On the day before Veterans Day, Vietnam veteran William David Rice surrendered an important piece of his past for public viewing.

In August 1967, William David Rice wrote a single letter to Pauline Phillips’ nationally syndicated column "Dear Abby" asking readers to write to lonely soldiers in care of him.  He was very concerned about his fellow soldiers who received very little or no mail and were very lonely.  Little did he dream that a postal phenomenon would take place by this single letter:

“Dear Abby: For Christmas I’d like to see some smiles on the faces of lots of my buddies over here. They don’t get any mail. If any of your readers (from 15 to 80) have a 5-cent stamp and time on their hands, please have them write to ‘Any Lonely Soldier’ in care of me and I’ll see that he gets it. Thanks a million, Abby.”

“Dear Abby” published his letter. Rice waited patiently for a response from home and on a Sunday late that fall, he received 20,000 letters, all addressed to him in Vietnam for distribution to lonely soldiers. In the next three months, his postal landslide totaled 195,000 letters and 19,000 packages.

He had received more than 200,000 letters and packages while on his tour of duty with the U.S. #Army in Vietnam and on November 10, 2014, he gave a well-worn compilation of newspaper and newsletter clippings, letters, photographs, cards, army regulations and other material to Stephen Marz, Delaware’s state archivist and director of the Delaware Public Archives for public viewing.