1942 Cover To The Philippines

Had to share this one - always good to check the address on covers. Feb. 1942 from Peoria to the Philippines, returned to sender due to suspension of service. I noticed the military address, did a little digging, and found that Private Haskill survived the destruction of the 17th pursuit squadron as a fighting force in the early days of the Japanese invasion and fought on at Bataan, where he was captured in April 1942 and subjected to the Bataan death march. Haskill survived that too, being released in September 1945 and returning to the US, where he worked as a school bus mechanic in Michigan before retiring to Florida and then Georgia, where he passed away in 2000.

This cover tried to reach Haskill while he was still fighting at Bataan.

Wow - that is a great story

Peter

Very cool. It's always neat when you can find history related to the cover through the sender and/or receiver.

paperhistory

With the availability of info via the internet discovering the history behind covers can be quite an adventure. Great time to be involved in the hobby.

Paperhistory - I love covers like this one, thanks for sharing the cover and the story behind it, with us. Just curious, did you find it at a stamp show, or on ebay, or where?

Linus

Great cover and history!

This cover turned up in a consignment box lot from a dealer.

Great Story.
Our servicemen and women only had mail to stay in touch with family and friends and the outside world " in the old days" - before technology.... Today they can use internet to see an hear family and friends..

There are many "Service Suspended" covers from the WW2 era as international mails were suspended to countries all over the world during different times in the war. They tend to go for very modest amounts of money and would make a fun collecting area.