FOR THE SENDER

Welcome to Episode 4 of For The Sender: Love Letters from Vietnam, a true story told week by week 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.

In this episode, I take you on my own sort of time travel, as I start learning more about one of the most tumultuous eras in our history by putting myself into the hearts of several different major characters from 1968. I literally drop down into the huge important scenes from our history and show you through these characters eyes what the landscape looks like.

Whoever posts to the Alex Woodard Facebook page or the For The Sender Facebook page first, with who these characters actually are (their names), will get a signed copy of For The Sender: Love Letters from Vietnam.

So stay with me through this as I become these different characters, because in this episode I also really become Sergeant John Fuller and put myself in his heart and behind his eyes and sing one of my favorite songs from the For The Sender: Love Letters from Vietnam album.

And yes, there is an album. I’ve gotten a few emails from folks who have just started listening and are wondering if the songs that they’re hearing are available. This is story with a soundtrack... it’s a book and album package that has already been released. It’s called For The Sender: Love Letters from Vietnam and it’s available at. Proceeds go to veterans causes featured throughout the book, which you’re listening to right now. So you can also just keep on listening.

Onward to Episode 4, which starts with Jennifer answering another letter back in time that her dad sent to her mom, Rebecca, in 1968. And in this letter, her dad references an ‘offensive last January’, which is the Tet Offensive, and that inspired me to learn more about that era and put myself behind the eyes of these different characters in history.

So... I’ll see you on the other side.

For The Sender: Love Letters from Vietnam is a true story told week by week 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, PLEASE check out the previous episodes first, since the story unfolds sequentially, one episode after another and things will make a lot more sense once you're into the flow. You can find those episodes by going to forthesender.com, scrolling down, and clicking on ‘podcast.’ You can also find them at Facebook.com/forthesender, or subscribe to the For The Sender podcast on iTunes.

So why was Jennifer sending these letters back in time? Why not write to her dad now, in the present? Did something happen to him?

I start to uncover some answers to those questions in Episode 3, which begins with another letter sent back in time from Jennifer to her dad. You’ll hear her real voice, just like the other episodes, and the voice of her brother as her dad. But why isn’t her dad reading his own letters for this podcast?

You’re going to find out over the next few episodes.

But first, we need to get two veterans who are wars and decades and countries apart into the water together. One veteran you've already met, the other one is knocking on the door now, surfboard in hand.

Over the last couple of months, you've heard words and music weaving together into the true story of For The Sender: Love Letters from Vietnam.

You've heard the love letters Sergeant John Fuller sent to his wife decades ago when he was stationed in Vietnam. You've heard his daughter answer those letters back in time, after finding them buried in a closet during a recent move.

You've heard about how Sergeant Fuller's escape from his demons got him killed in the driveway of a house he was renting for his lover, and you've heard the letters his daughter wrote to him and from him in her heart to work through his death.

And you've heard the songs inspired by those letters.

You've met veterans from the Vietnam War to the current conflict in the Middle East, who are struggling with PTSD and traumatic brain injuries. They've told you about using heroin and darkness to cope, and then trading the drugs and depression for the joy of the ocean. Or the spirit of a therapy horse. Or the support of a psychiatric service dog.

Because there is joy on the other side. There can be something post-traumatic other than a disorder.

And now, the last waltz is here.

Join me on the dance through this final exchange between a daughter and her dad, who was stationed in Vietnam in 1968, and is now stationed in her heart.

And hear how this correspondence shifts, from the daughter who imagines these words to the woman who really needs to hear them: her mother.

In this serendipitous, full-circle episode of For The Sender: Love Letters from Vietnam, I meet a dog trainer who rescues dogs from shelters and trains them to be psychiatric service dogs for veterans.

I realize that the three things I depend on also ease the burdens carried by the veterans I've met with PTSD and traumatic brain injuries.

And what inspired the For The Sender project is the same force that will bring it to a close:

The love of a dog.

In this episode of For The Sender: Love Letters from Vietnam, I'll take you with me as I walk through the barn doors of Idaho's Swiftsure Ranch and into a world where PTSD and traumatic brain injuries wilt in the shadows of some very special horses.

You'll meet a Vietnam veteran who's never spoken about his time in combat and a veteran of multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan who depends on a makeshift cane to walk.

But that changes after they meet these horses.

Join me on this adventure that the Huffington Post is calling 'important, enlightening, and ultimately inspiring.' Proceeds from the For The Sender: Love Letters from Vietnam book and album (you can check that out at forthesender.com) go to veterans causes featured in the story, including the ranch I'm going to take you to now.

Let's go.