In 1969, Chicago soldier Frank Kowalczyk recorded a 43-minute audio letter to his mother from Vietnam, speaking roughly 8,600 words as helicopters passed overhead; 57 years later, the Smithsonian preserves his voice

• In March 1969, a 21-year-old American soldier stationed in Vietnam decided to do something different from writing a letter home.
• Kowalczyk switched on a reel-to-reel tape recorder and began speaking to his mother in Illinois, sharing updates about his fellow soldiers, life in the Army, family gossip and his plans for the future.