The Allgoods: Vietnam Through the Eyes of Love
In 1971, two young Air Force veterans — Richard and Sarah Allgood — found themselves separated by the Vietnam War, yet connected through hundreds of heartfelt letters.
Decades later, after their passing, their daughter discovered a preserved box of their correspondence: a story of love, family, courage, and hope written one letter at a time.
The Allgoods: Vietnam Through the Eyes of Love shares these personal letters, weaving a timeless narrative of war, separation, and enduring devotion. Join us as we honor their legacy and explore how even in the hardest times, love finds a way.
If you'd like to support the show and help keep these letters alive, visit: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2489476/support
Episodes
345 episodes
January 30, 1972: Counting Time, Holding On
January 30, 1972.Two letters written on a Sunday at the end of a long month.Sarah writes from home with a three-week-old baby, moving through loneliness, humor, exhaustion, money, and desire — marking time as January slips away. D...
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Season 9
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Episode 25
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8:17
January 29, 1972: Love, Money, and Looking Ahead
January 29, 1972.Two letters, written from opposite sides of the world.Sarah writes from home with a newborn, counting the days until her husband returns, talking candidly about exhaustion, intimacy, birth control, and the physica...
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Season 9
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Episode 24
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7:54
January 28, 1972: A Baby at Home, a Father Far Away
January 28, 1972.Two letters written on the same day.Sarah writes from home, immersed in newborn care, errands, budgeting, and tentative steps back into the world — all with a baby in her arms. Dick writes from Vietnam, missing ma...
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Season 9
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Episode 23
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8:17
January 27, 1972: Loving From Afar, Loving at Home
Three letters written on the same day.Dick writes from Vietnam, thinking about his wife and a baby girl he has yet to meet.Sarah writes twice — once in the early morning hours after a feeding, and again at night, exhausted and ful...
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Season 9
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Episode 22
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9:48
January 25–26, 1972: “56 Days and Open Arms”
By late January 1972, Dick is still in Vietnam — now stationed in Saigon at Tân Sơn Nhất — writing home as both a husband and a father. His daughter has been born, but he has yet to hold her. These two letters, written on January 25 and 26, cap...
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Season 9
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Episode 21
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6:40
January 25–26, 1972: “The World’s Greatest Baby”
By late January 1972, Sarah is home alone with a newborn daughter, writing daily to her husband still in Vietnam. These letters from January 25 and 26 capture the texture of early motherhood — exhaustion, humor, vigilance, intimacy, and joy — a...
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Season 9
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Episode 20
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12:54
January 22–24, 1972: Learning Motherhood in Real Time
In these letters from January 22 through 24, 1972, Sarah Allgood writes from San Antonio as a brand-new mother, learning in real time how to care for her newborn daughter while waiting for her husband to come home from Vietnam.
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Season 9
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Episode 19
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15:57
January 22–24, 1972: The Homestretch
As Dick Allgood moves into the final stretch of his deployment, his letters begin to shorten and compress — full of longing, routine, and quiet anticipation.Across three days in January 1972, we hear a man counting the days, h...
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Season 9
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Episode 18
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6:49
January 21, 1972: Holding a Family Across a War
On January 21, 1972, Sarah and Dick Allgood write to each other from two different worlds — one from home with their newborn daughter, and one from Vietnam, counting down the days until he can finally return.These are no longe...
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Season 9
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Episode 17
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10:37
January 18–20, 1972: The First Few Days Alone
In the days after her mother leaves and she is alone with her newborn for the first time, Sarah writes three letters to Dick — tender, anxious, practical, funny, and deeply in love. Read together, these letters capture a young mother learning h...
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Season 9
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Episode 16
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16:51
January 18–20, 1972: Counting the Days-Dick
In the days after his wife is alone with their newborn for the first time, Dick writes three letters from Vietnam — affectionate, practical, protective, and steadily counting the days until he comes home. Read together, these letters show a man...
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Season 9
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Episode 15
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10:53
January 15–17, 1972: Letters from Sarah
In the days just after her daughter’s birth, Sarah writes four letters to Dick — candid, funny, hormonal, exhausted, practical, and deeply loving. Read together, these letters capture early motherhood in real time: physical recovery, desire ret...
