So far in our History of Mail series our topics have included far in our History of Mail series our topics have included
Ben Franklin as first Postmaster General, Owney the mailbag loving Postal Dog
and Charles Lindbergh as an airmail pilot before he flew that incredible solo flight over the Atlantic.
In this final part in the History of Mail series, we want to examine how the Postal Service
handled mail during World War Two with two stories
one on V-mail and help from the Six Triple Eight Postal Battalion.
And we can't wait to share the vintage 1960s music video used to introduce Mr. Zip.
We finish up with an examination of Going Postal: high speed sorting and Informed delivery.
Welcome to the History of Mail Part Three Next on Marking History
This is the historical marker for the 144th Army Postal Unit, located in Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia.
While the US Post Office had the task of supplying mail to every resident and business in the US,
the military set up Army Post Offices or APOs around the world.
Throughout history, the United States Military has recognized the need for postal services
as a morale enhancing and tactical asset.
By 1918, military personnel started to operate overseas field postal stations
and the first all-military mail service in American history.
Did you know that LONG before e-mail, there was v-mail?
V, or Victory mail, was a valuable tool for the military during World War II.
On June 15, 1942, the Post Office Department officially inaugurated V- Mail service
in which letters to and from members of the Armed Forces overseas were microfilmed
for transporting, then printed out for the recipient.
Letters were opened by machines at V-Mail stations, and then filmed mechanically at a rate of 2,000 to 2,500 letters an hour.
150,000 un-microfilmed V-Mail letters weighed 1,500 pounds and filled 37 mail sacks.
When microfilmed, they weighed just 45 pounds and filled one mail sack.
The reduction in weight and bulk of military mail created more space for other vital military cargo.
And it provided safer, faster mail service for the military overseas.
More than a billion V-Mail letters were delivered between June 1942 and November 1, 1945,
when V-Mail service ended after the war.
In February 1945, warehouses in Birmingham, England, were filled with millions and millions
of pieces of undelivered mail and Christmas packages
intended for members of the U.S. military serving in the European Theater.
Army officials reported that the lack of reliable mail delivery was hurting morale.
One general predicted that the backlog in Birmingham would take six months to process.
Who would take on this massive task?
IT was up to group of young women who wanted to serve while crossing racial barriers.
The 6,888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, nicknamed the "Six Triple Eight",
was an all-black battalion of the Women's Army Corps (WAC).
The Six Triple Eight had 855 black women, both enlisted and officers, and was led by Major Charity Adams Earley.
It was the only all-black, all- female battalion that served overseas during World War II.
The group motto was "No mail, low morale".
Despite poor working conditions in a rat-infested warehouse, these devoted servicewomen worked 7 days a week.
And they achieved unprecedented success and efficiency in solving the military's postal problems.
With the new tracking system that the Six Triple Eight Battalion created,
the women processed an average of 65,000 pieces of mail per shift
and cleared the six-month backlog of mail in just three months.
The women provided essential support for the U.S. military in the European theater
by linking service members to their loved ones back home.
The unit was initially set up to determine the value Black women brought to the military.
They ultimately ran the fastest mail service in the European Theater during World War II.
The period following World War II was marked by a booming economy, a growing population, and a general sense of optimism.
It also called for modernization!
The Post Office Department began motorizing city delivery routes in the 1950s.
Three-wheeled vehicles like this Mailster were tested in half a dozen cities beginning in June 1950.
By the end of the decade, more than 5,700 Mailsters in service.
Often known as "mail scooters", Mailsters worked best in areas with warm climates and flat terrain.
The two cylinder gasoline- powered vehicle had a safe top speed of 35 miles per hour and a 7.5 horsepower engine.
As you can imagine, there were a few shortcomings to this vehicle.
A Mailster could be rendered useless in just three inches of snowfall.
Mail carriers often complained of frequent breakdowns ranging from clutch failure to broken front axles.
And, if a Mailster rounded a corner a little too quickly, it was also prone to tipping over.
The Mailster was eventually replaced by the Jeep.
In an effort to modernize the purchase of stamps, The Postal Service introduced the Model F Stampmaster in 1956.
The machine not only made change but also “spoke” to customers with pre-recorded messages at the end of transactions.
Thank you. I am another example of streamlining your postal service.
By 1963, mail volume more than doubled. The nature of the mail also changed.
The development of the computer brought centralization of accounts
and sent a growing mass of utility bills and payments, bank deposits and receipts, advertising, magazines,
credit card transactions, mortgage bills and payments, and Social Security checks through the mail.
To cope with rising mail volumes, the Department needed to sort and distribute mail more efficiently.
So what was the solution?
One was the development of a nationwide address coding system called the Zoning Improvement Plan,
commonly known as ZIP Code.
Previously, clerks had to memorize the names and locations of thousands of Post Offices
in order to sort mail to the right hub.
The ZIP Code helped postal employees manually sort mail by consolidating regional, city, and state information
into five easy-to-read numbers.
The new code also paved the way for further development of automated mail processing.
Welcome to the Postal service in the 21st century!
Today mail-sorting machines read bar codes that help them process between 30 to 40 thousand pieces of mail per hour.
This sorter can handle more than 100,000 pieces per hour.
The USPS processes hundreds of millions of mail pieces every day.
That translates into 212 billion pieces of mail each year to over 150 million homes
and businesses in the United States and its territories.
So how many people does it take to move all that mail?
The postal service is our nation's largest civilian employer, with over 700,000 career workers,
who handle more than 44 percent of the world's cards and letters.
Want to go high tech?
Informed Delivery is a free and optional notification feature that gives residential consumers
the ability to digitally preview their letter-sized mail scheduled to arrive that day on their computer or smart phone.
Exterior images are provided for letter-size mail pieces that are processed through USPS automated equipment.
For security, Informed Delivery allows customers to indicate if specific items in the Delivery notifications are not received.
So before you go postal, you need to appreciate all the efforts
it take to move your first class letters literally across America for 55 pennies.
If history can be taught with stories
they can never be forgotten.
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