All letters from sailors in the war zone were appreciated by love ones back home. On the other hand no words can tell how much sailors looked forward to receiving letters from home at mail call.
All letters from sailors in the war zone were appreciated by love ones back home. On the other hand no words can tell how much sailors looked forward to receiving letters from home at MAIL CALL.
Often, sea journeys on the Mad Hooligan lasted as long as two weeks. When in port, our stay would usually be for only a few days — just long enough to take on fuel, water, provisions and a new cargo. With the ship always on the move, there were many times that it took weeks for our mail to catch up with us. For our crew of 125 men it was not unusual for us to receive six or eight sacks of mail the first day we were in a new port. Once the mail arrived aboard, all work stopped. At Mail Call, the name of the sailor to whom each letter was addressed was shouted loud and clear. Care packages from back home, magazines, newspapers and letters and more letters were a great boast to our morale.
We often sent mail out more times than we received it. Why? Leaving mail in a port was easy, but it was quite an effort for mail to catch up with an LST, the way these “work horses” moved around the islands of the Pacific.
All outgoing mail had to be censored. It was not unusual to hear that the letter we sent home had “so much cut out of it”. The censor used his scissors to cut out whatever he thought to be a risk to security. Where we were, our cargo, other ships in the harbor or ships that were in the last convoy with us and other items were snipped out of the letters we sent. However, clever sailors had worked out codes to let the folks back home know just where they were in that large Pacific Ocean. One fellow would use the serial number of an army buddy to tell where he was. He would write home, that his friend had been transferred and call attention to his new address. Since all army return addresses contained a serial number, he would substitute a longitude and latitude as that number.
Halfway through the war, the government developed V-Mail.
At any time, sailors at sea and troops on foreign shores write letters home and look forward to receiving mail. Mail is known to be the best morale booster in the military. During WW2 most of our young men were in uniform and the majority were on foreign shores or at sea.
Tons and tons of mail were generated daily. This mail took up precious space on ships needed to bring war material and troops to the battle areas. This was a special problem for naval ships. When a ship is at sea for weeks, it’s not hard to visualize the sacks of mail being unloaded when that ship reaches port. Also, at that port, there will be ready to load aboard, many letters from home.
Our government in desperation developed a microfilm system called V Mail. There was too little space for writing so it was hard to get the military to switch to V Mail. When they did switch, only a slight reduction was noticed in mail problems. Incidentally, instead of a stamp on all mail, our servicemen were able to write the word “free” in the upper right hand corner of the envelope.
Had the electronics of today been available during WW2, no mail problem would have existed. Computers with e-mail could have been the way to go.
