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Posted on 11/13/2004 7:52:35 AM PST by snippy_about_it
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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 War Letters Myron Fox is vice president of the Military Postal History Society , a group that studies the mail that is sent to and from soldiers. He is an expert on United States military and civilian censorship in World War I and World War II. In this interview, he describes how wartime letters were censored. Q: When were the first soldiers' letters censored in the United States? A: We do not believe it was done in an overt manner before the Civil War. It might be that most of the troops before then were illiterate and officers were largely trusted, so they didn't bother. There was some censoring in the Civil War because letters sometimes had to cross enemy lines. Most of the censoring comes from the prisoner-of-war camps. For example, if someone was writing a letter from Andersonville [a Confederate prison camp where many Union soldiers starved] those at the camp didn't want people to know what was happening, so the prisoners wouldn't be allowed to say anything bad about a camp. The first heavy censorship of U.S. soldiers took place during World War I.  A World War I cover bearing an Eagle-design American Expeditionary Force censorship marking. Q: What were the censors looking for? A: The censors were looking out for two things in World War I and World War II. They didn't want the soldier to say anything that would be of value to the enemy, such as where they were. They always wanted to camouflage how strong the troops were. "Loose lips sink ships" was the phrase that was very prevalent in WW II and that was the theory in WW I as well. Officers also were looking to see any weakening of desire among the troops. It's very important in wartime for officers to know about morale issues.  Q: Were the letters ever censored for moral reasons? One of our researchers recently found over 500 confiscated and condemned letters at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. They included letters that used graphic language dealing with sex. Our member also found that in some cases the same writer would keep having his letters confiscated and apparently didn't get the message. These letters were never delivered and apparently the sender was never sent a notice of the offense.  Q: Were other types of letters confiscated? Letters that were sent in foreign languages were also intercepted. Many members of the armed forces were immigrants or the children of immigrants and they were more comfortable communicating home in their native language. A letter written in Polish or Italian usually wasn't delivered because the typical censor didn't know what it said. Q: Did censoring influence the quality of the letters written? In general, in the Revolutionary War and Civil War the letters have much more information. The writers would say, 'We're outside of Fredericksburg' or 'I'm in the 12th division,' and that's important information that was often cut out in World War I and World War II. In WW II, it's common for a soldier to write, 'I can't say much or the censors will cut it out.' Early in World War II, the soldiers couldn't say where they were. People back home didn't know if they were in the Pacific or the Atlantic. You'll see letters where the soldier will say where he is -- it's cut out -- and how many people are in the building -- and that's cut out too. People would do very simple things to get around the censor like write on the inside of the flap but they were usually unsuccessful. So the World War letters often just include just Mom and Pop stuff.  Free APO cover mailed by member of 2nd Armored Division on way to invasion of North Africa. Mail was held in Washington to prevent any possible security compromise until after the invasion (landing occurred on Nov. 8, 1942) and introduced into the mail system on November 11, 1942. Also note usual Army censor handstamp. Judging from other covers in collection this mark was only used for Invasion of North Africa. Q: Who did the censoring? The enlisted soldier was censored by an officer in his unit. It was considered an unimportant job and often someone like the chaplain or the dentist would get saddled with the job. If the enlisted man did not want his officer to read his mail -- if he had been giving him a hard time, let's say -- the soldier could use what was called a 'blue envelope.' The writer would certify that there is nothing in here that shouldn't be and the letter would go up to the next level where it might be looked at a little more kindly. The officers were self-censored. They didn't have anyone looking at their mail regularly, although the higher level staff or base censors would randomly check officers' letters to keep an eye on them. Officers seemed to say more in their letters. Whether it was because they knew better what was allowed or whether they were more brazen or whether their mail often was not censored is debatable.  Q: What happened to letters that were censored? If the section they wanted out was very big, they would confiscate the letter. If it was small, they cut out the words or obliterate it with ink. If they had to use special chemicals to check for invisible writing -- something they did when they suspected a spy -- they would confiscate the letter because they didn't want people to know they were doing it. The censors returned very few soldiers' letters. They confiscated them; they didn't send them back. They didn't necessarily give the word back to the soldier that his or her letter was withheld. It depended where it was stopped and how fast the troops were moving. From the soldier's perspective, you often didn't know if it was going to get through. The soldiers were all given guidance on what they could say, so you would think they would know how to avoid getting their mail intercepted, but not all did.  