The Allgoods: Vietnam Through the Eyes of Love

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My dad wrote this letter from Vietnam after helping one of his closest friends board a flight home. He says he was happy for him — but admits he was filled with envy. That could’ve been him. That should’ve been him.

In this letter, he talks about catching a little sun, eating a decent steak at the club, and winding down with the guys who worked under him. But nothing — not beer, not books, not even a break from the rain — could distract him from the one thing he truly wanted: to be home, with my mom.

He tells her he’ll spoil her rotten. That he’s a “straight arrow.” That he can’t wait to get her some Wawa after a lovemaking session. He’s funny, honest, and deeply in love.

And even from a rooftop in Vietnam, he was still dreaming about the woman waiting for him in Texas

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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.

Support the show:

https://buymeacoffee.com/theallgoodslove

Visit the official website: https://www.theallgoodslove.com

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This letter from my mom, Captain Sarah Allgood, is pure gold. It’s July 1, 1971, and she’s funny, flirty, and a little bit filthy — all while pregnant, lonely, and trying to get through another day without my dad. She’s dreaming of a life where she can “sit back, rest, and become beautifully pregnant” — and she’s already putting quarters in the bank for their baby (me).

She writes about a broccoli-cheese chicken casserole, jokes about a strapped-on teddy bear, and vents about a fellow officer who’s so clueless she answers a phone upside down. But beneath all the humor is a woman who’s tired, deeply in love, and holding out hope for the day my dad comes home from Vietnam.

It’s letters like these that remind me just how hard they were working — not just to survive a war, but also to build a life together. 

Support the show

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.

Support the show:

https://buymeacoffee.com/theallgoodslove

Visit the official website: https://www.theallgoodslove.com

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In this letter from July 1, 1971, my dad writes to my mom after receiving three letters and a card from her — and his mood lifts right off the page. He’s playful, sweet, and a little jealous as another friend prepares to head home from Vietnam.

He jokes about never getting a tan, thanks to the monsoon rains, but says he still made time to “groove to his wife on the roof.” He tells her how proud he is that she’s finished working, and that he’s ready to keep her “busy” as his wife and lover — the two jobs he says she’ll have from now on.

There’s also a glimpse of base life: the girlie mags in the BX, afternoons in the library, and the quiet ache that comes when someone else gets to leave — and he doesn’t. It’s a tender, funny, and honest letter about love, waiting, and wanting to be home.

Support the show

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.

Support the show:

https://buymeacoffee.com/theallgoodslove

Visit the official website: https://www.theallgoodslove.com

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In this episode, I’m taking a moment to reflect on everything I’ve uncovered so far — from the day my dad deployed to Vietnam in late April 1971 through the end of June.

My mom was still on active duty in San Antonio when she found out she was pregnant with me. My dad had just arrived in Vietnam, flying rescue helicopters with the 38th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron. They were separated by a war, time zones, and a communication system that barely worked — and still, they wrote each other every single day.

There were no emails, no cell phones, no FaceTime. If my dad managed to get to a phone and my mom wasn’t home, she missed the call — and that was it. Weeks could go by without hearing each other’s voices. These letters were the only constant. And somehow, their love held steady through all of it.

Reading these letters — and learning who they were at this point in their lives — has changed the way I see them, and myself. Thank you for being here with me as I piece together their story, one letter at a time.

Support the show

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.

Support the show:

https://buymeacoffee.com/theallgoodslove

Visit the official website: https://www.theallgoodslove.com

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This is the last letter my mom wrote in June 1971. It’s also the end of Chapter 2 in this story — one month at a time, one letter at a time.

She was 12 weeks pregnant with me and still writing every single day from San Antonio, where she was finishing her time as a U.S. Air Force nurse. My dad, Captain Dick Allgood, was still on alert in Vietnam — a rescue pilot who didn’t talk much about the war, but never missed a day writing to his wife.

This is the 52nd letter in June, and the 104th letter overall in their collection. And it’s only the second month of what will become more than 1,500 letters — a story that will unfold over 12 full chapters, and likely take me more than a year to tell.

In this one, my mom reflects on how hard June has been — the heat, the sickness, the waiting. But she also lights up at the thought of their one-year anniversary and tells my dad what she’s most looking forward to:

“We’re going to make love — love — love.”

