V-Mail

 

During World War II, the United States used an efficient means of mail delivery to US forces serving around the country and overseas.

The amount of mail flowing was massive!  "An unprecedented amount of mail was moved about during the war with Army post offices, fleet post offices and US post offices flooded with mail.  Each year of the war, the number of pieces of mail increased.  In 1945, 2.5 billion pieces went through the Army Postal Service and 8 million pieces through Navy post offices.  To bring mail service to those serving worldwide, the military postal system required a global network and innovative practice."  Source

V-Mail was a system used to drastically reduce the space needed to transport mail.  A form was filled out which was photographed in microfilm.  It was then transported, reproduced and delivered.  My mother received mail from my father and my father's brother via V-Mail.  As example is below.  The size of the delivered letter was 4"wide by 5" tall. 

 

 

 

Wichita "Big Read" - Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant" by Roz Chast

 

Recently I decided to read the book selected as the NEA Big Read for Wichita, Kansas.  This was a first for me, as I have never read a graphic novel before.  It was also a first in that I got the book by way of Libby, an app that lets you borrow books for free from your local library.  It allows you to read the books on your Kindle or to listen to them as an audio-book. You do need to have a library card, but those are free.  I strongly encourage using Libby if you like to read as much as I do.  While I also purchase books to read on my Kindle, Libby is certainly an awesome FREE alternative.  

 

Now to the book itself - it was a very quick read as it IS a graphic novel.  But the topic is not an easy one.  The topic is what happens as the only child of elderly parents comes to grips with helping them in their declining years.  While my particular experience in handling this was a bit different, in many ways it was exactly the same.  "“Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?” is Chast’s graphic memoir of her parents’ final years: Her father, George, died at 95; her mother, Elizabeth, at 97."  Source 

My father died at the age of 86 in 1999. My mother died a little more than a month before her 100th birthday in October of 2015.   I was lucky in that the Assisted Living facility that I was able to move my mother into had a continuum of care.  That means that as she gradually needed more and more help, she was able to get it in the same facility.  

There are two main points of similarity between my experience and that of the author.  One is the cost of elder care.  In my case, my parents had saved a fair amount of money, but as my mother needed more and more care, I had to sell her house.  The other point of similarity was clearing out her house which was a nightmare.  In my case, I was able to find a fellow who took on the job.  He promised to throw away what wasn't worth anything, sell what might be worth something, and give to me what I needed to keep.  As an example of the latter, he saved boxes of pictures and the letters that my father wrote to my mother as he served in the Pacific during WWII. With the sale of their house, I was able to continue using her money for her care.  She died two months before she ran out of money.  I was in the process of getting Medicaid for her when she passed.

For anyone who might be in this situation, I recommend reading this book.  Another good review of the book can be found here.

Drafted! With a Wife and Two Kids!

 In October of 1943, my father (Everett H. Chabino) received a revised Notice of Classification which changed his classification to 1 - A. At the time, he was 30 years old.  He had married my mother in December of 1939.  My sister was born in 1940 and my brother in 1942.  Below is his Draft Notice.  My father entered service in the Navy in January of 1944 and was released in December of 1945. I was born in May of 1947.

 

 

Draft Notice

 

A bit of investigation provided the following information about drafting married men with children.  

"On September 16, 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt implemented the first peacetime draft in history, known as the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940. The following year, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, the United States was at war. Thousands of young men rushed to the recruitment centers and joined the Armed Forces, but after the excitement wore off and they realized this would be a long and bloody involvement, enlistment fell well below the demand.

All men between the ages of 18 and 64 were required to register for the draft, but married men were exempt from military service. Many a man chose to march down the aisle rather than march for Uncle Sam, enough so that Brigadier General Heber L. Edwards, state Selective Service director, felt a need to clarify the status of eligible married men on this date in 1942.

The regulation stated, “Such married status must have been acquired prior to December 8, 1941, and at a time when the registrant’s selection was not imminent.” So, any man married after the bombing of Pearl Harbor was eligible for military service. However, General Edwards pointed out that the word “imminent” was the key to understanding the draft status for married men. Although December 8, 1941 was the only date mentioned in the draft regulation, the national appeals board declared that the selection of any man for military service was imminent as soon as they registered for the draft back in 1940, even though the United States was not yet at war.

The Selective Service Board did make two exceptions for men who married after September of 1940. If a child had been born to this union prior to December 8, 1941, then the man would be exempted from the draft. The second exception was if the man had been given a 4F Classification, meaning he was unfit for military service – his induction into military service was not imminent and therefore his marital status exempted him from the draft even if the disability was corrected."

    SOURCE 

 

In June of  1942, "Congress has issued revisions to the Selective Service Act to permit all married men deferment from Class I-A draft classification for military service until further notice. Within the next week, the new draft deferment system should reach President Franklin Roosevelt’s desk for a signature of approval or veto.

Men who were aware of their impending induction when they got married will not eligible for deferment under the new amendment. This means that the intention to avoid military service disqualifies such persons. Married men who have already been officially inducted into the armed forces will also be ineligible for a deferment.

This would be one of the biggest changes to the Selective Service Act since its passage in 1940.

“We want the unmarried men taken first,” Democrat Sen. Joshua B. Lee of Oklahoma said. “This is recognizing, in a legislative way, that the family is the fundamental unit of organized society.”

The purpose of this draft amendment, according to Sen. Lee and other officials, is to make sure that the families are “left intact as long as possible and that financial dependency is not the controlling point so much as the status of a man as the family,” Lee said.

Financial dependency requirements, or what is widely known as “the financial test,” are at present the only grounds for deferment for healthy men of fighting age. This test would be repealed as a result of this new amendment. Whether the wives and/or children of married men obtain their financial support from them will no longer affect a man’s draft classification.

To dispel fears that this new deferment law will cause a personnel shortage in the military, Sen. Warren Austin of Vermont and Sen. Elbert D. Thomas of Utah stated that the “present pools of single men or men without dependents should meet all manpower demands of the fighting forces through this year and well into 1943.”

    SOURCE

Obviously, the United States felt the need to draft even married men with children.  Luckily for me, my father returned safely at the end of the war.