Mail From Home

This looks like an ordinary letter but actually it's something special to me. I've kept it all these years as a remembrance of a time when the US Postal Service was a service that we all admired and when it was said that "Neither rain, nor snow, nor dark of night will delay the US postal service from it's appointed rounds" it was more than just an expression.

If you notice the postmark is Kingston, PA, November 13, 1943 and was a Christmas card that was sent to me from the Bible Class at my Methodist Church. I had left the address to which it was mailed long before Nov 13th.
The remarkable thing about this mailing is that I did not get it till June of 1945 when I returned home and was discharged from the service. My father got the card from the church where it had been returned to the sender and marked "Undeliverable". The card was originally sent to me when I was in the Air Force in CTD (College Training Detachment). Because of the shortage of flight training facilities and the large number of cadet enlistees, we were placed in colleges throughout the country to await flight training. This gave us a chance to take some college courses and provided the colleges with students they would not otherwise have - a good overall arrangement. I was stationed in the 30th College Training Detachment at Xavier University in Cincinnatti, Ohio.

Now, if you look carefully at the envelope you will see that this card, with a $.03 cent stamp on it, was forwarded many time before being returned to the sender and each forwarding address is like a roadmap of my travels in the Air Force during my training.

First, it went to Xavier University (CTD). From there it was forwarded to me at NAAC Nashville, Tennessee where I underwent mental and physical testing to determine if I should proceed to flight training.
From there it followed me to Maxwell Field in Montgomery, Alabama where I underwent the rigors of Air Corp Preflight training. Next, the letter followed me to Dorr Field in Arcadia, Florida where my primary flight training took place in the PT-17 Stearman biplane. From there it was forwarded to me at Courtland, Alabama where I had basic training in the infamous BT-13 Vultee "Vibrator".
The final stop, before being returned to the sender, was to Columbus, Mississippi where I had advanced twin engine flight training in the AT-10 and where I graduated and received my wings and commission. Then this much traveled letter was sent back to Kingston, Pennsylvania where it originated.

That's seven "forwards", never quite catching up with me.
That's the end of this story. Just a memory of the days when the Post Office "delivered". How different today.