The Allgoods: Vietnam Through the Eyes of Love

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Dick Allgood begins this May 21, 1971 letter to his wife Sarah by confessing it was “one of the hardest” days he’s had — but he never says exactly why. Instead, the letter unfolds with devotion, longing, and his deep hope that he’ll soon be a father. He calls Sarah his “wittle chickie-dee,” tells her how beautiful their children will be, and shares how he’s gotten used to being sad — a quiet reflection from a man writing in the heart of a war zone.

This episode is being recorded on May 20 — what would have been Dick’s birthday — and we’re reminded that while these letters are filled with love, they were written from a place of danger. As a member of a Pedro HH-43 rescue team in Vietnam, Dick was on standby for emergency missions that only happened when something had gone terribly wrong — an aircraft down, a pilot in danger, or a catastrophic fire.

The timeline in these letters can sometimes feel jumbled — like the pregnancy news that’s mentioned in different ways — because they were often written, postmarked, and received out of order. But the emotional through-line remains clear: Sarah and Dick were holding onto each other through paper, dreaming of a family while separated by war.

This is Episode 32 of The Allgoods: Vietnam Through the Eyes of Love, a podcast sharing real wartime letters between two Air Force sweethearts.

Read along, support the show, and learn more at TheAllgoodsLove.com

Support us on Patreon: 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

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In this late-night letter dated May 21, 1971, Sarah Allgood writes to her husband, Capt. Richard “Dick” Allgood, from bed in San Antonio — too tired to get up, too in love to sleep. As she watches an old Robert Mitchum movie, she imagines Dick beside her, talks to his photo, and jokes about needing “an allotment for her husband” thanks to their private quarter bank pact.

It’s a letter full of physical yearning, quiet hope, emotional dependency, and deep humor. Sarah writes as only she can: blunt, funny, and open-hearted. And in her words to her “whittle chickie-dee,” we see just how much one woman can miss one man — and still find ways to love him through paper, across oceans.

This is Episode XX of The Allgoods: Vietnam Through the Eyes of Love, a podcast built from real letters exchanged between two Air Force sweethearts during the Vietnam War.

Follow along, read the original letters, and support the show at TheAllgoodsLove.com

Join us on Patreon: 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 dated May 21, 1971, my mom, Sarah, writes to my dad, Dick, with life-changing news: she’s officially pregnant.

Unlike today, a urine test in 1971 couldn’t confirm pregnancy until a certain amount of time had passed after a missed period. She had to wait. But she already knew. And when she finally could take the test, her neighbor — who worked at the hospital — ran it for her so she didn’t have to wait in line. By 12:30 that afternoon, she had her answer: right on.

And in the middle of all her joy and relief, she names me.

Alisa Cecilia.

That’s the name she writes in this letter — the name she and my dad had already chosen before I ever took a breath.

She even says she might call me Sissy.

And she did — until fourth grade.

Reading this now, I feel the full weight of it:

I wasn’t just wanted. I was known.

Planned.

Named.

Loved.

She talks about baby furniture, catalog shopping for dishes, how sore and growing her body feels, and how much she’s looking forward to being a mother.

She even jokes that if she keeps writing letters this long, Dick will either need glasses or they’ll have to put a cover on them and call it a book.

Well — that’s exactly what I’m doing.

This is only the middle of the first month of letters.

I’m transcribing them one by one and compiling them with scans of the originals — month by month — into a book, just like she imagined.

There’s also something else in this letter.

A quiet reference to an earlier pregnancy:

“If this pregnancy goes like before…”

I didn’t know that.

Maybe it was a miscarriage.

Maybe it was something they never spoke of again.

But now it’s here — between the lines of everything else.

This isn’t just a love story.

It’s the story of how I came to be.

And I feel so deeply honored to have been loved this much

before I ever arrived in the world.

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 second letter from May 20, 1971 — his 27th birthday — my dad, Dick, writes from Vietnam late at night, having just finished letters to everyone else. But this one? This one is for my mom.

He writes to his “wittle chick-a-dee” and imagines he’s sitting beside her, just talking. He’s flown that day, but all he wants is to stay connected to her through words — and love. He confesses that before he left, he may not have been the most practical husband, but he was focused on being “a good husband and lover — mainly lover and possible daddy.”

The letter is deeply intimate, but not in a grand, performative way. It’s full of little thoughts, gentle honesty, emotional vulnerability, and a longing for closeness. He asks about her money, checks in on her business affairs, and promises to support her even from across the world. And then, in the most tender closing, he asks her to love him, dream of him, and keep him in the center of her life — because that’s where he always keeps her.

Reading it now, as their daughter, I see just how much these words meant. How love this steady, this open-hearted, is a rare kind of legacy. And it’s one I’m so grateful to carry forward — 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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In this letter dated May 20, 1971, my dad, Dick, writes to my mom, Sarah, from Vietnam on his 27th birthday. It’s not the birthday he hoped for, but her gifts — a photo album, a poster, cards, and her words — make their way to him across the world. He calls the album “the best gift you could’ve given me” and admits he looks at it every day.

He tells her about plans to grill steaks with the guys, share some shrimp from the coast, and maybe even celebrate with a little too much to drink — a makeshift party without the one person he really wants beside him. And tucked into the letter is something I never expected: a fruitcake sent by his mother. He mentions it casually, but knowing my dad, that small detail carries weight. He loved to cook — and even later in life, he always brought a fruitcake to gatherings. I never understood why until now.

