. >> with more on the emotional meeting, here's alisa jaffe of our seattle affiliate. >> reporter: the6. men and women wore flowered shirts. race riots escalated across america. and the u.s. had 500,000 troops in vietnam. one december, chuck's sergeant handed his men letters from strangers offering support. chuck wrote to a girl scout from new york, named lizzie ivory. the gifts and cards continued for 45 years, with chuck on the west coast and lizzie on the east. dwighted by distance until today. >> scared to death. nervous. >> nervous. >> reporter: the pen pals are meeting face-to-face for the first time. >> oh, my god. chuck and lizzie shared their lives through letters. >> a picture of her in her wedding gown. the boy and girl, her children. >> reporter: lizzie says her conversations with chuck became even more meaningful after 9/11. >> then, everyone went off to the war. oh, yeah. that was what it was like for chuck when you left. >> reporter: lizzie's cards give the father of three something to look forward to, during war and the decades that followed. he got to watch his little