Jack Smith was, indeed, a Hormel employee. I have a couple of other covers/correspondence to him. When I lived in Minnesota, I had a neighbor who was a former Hormel employee. He knew, or knew of, Mr. Smith.
I wonder if the examiner was removing the postage stamps. I did a google search and came up with the following image of a cover which in fact had stamps removed by a US Censor.
Clandestine information can be conveyed in many ways. Here is a seaman's letter written from the Pacific on August 6, 1945 (the day of the Nagasaki bomb!) and mailed the next day. The stamp has been removed to reveal the writing underneath.
A close-up of the stamp area:
Accompanying the letter above was this 2-page code sheet the wife had at home to "translate" code within the message:
No code in the letter that I can tell - just the message under the stamp. He doesn't start with a salutation in quotes, nor does he use any of his code words like post office - so there was no particular clue for her to even look there.
Disclaimer: While a tremendous amount of effort goes into ensuring the accuracy of the information contained in this site, Stamp Community assumes no liability for errors. Copyright 2005 - 2026 Stamp Community Family - All rights reserved worldwide. Use of any images or content on this website without prior written permission of Stamp Community or the original lender is strictly prohibited. Privacy Policy / Terms of UseAdvertise Here
Posted 11/24/2015 2:30 pm