Censored mail can be found from every section of the globe. This WWII censored cover is from Gold Coast. Q: What happened to you if your letter was censored? You might be talked to, because it's important. I don't know of any soldiers who were severely punished for what they wrote in a letter. It wasn't considered an overt act of sabotage; it was considered carelessness. Q: Why did censorship end after World War II? It took a lot of time and effort to censor mail and the military probably just figured that it just wasn't worth it. Some censored letters are known from the early part of the Korean War. We believe this was an error with World War II veterans implementing WW II policy until things settled down. Communications changed too. Things were supposed to be faster and that included the mail to and from soldiers. In the latter part of the Vietnam War, the military didn't even bother to cancel letters. Today's Educational Sources and suggestions for further reading: www.pbs.org www.postalcensorship.com/ www.linns.com      |
On This Day In History
0354 St Augustine of Hippo Numidia, Algeria, convert/Christian philosopher
1312 Edward III king of England (1327-77)
1504 Philip the Generous count of Hessen
1804 Theophilus Hunter Holmes Lt Gen (Confederate Army), died in 1880
1809 John AB Dahlgren US Union lt adm/inventor (Civil war Dahlgren-cannon)
1831 James Maxwell Edinburgh Scot, physicist (Treatise on Electricity)
1833 Edwin Thomas Booth US, US Hall of Fame/actor (Hamlet)
1838 Joseph F Smith 6th President of Mormon church
1850 Robert Louis Stevenson Scotland, author (Treasure Island)
1854 George Whitefield Chadwick Lowell MA, composer (Judi Van Winke)
1856 Louis D Brandeis Massachusetts, Supreme Court Justice (1916-39)
1882 John Lowry Mount Vernon NY, NYC builder (Radio City Music Hall)
1898 Earl Sande jockey (Hall of Famer)
1906 Hermione Baddeley England, actress (Camp Runamuck, Maude, Good Life)
1915 Howard Cooke Jamaica, (1991 Mico Gold Medal Award)
1916 Jack Elam Miami AZ, actor (The Dakotas, East Street, Rio Lobo)
1917 Robert Sterling Newcastle PA, actor (George Kirby-Adv of Topper)
1922 Jack Narz Louisville KY, TV gameshow host (Dotto, Video Village)
1922 Oskar Werner film actor/director (Shoes of the Fisherman)
1923 Linda Christian Tampico, Mexico, actress (Athena, VIPs, Battle Zone)
1930 Fred Harris (Sen-D-Oklahoma)
1932 Richard Mulligan Bronx NY, actor (Soap, Empty's Nest, Big Bus)
1938 Jean Seberg Marshaltown Iowa, actress (Breathless, Paint Your Wagon)
1941 Dack Rambo Delano CA, actor (Guns of Will Sonnett, Dallas)
1941 Mel Stottlemyre Wash, pitcher (NY Yankee)/pitching coach (NY Met)
1943 John Paul Hammond NYC, blues singer (So Many Roads)
1949 Whoopi Goldberg [Caryn Johnson], NYC, actress/big mouth idiot (Color Purple, Burglar)
1963 Vinny Testaverde (football: Baltimore Ravens, Cleveland Browns, NY Jets, Tampa Bay Buccaneers: quarterback; Heisman Trophy winner: University of Miami [1986])
Good morning, Snippy and everyone at the Freeper Foxhole.
Back later, gotta run stuff to do, big time important stuff!
IT'S SATURDAY!, PAYDAY!
LIFE..IS..GOOD.
I've just heard a rumor the Yassir is STILL dead. I'll try to confirm this.
Interesting topic today, snippy.
My older sister married the boy across the street, and his sister is my age, so I know his family well. My brother-in-law's mom told me about how worried she was about her husband during WWII. He was part of the flight crew for bombers. He would tell her where he was using the first letter of each line to spell out the location. She laughed about how she misdecoded one of the letters.
Years later, this came up in a conversation with my BIL. He never knew about the coded letters between his parents until I told him.
"Each day I die a thousand deaths" :^)
Read: Lamentations 3:25-42
Let us search out and examine our ways, and turn back to the Lord. —Lamentations 3:40
Bible In One Year: Lamentations 1-2; Hebrews 10:1-18
A friend told me about a man who shouted the same three words each day from his street-corner newsstand. "Ain't it awful!" he would say to passersby while extending a newspaper. People bought a paper because they just had to know what terrible thing had occurred.
Tragedy and dire predictions always make the front page, but if we become preoccupied with bad news, we will succumb to what my friend calls "awfulizing"—a pervasive pessimism that clouds every situation with gloom.
If anyone had a good reason for being despondent, it was the prophet Jeremiah. For 40 years, he declared God's judgment on the rebellious and unrepentant nation of Judah. Jeremiah suffered because of their disobedience, but he clung to his faith in God's goodness. Even after witnessing the destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity of his people, Jeremiah wrote: "The Lord will not cast off forever. Though He causes grief, yet He will show compassion according to the multitude of His mercies. Let us search out and examine our ways, and turn back to the Lord" (Lamentations 3:31-32,40).
Disobedience to God can cause great pain, but the doorway out of discouragement leads to the Lord, who "is good to those who wait for Him" (v.25). —David McCasland
free dixie,sw
Good Saturday, Foxhole! Falling in to ... err ... check my mail. :)
Interesting subject today! Hope all is well with you.
A large bottle of Advil would be handy as well :-)
HI manna!!! 
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
ò E.dA = q/e0
ò B.dA = 0
ò E.ds = -d/dt(ò B.dA)
ò B.ds = m 0ò j.dA,
Ay, tear her tattered ensign down!
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