Jim Voigt - Letters Home From Vietnam

My guest for this episode of the Guest Friends podcast is my family's long-time next-door neighbor: Jim Voigt. I met up with Jim in his home in the metro Detroit area to discuss his experiences having been drafted into the Vietnam War in April of 1966. After being seriously injured by a Viet Cong mortar blast while on ambush patrol during the war, Jim spent several months recovering in hospitals in Saigon and later in Japan. Since he had difficulty physically writing letters from his hospital bed during his recovery, he ended up recording audio letters on a reel-to-reel tape machine to send home to friends and family to keep them updated on his condition, and to keep his spirits up. For the first time in close to 50 years, Jim has resurfaced those tapes, and you can hear some of that content interwoven into our discussion. Amongst other insights, Jim shares the rollercoaster ride of dropping into Vietnam from 20,000 feet to avoid being shot down; how he learned a valuable life-lesson by way of a 3x5 card; and why mom's homemade chocolate chip cookies are welcomed friends when you're a soldier digging into a foxhole.

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LINKS RELATED TO THIS EPISODE:

Logo Credit: Saint-Creative.com 

Music Credit: Of Asaph (James Alleman)

"Inspired By" Segment Production: Shane Sevo

Recommended Resources:

Documentary: Ken Burn's "The Vietnam War": TheGeniusOfPlay.org

Database: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall