Sad Ending To Uso Unopened WWII Covers

I have returned home from my 50th High School class reunion! Hopefully I can turn more attention to my stamp/cover collecting.

Since I had to travel 400 miles to my youth home town, my wife and I were able to stay with an old friend whom I had seen little of recently. Having remarried, he has been disposing of items saved by his first wife.

One of our discussions turned to my stamp/cover collecting and also the fact that I volunteer at the local USO (United Services Organization). He said that he wished that he knew I collected covers. During World War II, his deceased wife's mother volunteered at a USO and that she had saved a huge quantity of letters which could not be delivered and were returned to the USO. I asked how many, maybe 30, 50? He replied probably several hundred. They were unopened and had various stamps and postmarks from all over the world. For several months he had tried to find someone locally who would want them, but there was no interest so he gave them to the local American Legion. We checked with the commander of that legion who said he also couldn't find anyone interested in them so the week before pitched them into the trash!
Oh did my heart ache! - not only for the covers and what was on them, but also for the contents which probably contained many interesting stories.
I think my wife became a little more aware of why I have boxes of seemingly unvaluable covers!

How unfortunate for you.

I knew by the title that this story was going to give me a stomach ache, but I read it anyway. How sickening!

Maybe, just maybe, though, a picker came by and dug them out of the garbage.