Vintage Photos

Post Office in the Sand: Servicemen Sorting Packages on an Unidentified Island in the Pacific – [1940s Photo]

This is not a postcard, but I also have an affinity for photos such as this.

Though postcards have fallen out of popularity as short-form communication, packages are still of vital importance to everyone of us. This is especially true for Americans still serving in far-flung locations around the globe, just as they were in this candid photo from the Pacific Theater of World War II. Instead of being secured with clear packing tape, the parcels pictured here were carefully tied with string before being entrusted to the mail service to bring a bit of home to service members abroad.

“Photograph of two U.S. Army Air Forces servicemen sorting packages in the sand in a post office hut at an unidentified camp on an unidentified island in the Pacific Theater during World War II. A row of Army Air Forces mail bags is seen on a stand. Photograph taken or collected by Capt. Ferd L. Davis of Zebulon, N.C., while he served in the 394th Bomber Squadron, 5th Bomb Group (Heavy), during the war (undated).”

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From Ferd L. Davis Papers, WWII 191, World War II Papers, Military Collection, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, N.C.