1934 Army Airmail Covers With "Take Out" And "Out" Markings?

What do the "TAKE OUT" and "OUT" markings mean on these covers?



Basil

I have two examples handy. Like yours, they are addressed to the general delivery.





From the 1932 Postal Laws and Regulations volume:



Thus it appears that when mail comes into the general delivery department of a PO, it is immediately marked with a date when it is to be "taken out" of the general delivery files if not yet claimed and dealt with accordingly as dead mail. I see varying lengths of time in the 4 examples shown in this thread so far, 10 days, 2 weeks, 1 month and those times also listed in the regulations. The fact that we have these mail pieces would indicate that they were claimed. I suspect the sender of your airmail covers wrote to the general delivery clerk and had them returned under cover to avoid any extra postal markings. That's my best guess on these.

Great, John. Thanks. My covers fit with the two week requirement (if you read the bottom one as "MAR [4]" and figure that the date had not been advanced to the 5th). The backstamps on the one to Ogden, Utah cover shows a general delivery receipt on Feb 23, but then has a CDS on Mar 5th. Both of these have the sender's return address on the back. Could these have been returned to the sender through the mail? I have a third cover, same sender, sent to North Platte, Utah:

This one clearly looks like it was returned via mail to the sender, sent back on Feb 21, despite the "MAR 3 -- 1934" marking.