Reflection of Home

Reflection of Home
Letters from Vietnam
The Letters of Master Sergeant Leo Dubois

In 1987, a month before she died, Don Leta brought out from hiding
a box full of old letters. These were the letters Leo had sent during
his year in Vietnam. I read through all the letters at that time.
Then I put them up on a shelf, along with a vague plan to
someday mail them out to the family, one at a time,
in memory of our “Vietnam year”.

When the military was mobilized in 1965, Leo
was approaching the end of his 20 years in
the Air Force. He moved the family to
Don Leta’s hometown, Jacksboro,
in north central Texas. Renting a house
a few doors down from her parents,
she would have support nearby.
For she had her hands raising the five
children. And a sixth child was on the way.

When I considered publishing this collection, I thought I might juxtapose the letters against 1965-1966 newspaper accounts of the war, providing a war-history perspective of that one early year.  However, the six typists across the country who transcribed the letters saw them as something more than history. Each of these women urged, “These are love letters.”

Now collected in a book, the letters were originally offered on this website as a unique email subscription.  Veterans, family of veterans, and even students found the website. Every semester, teachers would discover the website while preparing courses on the Vietnam era.  They would download a series of sample letters for use in their lectures.  Before long, students would discover the website as they researched their assignments.  (Sample letters are still available for this purpose.)

Students, veterans, families. Students glimpse an era they have only heard about from movies. Veterans recall the pleasure of a lost art — the letters they wrote and received. The wives and the children of veterans remember their own “Vietnam year”.

– Bryan Dubois

Leo’s son, editor of the letters