This letter is full of love, longing, and everyday details from a war zone. It’s also a reminder of how much care my parents carried for each other, even in the smallest things — a recipe, a slice of cake, a photo taped to a wall.

More than 50 years later, I’m reading their words out loud. I lost both of my parents in 2020, and if either of them were still here, these letters would still be tucked away. But now, I’m learning who they really were — and I’m sharing 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

Send us Fan Mail

In this letter from May 20, 1971, my mom, Sarah, writes to my dad, Dick, on his birthday — from halfway around the world. She’s working long hours as a surgical nurse, and on this day, she gets called in unexpectedly to scrub an emergency open-heart surgery. She’s not even on the schedule, but they need her — because she’s the best. And she shows up, even while physically exhausted and emotionally stretched thin.

She writes with love, humor, and quiet strength. There’s hope in her voice, too. She’s been examined and believes she might be pregnant, but in 1971, pregnancy couldn’t be confirmed until you were further along. There were no instant tests. No early results. And certainly no gender reveals. Just waiting. Hoping. Wondering.

And of course — writing.

Back then, letters were their only real connection. There was no texting, no FaceTime, no email. Phone calls from a war zone were rare and unpredictable. Every word they wrote had to stretch across weeks and thousands of miles.

Now, more than 50 years later, I’m reading these letters out loud — one by one — after losing both of my parents in 2020. If either of them were still alive, I wouldn’t be reading these at all. But now, I’m learning who they really were. I’m preserving their story. And I’m sharing it — so their love isn’t lost to 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

Send us Fan Mail

In this tender birthday eve letter written on May 19, 1971, my dad, Dick, writes to my mom, Sarah, from Vietnam with a mix of humor, longing, and vulnerability. He’s baking in the sun, waiting for her to send his bikini swimsuit, and imagining the “sexy tan” he’ll have when they’re together again. There’s lightness and playfulness — but also deep love and aching distance.

He reflects on how close her letters make him feel and how painful the thought of her needing more than him would be. He admits his insecurities, affirms his devotion, and gently pleads that nothing — not even the Air Force — come between them.

Reading this as their daughter, it’s moments like these that reveal the love I was born from — a love so real it wrote itself into every line. And now, more than 50 years later, my son will get to know the grandparents he never got to grow up with… through their own words.

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 unfiltered letter from May 19, 1971, my mom, Sarah, writes to my dad, Dick, after what she calls a “shitty day” in the operating room. She’s tired, overwhelmed by military red tape, and anxiously wondering if she might be pregnant — with me. But even in the middle of it all, it’s a letter from her “wittle chickadee” that keeps her going.

Now, as their only child, I’m reading these letters aloud more than fifty years later. And it’s dawning on me: I was born from this kind of love — raw, honest, vulnerable, and real.

Even more profoundly, I realize that my son, who never got to know his grandparents, will come to know them through these letters. He’ll hear their voices, feel their hearts, and witness the love that made him possible — maybe even more clearly than I ever did.

This is the legacy they left behind. And we’re just getting started.

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 dated May 18, 1971, Dick Allgood writes from Vietnam with deep vulnerability, reflecting on how hard it is to watch another man—Ray Hunter—prepare to go home for good. As Dick puts it, “I sure wish it were me.”

The letter begins gently—calling Sarah his “sweet wittle chick-a-dee”—but what follows is one of his most emotionally open reflections yet. He admits he used to be afraid to write about emotions, but now he pours himself out onto the page, confessing that he cried like a baby the night before while writing to her.

He longs for the nearness of home, of cooking breakfast in the nude, of the tiny things that made their love so real. And now, with the physical distance stretching on, he’s aching for connection.

“I love your sweetheart,” he writes. “Don’t ever get so lonely or frustrated that you think I am not the same person. I am being the most loving and true husband. I have not even thought about having a ‘strange piece.’ Nor do I intend to!!”

These words are more than wartime letters.

They’re unfiltered windows into a love that stayed honest, intimate, and anchored—no matter the distance.

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 May 17, 1971 letter from Vietnam, Dick Allgood writes with such raw emotion that at one point he has to pause—his tears making the page too blurry to see. He’s just missed reaching Sarah by phone again, after multiple failed attempts to call her across the world. Now he has to wait another week, unless he gets lucky and makes it onto the elusive commercial call list.

This letter is full of longing. He aches to know she still feels him near, that she still loves him after 21 days apart. He reflects on their apartment, on breakfast cooked in the nude, on the “wonderful loving things” that made their world whole. And then, as only Dick could, he ends the letter with a smile and a tease—suggesting he might get a suntanned dong while sunbathing on the roof in bikini underpants, just for her.

As their daughter, reading this one was hard. My dad—my Pops—was strong and steady, but in these pages I see how deeply sensitive and devoted he was. He always kept this part of himself close. I knew he loved her deeply because I lived in the warmth of that love. But I never knew these letters existed. And I never knew he could write like this.

This project reminds me of how much of their story I’m still uncovering. I don’t have all of my mother’s letters to him—he references some I’ve never seen, likely lost to time or circumstance. But every one of his letters that she received, she saved. And every letter from her that he received in Vietnam? He kept them safe and brought them home. He must’ve carried them back with him when he left. A whole box of love, preserved across oceans and decades, for me to find.

This isn’t just a love story. It’s a record of longing, laughter, missed connections, and love that refused to fade.

And we are just getting started.

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