Lost letters written during Vietnam War find their way home to Williamsburg

Last week, the Laurel County Sheriff’s Department shared that they had come across a large amount of letters while cleaning out old files inside their London office. That in itself is not unusual, of course, but the nature of the letters, their age, and who they belonged to ended up being a big surprise.

In a statement posted to their official Facebook page on Jan. 6, the sheriff’s department said, “Laurel County Sheriff John Root is reporting that Laurel Sheriff’s Detective Bryon Lawson, along with Detective Robert Reed, found letters while purging outdated files at the Sheriff’s office in London.”

“Through investigation, and with assistance from Angelika Weaver, the Williamsburg City Police Victim’s Advocate, we determined that the letters had apparently been stolen in a burglary of a Johnny Philpot’s home in Williamsburg many years ago. It has been learned that the letters had been sent from Johnny Philpot to his wife while he was in Vietnam serving in military service.”

“With help from Angelika Weaver, Johnny Philpot’s son, also named Johnny Philpot, was tracked down, and on Thursday, Jan. 5, the letters were returned to him. His father is still living, and the letters will be returned to him by his son.”

Days later, the younger Philpot talked about the surprising recent developments involving his father’s old letters, saying, “In the late eighties, early nineties dad had said that a bunch of his letters had gotten gone. Somebody had taken them, or they had been misplaced.”

“Nobody knows how they got there,” Philpot said of how the letters ultimately ended up buried among old files in the Laurel County Sheriff’s office. “I’d like to know, but I don’t.”

The letters, all of which were written to the elder Philpot’s wife, Trilby, were sent from several different locations including New York, Germany and Vietnam. They document various travels, offer descriptions of work-related duties, and enquire about how things are going back home. Most of the letters were sent to an address in Michigan, as the “Mrs. Johnny Philpot” apparently spent much of her time there during the war, staying with family who had moved north for work.

When asked what stands out to him when reading his father’s old letters, Philpot, Jr. said, “When I was growing up, my dad was pretty strict. But then you sit down and read these letters, and you realize that he was really just an old softie.”

Philpot, Jr. said that he plans on visiting his father soon to share some of the letters with him and see if he remembers writing any of them. Philpot, Sr. has been a resident of Williamsburg Health and Rehabilitation for the past five years.