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Season 9
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Episode 14
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10:16
January 15–17, 1972: Dick Writes to His Family
In the days following his daughter’s birth, Dick writes three letters from Vietnam — steady, protective, and deeply anchored in love. Read together, these letters show a father fully formed: reassuring his wife, responding to fear and exhaustio...
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Season 9
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Episode 13
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9:30
January 12–14, 1972: Women Writing Around Me
In the days after her daughter’s birth, Sarah writes three letters from home — exhausted, joyful, overwhelmed, and fully inside motherhood. These letters are joined by one from her own mother, Gladden, writing to Dick from the middle of it all....
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Season 9
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Episode 12
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11:31
January 12–14, 1972: Letters from Dick
In the week after his daughter is born, Dick writes three letters from Vietnam — steady, loving, and deeply present despite the distance. Read together, these letters show a man fully inside fatherhood: counting days, reshaping his routines, an...
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Season 9
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Episode 11
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7:58
January 10–11, 1972: Written on My Behalf
In the days immediately after giving birth, Sarah writes two letters to Dick from home — exhausted, joyful, in pain, and fully inside motherhood. Read together, these letters capture the reality of early postpartum life and the first days of wr...
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Season 9
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Episode 10
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7:57
January 9–11, 1972: Writing to Me
In the days immediately after his daughter’s birth, Dick writes three letters from Vietnam — the moment he learns the news, the quiet morning after, and the first days of fully knowing himself as a father. Read together, these letters trace the...
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Season 9
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Episode 9
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8:37
January 8, 1972: After I Was Born
On January 8, 1972, Dick writes from Vietnam the day after his daughter is born — without knowing it yet. As the story crosses from waiting into arrival, the letters shift from imagining a child to writing into her life. This episode marks a tu...
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Season 9
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Episode 8
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11:10
January 7, 1972: The Day I Arrived
On January 7, 1972, Dick writes from Vietnam with no idea that this is the day his daughter is being born. Cut off from mail for nearly a week, restless and exhausted, he writes to Sarah about waiting, worrying, and holding on to the promise of...
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Season 9
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Episode 7
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4:16
January 6, 1972: About Out of My Mind
On January 6, 1972, Dick and Sarah write from opposite sides of the world as restlessness gives way to fragile relief. Dick feels isolated and nearly out of his mind as Benoit empties out and the mail still doesn’t reach him. Sarah, after days ...
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Season 9
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Episode 6
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6:18
January 5, 1972: No News, Just Waiting
The mail still isn’t moving.The phone still hasn’t rung.And neither of them knows what’s happening on the other side of the world.So they write anyway.My dad, stuck in silence in Vietnam....
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Season 9
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Episode 5
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6:38
January 4, 1972: Almost Parents
On January 4, 1972, Dick and Sarah write from opposite sides of the world as the waiting becomes unbearable. Dick is jittery, nervous, and desperate to know if they are parents yet, while Sarah—cold, exhausted, and in pain—shares the physical r...
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Season 9
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Episode 4
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9:00
January 3, 1972: Counting Days, Talking for Real
January 3, 1972 is a day of counting and imagining. Dick writes from Vietnam, off duty and restless, tracking football wins, movies, meals, and the shrinking number of days until he can hold his wife and baby. Sarah writes from San Antonio, pre...
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Season 9
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Episode 3
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9:07
January 2, 1972: Just Eleven Sundays to Go
January 2, 1972 is a full day of writing — four letters moving back and forth across the world. Sarah writes from San Antonio, swollen, exhausted, counting Sundays, and holding herself together. Dick writes twice from Vietnam, tracking football...
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Season 9
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Episode 2
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9:13
January 1, 1972: Happy New Year, Under the Shitty Circumstances
January 1, 1972 arrives without celebration. From opposite sides of the world, Sarah and Dick begin a new year marked by war, late pregnancy, exhaustion, football losses that sting too deeply to write down, and the quiet certainty that they are...
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Season 9
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Episode 1
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7:04