Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on September 28, 2012 at 4:49pm

Hi Bob,

Thanks. You hit it...that really threw me off. Mark Roberts asked for my opinion on it, and at first I was sure it was bad. Not just the "To" but the entire salutation and even the signature were too free-flowing to me. But looking at the signature again, it just had too many Elvis qualities and I realized I was probably wrong.

Rog said Elvis was taking more meds from 72-74, when the book was likely signed, and his writing was spot-on for the period.

You know you're stuff, my friend.

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Permalink Reply by Mark Roberts on September 30, 2012 at 1:23pm

:).

Mark

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Permalink Reply by roger epperson on September 28, 2012 at 1:37pm

This is amazing. That is without question authentic. I'm shocked he signed for his own mail.

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Permalink Reply by terrier8HOF on September 28, 2012 at 3:33pm

here is the one I was referring to. I saw it on ebay years ago, and saved it as a good reference for Elvis signatures.

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Permalink Reply by Rick Meyer on September 28, 2012 at 7:44pm

I saw forms similar to this before. Is there a form number on it? European dating sequence but numbers look to be written by an American. Not sure about late 50's but when i lived in Germany they always curled the bottom of their 9's. Most likely the numbering was done by a Soldier working in the MPO(military post office). I'd bet signature is authentic but the dating on form is from the somebody else.

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Permalink Reply by roger epperson on September 28, 2012 at 8:25pm

Americans don't write dates with the order of day,month,year, we write month, day year

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Permalink Reply by Michael T on September 29, 2012 at 12:10am

Roger, many Americans write day, month, year- that would be all of our servicemen and women while enlisted. That is the military standard.

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Permalink Reply by DB on September 29, 2012 at 1:55am

that is affirmative and military standard calls for only a 3 letter month when the month is suppose to be used.  Thus, it would say 29 jun 59.    Since it says 6 it's a toss up as to who actually dated this specific item.

Incidently, julian dates are often used as well in americian forces.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on September 29, 2012 at 9:22am

How was mail generally delivered to military personnel back then? I thought it was delivered by US Mail personnel directly to the bases or to military mail distribution facilities.

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Permalink Reply by DB on September 29, 2012 at 10:39am

Good Question - talk about a wayback machine question.  US Mail with an APO (for the Army) or FPO (Navy & Marines) Post Offices then took over somewhere from the USPO and whatever it was would arrive several days later depending where you were located.  Don't know what the Air Force PO was... and again I'm speaking of the 60s and of course offshore .

Where is a Services Unit Clerk when you need one?   Lacking us finding one like getting your mail in a timely manner;

Once the Military Mail arrives at the respective mail processing facility, it is further sorted by Postal Service Center, APO/FPO/DPO and ZIP code. After that, the USPS "hands it off" to their Military equivalent in a branch of the Armed Forces after transport via contract air carrier and delivery to the overseas APOs, FPOs, and APOs. For APOs and DPOs, either the Army or Air Force provides personnel. For FPOs, the Navy does the job.

At each APO, FPO, or DPO, there is an equivalent to "a-real-honest-to-goodness-Post Office" staffed by members of the respective branch of service. While the layout of each APO/FPO/DPO varies by location, suffice it to say they look and operate just like a "real" Post Office. In fact, they have to, since we are talking about U.S. Mail. Each APO/FPO/DPO address holder has a mail lock box in which their mail is slotted. Since parcels can't fit in these boxes, delivery or notification slips, just like "real" ones, are put in the boxes whenever a parcel arrives.

Outbound mail from APOs/FPOs/DPOs flows in the reverse of the process described above, with the mail passing through the "neck", the mail processing facility for the respective Military State, to enter into the normal USPS sorting and delivery system.

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Permalink Reply by Rick Meyer on September 29, 2012 at 10:42am

Back in the 50's and 60's each branch had their own MPO set up responsible for delivering mail to service members. US post offices delivered to an MPO who sorted and delivered to service members. Mail clerks was a job in each branch.

Today USPS handles it all. Changed sometime in the late 80's i believe. i know it was after Vietnam. now it is Almost exclusively done by civilians. Military members in the Army I know still have mail handling classes and such but used usually only in war zones or sorting into po boxes set up for Soldiers on base. Delivery and certified stuff like this is done by USPS which most bases including overseas now have set up.

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Permalink Reply by Rick Meyer on September 29, 2012 at 9:01am

Your right Roger many Americans don't. 

The military uses dating sequences like this if only 2 digits are used for the year and separated by /'s it would normally be done DD/MM/YY.  If it were written out it without / it would be done YYYYMMDD.

If it were done in a Military Post Office it would have been dated just like it is. Many Americans do not curl the 9 at the bottom like we see it here on the computer button. Most draw the tail straight down. While I was living in Germany anytime I saw a German write the 9 they curled the tail....every single time. I never saw them bring the tail straight down. Thats why I think it was written by an American, probably in the MPO.

 I'm no expert though. Just an intrigued follower of the thread.

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