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Show NAVY NOW GETS MAIL SPEEDILY Postal Veteran Irons Out Kinks That Caused Some Kicks. WITH THE U. S. FLEET Speedy mail delivery to Uncle Sam's great Pacific fleet depends largely on Chance. Chance his first name is Earle, he's a lieutenant commander and he hails from Los Angeles is head postman in this vast theater of war, where mail distribution was so slow it was the prime gripe of fighting men. Today all that has been changed. The mail is coming through and often letters reach the men in forward for-ward battle areas five or six days after mailing from as far away as New York. Adm. Chester W. Nimitz, commander com-mander in chief of the Pacific fleet, realized the importance of letters to morale and insisted on rapid delivery. de-livery. But fast mail service in the Pacific was easier to talk about than to accomplish. It was a matter of starting from scratch, for the navy never before . had such growing pains. Letters Were Delayed. In the first days of the war word from home sometimes was weeks,' even months, catching up with the armed services. The mail problem was Vice Adm. William C. Calhoun's. As commander com-mander of the service force in the Pacific, he decided it was a job for men experienced in handling and dispatching mail. He called in Chance, who had been in the postal department since 1919. Chance gathered about him assistants assist-ants also experienced in the postal field. Most of them, like Chance, were older men who volunteered for the assignment. Only ammunition, food and fuel for the war hold transportation priority over letters. Sixty per cent of the mail is Down to front line zones. An example of the mail volume may be seen in the fact that in one month more than 200,000 pounds of correspondence was flown into Central Cen-tral Pacific advanced areas. The postal system moves always at the heels of the fleet and often before a battle is many days old it is ready to begin distributing the mail to the fighting men. Navy Lends a Hand. At Kwajalein mail was delivered three days after D-day to ships supporting sup-porting the attack and four days later to troops on the island who still were under enemy fire, i A single naval dispatch may change the course of warships, and mail already on the way to them at their previous destination must be rerouted to their new port of call. i Because of this, Chance and "his men always are on the jump. They must anticipate what the fleet is going go-ing to do. They are helped by those in the navy, who know where the ships are going. Civilians at home can help iron out some of the fleet's mail problems, prob-lems, says Chance, by making addresses ad-dresses legible and stop sending nonessentials non-essentials such as cigarettes, cigars and candy. Thousands of letters go to the dead letter office where they are "sweated out" because they are improperly addressed and much space is taken up by nonessentials which may be bought by servicemen on almost any 'hip or at any camp in the Pacific. |