Before we begin July, I’ll be recording a special Chapter 2 recap — to reflect on what we’ve learned, what we’ve lost, and how much more there is to come.

—

📬 Letters read and preserved by their daughter, Alisa Cecilia Allgood

🌐 Learn more at theallgoodslove.com

❤️ Support the podcast at patreon.com/TheAllgoodsLove

Support the show

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.

Support the show:

https://buymeacoffee.com/theallgoodslove

Visit the official website: https://www.theallgoodslove.com

Send us Fan Mail

This is the last letter my dad wrote in June 1971 — a month that spanned open heart surgeries, flash floods, military cloud seeding, and long days for my mom at Wilford Hall.

Now it’s the 30th. My mom has just a few days left in the Air Force, and she’s preparing to step into motherhood. My dad is still in Vietnam, trying to hold it together the only way he can — by writing to her, every day, without fail.

In this letter, he sends love, plans for the future, and plenty of heat. It’s flirtatious and honest and laced with his signature humor. He talks about Hawaii, money, and how hard it is to be apart — not just from her, but from the baby they made together.

He ends, as always, writing straight from the heart:

“You always are sent all of the love I have.”

💌 Full archive at TheAllgoodsLove.com

🎧 Support the podcast: patreon.com/TheAllgoodsLove

Support the show

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.

Support the show:

https://buymeacoffee.com/theallgoodslove

Visit the official website: https://www.theallgoodslove.com

Send us Fan Mail

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.”

💌 More at theallgoodslove.com

❤️ Support the podcast at patreon.com/TheAllgoodsLove

Support the show

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.

Support the show:

https://buymeacoffee.com/theallgoodslove

Visit the official website: https://www.theallgoodslove.com

Send us Fan Mail

My dad wrote this letter from Da Nang on June 29, 1971. It’s one of those days where his love for my mom just spills over—quietly, sweetly, completely.

He tells her, “I be loving you,” and it’s not just a phrase. It’s the truth of how they lived—how they stayed connected every single day across an ocean and a war. He missed her so much he found himself pacing the floor, just needing to hold her.

Meanwhile, back in San Antonio, my mom was nearing the end of her military service as a nurse at Wilford Hall. She was pregnant with me, working long hours, and writing him every night. They were both holding onto this dream of being together—planning R&R in Hawaii, picturing their life as parents, and reminding each other what real love looks like when it’s lived out loud.

And they both said it now: “I be loving you.”

That was their way of showing up. Every letter. Every day.

💌 Read more at theallgoodslove.com

❤️ Support the podcast: patreon.com/TheAllgoodsLove

Support the show

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.

Support the show:

https://buymeacoffee.com/theallgoodslove

Visit the official website: https://www.theallgoodslove.com

Send us Fan Mail

In this letter from June 28, 1971, my mom, Captain Sarah Allgood, is nearing the end of her military nursing duties — just five days from maternity leave and three months pregnant with me.

She’s tired, fed up with a chatty coworker, and not holding back about how much she misses my dad. She also blames the endless rain on “the quacks salting the clouds” — a line that sounds like a joke, but isn’t. Between 1967 and 1972, the U.S. military really did seed clouds to alter the weather during the Vietnam War.

This letter is raw, funny, affectionate, and full of the kind of honesty that only comes from someone who’s in love, in uniform, and very, very ready for a nap.

💌 Read aloud by their daughter, Alisa Cecilia Allgood

🌐 More at www.theallgoodslove.com

Support the show

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.

Support the show:

https://buymeacoffee.com/theallgoodslove

Visit the official website: https://www.theallgoodslove.com

Send us Fan Mail

In this letter from June 28, 1971, my dad writes from Vietnam with tenderness, humor, and longing. He tells my mom how much he loves her — but also, how much he likes her.

That mattered to both of them. My parents used to tell me that love alone isn’t enough to make a relationship last. You have to like each other — genuinely. You have to enjoy who the other person is, day after day.

This letter is full of raw emotion, sexual tension, and deep connection — but what lingers most is the reminder that the strongest relationships are built on more than love. They’re built on friendship, respect, and liking each other at the core.

💌 Read aloud by their daughter, Alisa Cecilia Allgood

🌐 Learn more: www.theallgoodslove.com

Support the show

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.

Support the show:

https://buymeacoffee.com/theallgoodslove

Visit the official website: https://www.theallgoodslove.com