- Lucy Caldwell's determination and her dedication to all those wounded Vietnam Marines plus all those Lucy letters that comforted so many Marine families back home, while they still inspire visitors here at Patriot's Point today, as they put pen to paper inside an old Vietnam mess hall doing the same thing that Lucy Caldwell did more than 50 years ago.

- Hey y'all, come on in.

We're writing letters to the veterans.

♪ Lonely days are gone, I'm a goin' home ♪ ♪ My baby just wrote me a letter ♪ Because some of these veterans now, they don't have family anymore.

And you know, it just, just to be remembered for what they did, I think is really important.

♪ Lonely days are gone, I'm a goin' home ♪ ♪ My baby just wrote me a letter ♪ - [Deedie] Just to get a little piece of mail means a lot.

♪ Well, she wrote me a letter ♪ Said she couldn't live without me no more ♪ And it will mean a lot to them.

- [Jeff] Retired Navy Nurse Captain Deedie Harrington says, these letters are all to Vietnam veterans from Vietnam veterans and from volunteers, metal winners to middle schoolers, all handwritten, then hand delivered to Charleston's VA Hospital.

- The stationary has got the seal of South Carolina on here.

♪ 'Cause my baby just wrote me a letter ♪ - Nice to meet you.

- Is there anything I can do?

- Do you write a letter?

- I will write a letter.

- Well, that's all you need to do today.

- [Jeff] Tom Mundy isn't just any Vietnam letter writer.

He's one of Lucy's Boys, finally, returning the favor of that letter Lucy Caldwell wrote for him.

- [Tom] Reminded me of my mom dressed up, but she just says right away, "I'm here to help you or anything, my name is Lucy Caldwell."

- [Jeff] Now sharing his battlefield experience with another Vietnam veteran.

- [Tom] I was there about four months, it was my 64th patrol.

I moved up 10 yards and I just remember looking and all of a sudden explosion went off.

- [Jeff] Tom writing down that same story he told Lucy from his hospital bed in Di An.

(helicopter whirring) - [Tom] I'll never forget the sound, the sound of the helicopter coming down, morphined up, I was dozing off and I hear that thump, thump, thump, thump, thump real loud.

And I wake up and I just look to the right.

Soon as we landed, they were coming for me.

Brought me in, head top to the bottom with holes all over the place.

(mellow guitar) So, that was my introduction to Lucy Caldwell.

She says, "We think you should write a letter home to your family."

And I just said, "No, not now, not now, you know."

- When she heard you say, "Not today", that first day she had to know, come back, try again.

- She came back, whatever it was an hour or two later, she waited for me and she talked me into writing a letter.

I didn't write it.

My hands were up, my legs were up.

So she wrote a letter using personal things that my family would know of my brothers, sister's names, mom and dad, Harry Margaret, which my parents said it was like the best thing that could happen.

What a lady.

You know, you're there for 10 days, constantly being anesthetized, seeing her almost every day.

- [Jeff] Those 10 days with Lucy Caldwell in Vietnam gave young Tom Mundy the encouragement he needed to make it home when others weren't so sure he'd ever leave that hospital alive.

- I'm Catholic, priests come in, introduced himself.

"Tom, yeah", talk to me a little bit.

Then he says, "Listen, I'm gonna say some prayers."

And I said to him, "Not last rights, father.

Save that for somebody else.

I ain't going no place."

- [Jeff] No place, but back to New York where Tom had a 30 year career with the New York City Fire Department after those dark days in Vietnam, but there was another dark day ahead.

- Called my brother, we live on an island in the middle of Jamaica Bay by Kennedy Airport.

Where's your boat?

It's right here.

- [Jeff] On 9/11 Tom and his brother were part of the boat lift that brought firefighters into Manhattan and ferried survivors out.

- [Tom] The second tower had just fallen when we were rounding Coney Islands.

We knew it was bad.

Well, we knew it was bad from the beginning.

- [Speaker] Those people running on the left, on the left, on the left where the smoke is.

- [Tom] I says, "We gotta get in there.

The roads are all blocked."

- [Speaker] I'll help you.

- So, that's what we did.

My brother brought about five of us in.

That's when we came through all the buildings.

- [Jeff] That was Tom Mundy in 2001 talking about his 9/11 search and rescue team.

- [Tom] So that was, that was the first day that was, I didn't see any other dogs on the site.

- [Jeff] Working with the famous civilian search dog known as Bear.

Finally finding the body of New York City Fire Chief Peter Ganci, after hours of digging in the rubble.

- Called some guys over and took us a little while, but we got him out.

- [Jeff] Tom lost friends on 9/11, fellow firefighters like his fellow Marines who were with him in that Vietnam ICU.

He says, that's why Lucy Caldwell also came to mind in New York City that day.

- You talk about Lucy being put someplace, it was almost like I was put there to find Ganci.

- [Jeff] And now here among the heroes at Patriot's Point.

- [Tom] You're talking about the Medal of Honor?

- [Jeff] Thoughts turn again to one of Vietnam's unsung heroes.

- When she walked on the ward and everybody looked, here comes Lucy.

Some guys say, "Oh, here comes Mrs. Caldwell", you know, but she insisted that we call her Lucy.

- [Speaker] Of a Vietnam veteran.

- [Jeff] Now, Lucy's Boys are here to honor her.

- As a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, I want to personally say to you, thank you for your service.

- [Tom] Well, knowing two guys had Lucy stand next to 'em and write letters for them just like she did for me.

There's a, you talk about a connection.

Dale's here, Plebes there, doesn't get any closer to that.

It's like having Lucy here and Lucy there right next to the three of us.

- [Jeff] No other person quite like her?

- Not like Lucy Caldwell, no.

(somber piano music) - That reunion of Lucy's Boys on board the USS Yorktown also marks the 50th anniversary of the last US servicemen and women leaving Vietnam.

But that doesn't mean leaving behind what happened in Vietnam.

Those stories of courage and comfort and finally coming together 50 years later, Amy.