error101/military

"This is the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, deep in the backwoods of Louisiana â€" a 100,000-acre US Army training facility that simulates the Middle East in minute detail and on a massive scale. Every year, this literal theater of war is one of the last stops for 44,000 Army and National Guard soldiers before they deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan."

mail from home is considered vital in a situation of war since you have to do what it takes to keep up the morale. here's how they prioritized personal mail during the 2nd WW.



"Back in the 1940s the US military took advantage of modern technology to speed up the process of getting mail to and from the European theatre of war - the technique was called V-Mail and there's a thought that this was short for Victory Mail although a victory was then not assured and still a long way off.

There was no real secret to the v-mail process; in fact it was simple, the soldiers wrote their letters on a form provided and it was then photographed onto microfilm which was simply flown to the USA. A reel of 16mm microfilm could contain 18,000 letters and in terms of bulk and weight the roll of film took up only a fraction of what 18,000 real letters would take. Upon arrival in the USA the letters were printed from the film and then posted onward to the addresses."

"On January 12, 1942, Dr. Adams sent to the White House a proposal to investigate the possible use of bats as bombers. In those days, well-meaning citizens were proposing all kinds of warfare ideas, most of them impractical. However, this idea, after being sifted through a top-level scientific review, became one of the very few given the green light. It was passed to the Army Chemical Warfare Service (CWS) for further inquiry in conjunction with Army Air Forces. The official CWS history states simply: "President Roosevelt OK'd it and the project was on."

ww2 in its full glory and wrath in color. a big gallery of images, for me quite a valuable find.