Here's The Riddle Of The Day...

There's something about this cover I find fascinating.

I'll give everyone a couple of days to post their best guesses and then reveal what it is.

Here's the cover:

I have little knowledge about u.s. service covers. I just learned a few weeks ago that some military service covers did not require postage.

My guess- that it has been inspected and hand stamped by an A.E.F. military censor but yet there is no censor sealing tape or # on it. As well, in the bottom ring of the top cancel, that looks a bit funny.

Mike

The great majority of US WWI and WWII soldier mail was tendered unsealed to the censor, thus no need for censors to open/reseal.
A bit unusual for "France" to be part of the printed inscription, otherwise it looks like a typical WWI cover.

The sender and receiver are the same name?

I thought he was writing his wife: Mrs. James M. Crockett.

No. It appears to be sent to Mrs. James M. Crockett from Sgt. James M. Crockett

Opinion:
He was.
It was a relative common custom (in my experience) in the 1940's 1950's to address the wife, as Mrs...with husbands name.
The American experience may well, differ.

(I can sense the young ladies here, cringing)

APO #765 is Naples Italy?

rod222 - same in North America. "Mrs John Smith" very common. Also - male children receiving mail would usually be "Master John Smith." No idea what salutation was used for young ladies. Miss?

If my grade school education is relevant:

When addressing letters (in olden days) the use of Mr. was used to address a senior male (married or unmarried)
The use of Mrs. was used to formally address your wife or the female head of household if married.
The use of Master was used to address a minor male
The use of Miss was used to address an unmarried (either adult or minor) female.

It would appear that given the generation, this letter was either addressed to the wife or Mother of the Sgt. (I say Mother as the 1st son usually was named after the Father.) Given that the middle initial is the same I suspect it is his wife and not the Mother as the formal address is sent with the male name rather than female.

In todays greetings, the Ms. declaration was first introduced to keep hidden the marital status of the woman or was used to provide a proper nomenclature for a widowed rather than Miss or Mrs. (The Ms. nomenclature was slow to acceptance in the beginning & since acceptance changed significantly from the original use (it has evolved as women's status has evolved).

From my readings in this forum, the Red Cross would provide preprinted message cards for soldiers to write some simple message back home during heavy battle lulls and it was free franked. (Maybe I oversimplified this)

Unless this Crockett is related to Davy I don't see anything very unusual about it.

Is it the foreign cancellation? I thought mail to the U.S. was supposed to get a generic APO cancel so as not to reveal where a soldier was stationed. Or was that only WWII?

Is the back shown because there was no back stamp?

APO 765 was Naples, Italy in 1943 and was Marseilles, France in 1944.

The AEF was established on July 5, 1917, in France under the command of Gen. John J. Pershing and was was disbanded August 31, 1920.


I tried but could not read the cancel for a date but the envelope was probably used out of period of the AEF.

Revcollector got it.

Sgt James M. Crockett was the great grandson of Davy Crockett. I know this as fact as the lady I obtained this cover from was James Crockett's son's wife.

She had called me about a small accumulation of stamps and this was in it. She was a pretty amazing lady. Her father in law, James Crockett was a member of the army and fought in the Mexican Border War of 1916 before shipping out to France for the Great War, or War To End All Wars, as it was called in the period.

She was also a bit of a walking legend herself, having been one of the first women to join the navy in 1942.

The reason I'm so certain is the photographs and other memorabilia she shared with me during the visit.

By the way, she's 94 and just now having to move to assisted living. Her husband passed last year and she's slowly losing her sight.

You never know who you are going to meet. Just as importantly, you have to listen and ask questions.

It was the highlight of the month to have had the chance to meet her.

Interesting story. A whole lot of otherwise nondescript covers become very interesting once their full story can be uncovered.

I was right by the Alamo just two days ago. The battle was in 1836.