What I Never Knew About My Father Killed in Vietnam

This episode is a little different. Amy Rodman Little isn't a veteran, but the daughter of one who never came home.

Army Captain David "Dave" Rodman was an artillery officer, former Big 33 football star, and devoted husband and father. He was killed in Vietnam on May 8, 1968, while helping pull wounded soldiers onto a rescue helicopter. Amy was four years old.

For most of her life, Dave was a name on a plaque, a theater in Germany, and a box of sympathy cards. Then, at 30, Amy found a box in her mother's garage. Inside were 45 handwritten letters her father sent home from Vietnam.

What followed was a decades-long journey to know the man behind the name: reunions with his Army brothers, a first visit to The Wall, an Honor Flight, a Purple Heart handed to her by a stranger, and finally a book, Love, Dave: Letters to Home – A Daughter's Journey to Know the Father She Lost in Vietnam.

📖 Get Amy's book, Love, Dave: Letters to Home

Paperback: https://lovedavebook.org/products/love-davee

Book (Amazon): https://a.co/d/05ORteQG

Chapters:

02:55 Who was Dave Rodman?

04:58 From law school to Army OCS

06:42 Volunteering for Vietnam

07:39 Arriving just before Tet

08:12 Growing up without him11:13 The day the Army came to the door16:28 Finding the lost letters21:53 What the letters revealed about him23:44 Mom, remarriage and a new family27:02 Meeting his Army brothers at Fort Sill28:20 Howitzers and the Bird Dog

31:33 Seeing him move in home movies

35:30 Writing the book43:08 Cameras, knives and the PX

46:28 The Tet ceasefire and the rules of war

49:28 Rats, bunkers and stolen brownies

52:28 Artillery liaison officer

54:00 May 8, 1968

55:56 The chaplain who inspired him

58:01 The R&R that never came

1:01:07 Her mother and the book

1:01:21 The Big 33 honors Dave

1:03:18 "Do you feel closure?"

1:04:12 The people she met along the way

1:07:29 A Purple Heart from a stranger

1:09:09 "Love, Dave"

1:11:27 The Silver Star and the Rodman Theater

1:15:09 The Honor Flight

1:21:40 Looking back on the journey

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