Look and Listen

Biography

S.D. Sawyer is the Pen Name for Sally, or Sarah Catharine (Dress) Sawyer. Born in Hagerstown, Md., she grew up in Towson, Md, Medford Lakes, NJ, and Vienna, Va. When Sally, as her friends know her, retired from teaching in 2007, she pulled out the box of letters her husband had written her from Vietnam. For several months, they read their way back to 1967— and into a novel inspired by their lives. Married to Richard Sawyer for 44 years, they are parents of three adult children and have four grandsons. She and her husband enjoy life on their farm in Adams County, Pa, vacations on the Jersey beaches with the kids and grandkids, and trips across the pond to England.

Inspiration

On Veterans Day, S.D. Sawyer and her husband took their children and three young grandsons to Arlington National Cemetery.  They passed her husband's former barracks, the parade field where they had attended ceremonies, the Officers’ Club, and the chapel from which he and his Company daily performed so many funerals for too many young heroes.  As they walked the paths, their grandsons, ages 5, 6, and 8, stopped frequently to kneel beside graves and read inscriptions.  They whispered question after question to their PopPop.  He softly spoke about Veterans Day, war, soldiers, duty, sacrifice, and love of country, as he answered each one. Walking the length of The Wall, the little boys quietly reached up to hold their grandfather’s hands.  They asked about the pictures, small stuffed animals, flowers, letters, and mementos placed in front of some panels, and why a young man was etching on a paper.  Their small fingers traced into soldiers’ engraved names.  Standing back, each grandson noticed his own reflection, then the faces of people walking behind them.  Looking higher, they gazed up at the sky and images of white clouds drifting across black granite. Thousands of veterans were at The Wall that day, standing around quietly talking among themselves.  Many wore denim, leather, or field jackets decorated with military patches and badges.  Others wore caps that identified their units in Vietnam.  Upon seeing a small group with 1st CAV insignias, Sawyer’s husband instinctively moved towards them. The family stayed back and watched as they all shook hands. When Vietnam War combat veterans greet each other, a look of shared loss almost too great to bear often passes between them.  Many of you have seen that too.  Almost half a century since the war ended, but that look that still surfaces so easily in them haunts her. And it became the compelling reason why S.D. Sawyer wrote Prelude to Reveille: A Vietnam Awakening.