As impossible as it may seem to children today, there used to be this stuff called mail. Mail, if you can believe it, was actually written by hand on paper and then physically moved through a complex delivery system from one person to another. You needed envelopes. You needed stamps. Weird, right?
While it’s true that the average person does less letter writing in the digital age, there are still times when an e-mail just won’t due. Anybody who has been away from home for any real length of time can attest to the fact that an actual letter can be something very important. Especially in the military, which has never been on the cutting-edge when it comes to creature comforts like personal correspondence, we see both the advantages of new digital methods of communication and the benefits of the tried and true classics like the letter.
“Everyone still loves mail call,” said Lt. Cmdr. Karin Burzynski, USS Nimitz (CVN 68) Public Affairs Officer. “Email and Facebook can not compete with the satisfaction a Sailor gets from a personal card, letter or care package.”
Nimitz is currently deployed in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of responsibility conducting maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts, and Sailors on board are experiencing the satisfaction of mail call pretty regularly.
“In May we received 302 pounds of letter mail and 24,780 pounds of parcels,” said Lt.j.g. Lee J. Adams of the ship’s post office. “On average, it takes three to four weeks for an item departing Everett to arrive on the Nimitz.”
Mail has been an important consideration in every major military engagement in our country’s history. Especially in the modern wars, the subject of personal mail both as an informational device and morale booster has been critical.
Even in the Civil War, arguably the first modern war, mail was a critical factor in the conflict. In fact, according to the National Postal Museum public website, the movement of mail became one of the most important factors of the war.
“As tensions in the United States rose to a fever pitch and the Civil War broke out in 1861, Union leaders began to develop ways to isolate the mutinous southern states. In addition to erecting a blockade meant to keep supplies from reaching the South, Postmaster General Montgomery Blair cut off mail service to states that had seceded. Confederate stamps were valueless in the North and mail addressed to the Confederate states was taken to the Dead Letter Office and subsequently returned to sender.”
A broken mail system made already sporadic communication even more difficult for soldiers at the time. According to the National Postal Museum, “Soldiers in the Civil War also had a difficult time sending mail to and receiving mail from their loved ones at home. While it was relatively easy for the Army post to find soldiers when they were encamped for several weeks, periods of intense action saw both armies in perpetual motion. This continued shifting of locations made delivering the mail a very real challenge.”
The art of deployment correspondence really came into it’s own during the first World War. With the improvement of organization and technology, deployed troops were able to send and receive letters.
From the Postal Museum: “As American soldiers began to pour across the Atlantic to help the Allied cause, letter writing provided a crucial connection between these men and their families back in the states. Letters passing between soldiers and those left behind included everything from passionate declarations of love to parental support to the simple daily news of home and the front lines.”
The lengthy combat timeline of the second World War, in stark contrast to the comparatively brief conflict of World War I, brought with it entirely new operational and organizational concerns. Not the least of which proved to be delivering mail.
Being the sole means of communication with deployed friends and family, and considering the sheer number of deployed troops during WWII, the handling of mail delivery quickly became a massive operation.
According to the Postal Museum, “As important as regular mail was to the morale of American troops, military supply ships were often swamped with bags and bags of letters needing to be delivered. Cargo space taken up by the mail was desperately needed for war materials.”
To solve this problem the military devised a mail delivery system known as “V-Mail”, short for Victory Mail. Letters were photographed and reduced to the size of a film strip before being shipped, thus saving on space.
Then, according to a United News video broadcast circa 1944, “automated machines near the front enlarge the images on the film to a 4X5 inch print.” The military claimed the new service would get letters to their destination “in just a few days.” The development machines were kept in laboratories near American outposts and each lab was capable of processing 300,000 letters a day, which having been enlarged and printed were then put into envelopes and delivered to soldiers.
Though truly cutting-edge for its time, V-Mail was not without it’s problems.
Tales of heavy censorship of personal letters are common, and a scratched piece of film meant an unprintable letter. As revolutionary as it was, V-Mail would not endure as a consistent means of communication.
The tales coming home in personal mail told an entirely different story than either the official press releases or the news coverage, which only helped to further polarize the country during the war in Vietnam.
For the first time ever in the history of American combat, media statements and personal letters were arriving home on similar timelines, and those left behind were not as dependent on official news sources for their information. The letters gave first hand accounts of the events unfolding on the front lines.
This would prove to be a new kind of war in many ways, and the frank personal nature of the mail returning home must surely be counted as a reason why. Although phone calls home were not yet a possibility, the technology was in place for deployed troops to record voice messages to be mailed home. Electronic personal communication worked its way into the military system gradually as better and better supporting technology became available. Today, it is commonplace, and it is not unusual for deployed service members to check their e-mail daily.
Messages and photos reach around the world in minutes rather than days, or even weeks, as was once the norm. Additionally, the military has had to cope with the rise of social media.
Most commands and ships have official websites and Facebook pages, to keep family and friends informed, and all have now had to address the potential safety risks that come with such widely available personal communication.
“Sailors are allowed to access social media sites, however, they are reminded to be cautious of what information they are posting,” said Lt. Thomas LeVier, USS Nimitz (CVN 68) Combat Systems Department Information Assurance Division Officer.
Skype, and other forms of video chat, remain largely unavailable to deployed troops primarily due to bandwidth limitations.