Get Much Mail

The War Department was stumped. As Christmas approached, U.S. soldiers were being flooded with the greatest mass of mail in history--in six weeks 14,000,000 lb. of it (including parcel post), enough to fill a medium-sized cargo ship or 2,000 cargo planes. In the last few weeks the Army Postal Service has delivered 11,000,000 letters a week.

The Army & Navy well know the importance of news-from-home to the soldier and sailor and marine away-from-home. From every direction came evidence that the American away from home is the most homesick man in the world:

> Officers in Australia and New Guinea noted that the morale of their units jumped several hundred percent when the mailbags arrived, though the letters were usually two months old.

>The size of the Army's job can be scaled by comparison with the Navy's smaller job at Guadalcanal. Marine screams could be heard from the Solomons to Washington because no mail came during the first two beleaguered months on Guadalcanal. More recently letters and packages have been arriving and the island has its post office.

>U.S. soldiers in England told Mrs. Roosevelt: "We want more letters."

> Troops in Iceland looked on sorrowfully when one soldier picked up 83 letters of the 150 addressed to his outfit.

> Private Duane Clark of San Francisco, asked what interested him most in Hawaii, told a Hickam Highlights reporter unhesitatingly: "The letters from my wife."

> Said an officer of the Postal Service: "I know for a fact that in the middle of a battle, with stuff dropping all around them, men will put the mail call ahead of the mess call."

Nevertheless, the War Department had to cut down the volume of cargo space mail was occupying. A month ago War Secretary Stimson pleaded with soldiers not to answer letters from strangers, who might be spies. Peering further, the War Department found misguided patriots contributing to the confusion. In some cases whole counties were writing to Private Johnny Jones of Route 2 to bolster his morale. Teachers found that school children were interested in composition exercises, provided the assigned composition was a letter to a hero.

Strangest case was that of Private James P. Simpkins, for whom the Fort Devens, Mass., Post Office has received some 1,400 softly scented letters. Neither Fort Devens nor the War Department has ever heard of Private James P. Simpkins.

Some promoters have seized upon the commercial aspects of the Army Postal Service, established radio clubs whose members pledge themselves to write letters to soldiers every week in return for lapel pins. Last week the War Department was looking for a way to crack down on such schemes, to make sure soldiers got the letters they wanted to get instead of just letters. Meantime, the perspiring Army Postal Service continued to slog through higher & higher mountains of mail. Only one thing was constant: 10% of all overseas letters were misdirected.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.