Episode 5 - Love Letters from Vietnam

Welcome to Episode 5 of For The Sender: Love Letters from Vietnam, a true story told about an incredible correspondence into the past between a daughter, Jennifer, and her dad, Sergeant John Fuller, who was stationed in Vietnam in 1968. If this is your first time listening, you may want to check out the previous episodes first, since the story unfolds one episode after another. You can find those by going to forthesender.com, scrolling down, and clicking on ‘podcast.’ Or you can subscribe to the For The Sender podcast on iTunes.

So far you've heard this story evolve from a decades-old correspondence buried inside a box with the words Love Letters from Vietnam etched on top. You've experienced some of those letters, which were sent from Sergeant Fuller stationed in Da Nang to his young wife in East Texas, as read by his son decades later. You've heard Sergeant Fuller's daughter, Jennifer, read in her own words her response to those letters, which she found buried in a closet almost 40 years after they were sent. And you've heard how that correspondence was given to me, and even heard me sing a few songs from Sergeant John Fuller's heart, based on the letters he sent to his wife.  

In this episode, as I make my return to burn-scarred Idaho, the shift really happens. We find out why Sergeant Fuller isn’t reading his own letters in this broadcast series… why his son has to read them instead.

We start with the last letter sent from Sergeant Fuller's daughter, Jennifer, to her dad. As you've heard her do before, she's answering one of the letters her dad sent to her mom decades ago when he was stationed there in Vietnam. This exchange hints at what happens to Sergeant Fuller, and those hints become brutal facts later in the episode, told through a real-life newspaper account.

You're going to find out why Jennifer was broken wide open, and why she started sending letters to her dad back in time in the first place. 

And why she has to send letters to heaven now.