6 Cent Air Mail Cover W/Postage Due, Army Markings

From Italy? But the return address is NY. Was that just how they did things?

The apo address is New York, but at that time, the unit was in Italy. APO addresses were U.S. cities, and mail for a particular unit was sent to that city for processing and forwarding. Thus, as units moved from one location to another (and often, the exact location was kept secret), one could send mail to the unit without having to constantly change the address or even know where the unit currently was located.

I see! I had a feeling it was something like that. The whole "loose lips" campaign during the war...

That and the fact it is cheaper for the U.S. Government to combine all of the mail into one overseas shipment per day via military aircraft. This is true even today. When my wife and I send "care" packages to our military friends overseas, we only have to pay postage to the city of the apo.

When I listen to old radio shows, I often hear them mention "APO", but also what sounds like "FPO".

APO = Army Post Office
FPO = Fleet Post Office (Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard)

Wow, really?? That makes sense now that I know! Interesting... How did a sailor's mail get off the ship?

They used trained porpoises! Just kidding. During WWII, it could take many weeks for mail to get to a combat ship. Usually the mail was delivered by supply tenders which routinely had to rendezvous with the ship to resupply it. During Viet Nam, when I was in, helicopters were often used.

So the outgoing (off going?) mail from the ships went the same way?

That is correct!

I bet in wartime, that was a dangrous job, UNLESS it was done along with supply runs

Once again you are quite welcome Jeff.
This post reminded me that I have a very similar cover.
Here it is.



Not quite as good a shape as yours Nells. No letter inside I'm afraid, but I do have about 70 or so of these from Lt Rutherford to his parents, many containing the correspondence. And sporting different airmail stamps. All a gift from a friend who was a distant cousin of his wife. She, the friend, has since also given me several pieces of the lieutenants army id cards and other documents.
History lives in my basement!