wavers. He checks in on their baby-to-be, gently reminds her to...

Send us Fan Mail In this heartfelt letter from Vietnam, Dick Allgood writes to his pregnant wife, Sarah, from Biên Hòa Air Base. His words are warm and playful—reflecting his joy over the baby they’re expecting and his longing to be home. From gin and tonics to surprise gifts in the mail, Dick shares the rhythm of his days while reminding Sarah—and their unborn daughter—that love is his anchor. Th...

Send us Fan Mail Writing from San Antonio, Texas—just outside Lackland Air Force Base where she works as a military nurse—Sarah Allgood pours her heart out to her husband, Dick, who is deployed in Vietnam. Now newly pregnant, she writes with equal parts love, exhaustion, and fierce honesty. She shares the first doctor’s advice since confirming the pregnancy, vents about a dinner with a troubled co...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to The Allgoods: Vietnam Through the Eyes of Love. I’m reading the real letters my parents—Dick and Sarah Allgood—wrote to each other during the Vietnam War while they were expecting me. In this letter from May 23, 1971, my dad had just been to a wild detachment party where they served something called “Pussy Punch.” He made it himself—vodka, gin, Cointreau, fruit pun...

Send us Fan Mail In this letter from May 24, 1971, Captain Sarah Allgood writes to her husband, Dick, after coming off another exhausting overnight shift as an Air Force nurse. She’s sharp, skilled, and deeply respected—a woman who worked hard to earn her rank in a male-dominated field. Even as she juggles transplant prep, pregnancy fatigue, and a long-distance marriage, her steady professionalism...

Send us Fan Mail In this letter from May 24, 1971, Dick writes to Sarah from Vietnam with deep affection, quiet reflection, and a surprising vulnerability. He shares how he held back his excitement when she first thought she might be pregnant—not out of indifference, but out of fear that it might not be real. Now, with the news confirmed, his joy and curiosity come pouring through. Even in the mid...

Send us Fan Mail In this short but striking letter from May 22, 1971, Dick writes to Sarah from Biên Hòa Air Base in Vietnam. He’s been unexpectedly called back to Saigon to pull alert and vents about the constant movement, lack of rest, and missing their intimate connection—complete with a signature joke about the “quarter bank.” But through it all, his tenderness shines. He promises to try calli...

Send us Fan Mail In this deeply personal letter from May 22, 1971, Sarah writes to Dick from their apartment in San Antonio with joyful, vulnerable news—her pregnancy test is positive. She shares her mother’s instant certainty that they’re having a girl and reassures Dick that he is, without question, the only one she loves. The pain of missed phone calls and distance weighs on her, but she closes...

Send us Fan Mail In this brief letter from May 22, 1971, Dick Allgood shares his happiness after hearing that Sarah’s pregnancy test is confirmed. He promises to be the best father he can be and imagines how deeply loved their child will be. There’s a quiet tenderness here — an acknowledgment of the distance between them and his wish that he could be by her side. It’s a short but meaningful expres...