The Washington State Letter Carrier: Fill & Download for Free

There were three factors that I believe were very important, especially in taking down the Japanese battleship Kirishima. I can explain all three factors, but first, let me provide a little background to better understand how these factors played a role in Washington’s decisive victory on the night of November 14–15, 1942.Washington and South Dakota were detached from carrier protection duty (they were escorting Enterprise south of the Solomons where the Enterprise was patrolling in the Coral Sea) by Admiral Halsey, the overall commander of the Guadalcanal operation. The night before they were detached, a U. S. cruiser force protecting the Marines on Guadalcanal were badly mauled by a Japanese force with two Kongo class battleships (Hiei and Kirishima), a light cruiser and 14 destroyers. The American cruiser Atlanta was sunk, a second was badly damaged and sunk the next day by a Japanese submarine (Juneau), and two other cruisers were badly shot up requiring several months repairs (Portland and San Francisco). The American force was able to disable the Hiei, who was finished off by American air forces the next day, but the American position on Guadalcanal was precarious. Without the battleships, Halsey only had four destroyers to protect his position on the island. The Japanese intended to send a powerful naval fleet to bombard the Marines on Guadalcanal,. They sent one battleship (Kirishima), two heavy cruisers (Atago and Takao), two light cruisers (Nagara and Sendai), and nine destroyers. The plan was to bombard Henderson Field, the airbase that provided the American forces naval supremacy during the daylight hours. If Henderson Field could be neutralized, the Japanese would gain the upper hand in the battle for Guadalcanal, and the whole of the Solomon Island chain. In turn, if the Japanese controlled an airbase on Guadalcanal, it would give them the striking power to control the sea lanes between the United States and Australia. Thus, the mission of the Washington and South Dakota was vital, and they arrived and joined up with the destroyers.The first factor was radar. Now, it must be remembered that radar on ships was new and shipboard radar was in its infancy. American Navy ships had not yet developed a way to coordinate the information from radar to the commanding officer. The American cruiser force that was decisively beaten two nights earlier also had radar, but the American commanders became confused by what they were told was on the radar plots and mistook some radar blips as their own ships. Furthermore, they didn’t trust the radar information and tried to fight the battle visually—just like they had been trained to do for 25 years. Thus, they did not engage until after the Japanese had let loose their feared Long Lance torpedoes. The delay allowed the Americans to be decimated. Nevertheless, radar offered a real promise to defeat the highly trained Japanese, who excelled at fighting at night. In a very short period of time, the U. S. Navy had integrated radar onto their ships with the gun directors. Each American battleship had state of the art analog plotting computers for their big guns, but radar was a technological leap forward.The second factor was the American Admiral commanding—Willis “Ching” Lee. He was nicknamed Ching while at the Naval Academy due to his last name having a Chinese ring to it and his fondness for the Orient. His specialty was gunnery. Lee was very demanding of his crew’s ability to shoot accurately, and drilled the Washington’s crew constantly. By the time of the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, I can safely say the Washington was the best shooting, best trained crew, in the entire U S Navy. When radar was first introduced onto ships, Lee immersed himself in the technology, not leaving it to his subordinates like most of his brethren of flag rank. By November, 1942, Ching Lee knew as much or more about radar and its capabilities than any one else in the Navy. This would come into play against the Japanese force.The third factor was seamanship. Captain Davis had the conn on the Washington. As the battle progressed, his piloting of the ship brought Washington into a position from which it could batter Kirishima mercilessly, and then retire safely.Washington and South Dakota approached Iron Bottom Sound, seeing Japanese targets at long range (18,500 yards) and both opened fire. The Japanese were arrayed into three separate groups. The first group, consisting of the light cruiser Sendai and three destroyers, were picked up by American radar and this was the group fired upon. The second salvo straddled the Sendai and the splashes of their shells were big enough to register on the radar. This group beat a hasty retreat. More blips appeared on the radar scopes. Lee realized immediately that he had to manage the fight with radar, and not with visual sighting. This had never been done before. Still, Lee had a problem. South Dakota was in a blind spot as the Washington’s radar did not have a good view of what was behind it, it really only saw ahead. He did not want to shoot at his own ships, so Lee was cautious about opening fire unless he was sure of his target.At this point, the four American destroyers engaged the Japanese destroyers of the Japanese fleet’s second group. Again, the Japanese fired their Long Lance torpedoes as the American destroyers opened fire with their 5 inch guns. One of the American destroyers, Preston, was raked by fire from the Japanese cruiser Nagara, and was turned into a flaming wreck within minutes by the bigger Japanese guns. Walke, another American destroyer, was soon hit by two torpedoes, followed by several medium caliber shells. She also burned as she was dead in the water. Shortly thereafter, Benham was hit and fifty feet of her bow was blown off by a Japanese torpedo. She continued the try to fight moving at a mere 10 knots. In the meantime, Washington had identified the Japanese destroyer Ayanami as a likely target and opened fire with its 5 inch guns. Radar directed American gunfire was deadly accurate and Ayanami was battered into a worthless hulk within minutes. The fourth American destroyer, Gwin, was hit in the engine room, causing an electrical failure, and she was put out of action. Admiral Lee then ordered the Benham and Gwin to retire. Benham would sink the following day.Now came a fateful moment. Two American destroyers were motionless and burning brightly on the sea, and Captain Davis of Washington elected to pass on the port side of the burning destroyers, putting Washington between the destroyers and the island of Guadalcanal. Captain Gatch on the South Dakota made the decision to go to the starboard side of the burning destroyers. Unfortunately, at this same time his electrical system failed causing his communications, radar, and forward main gun turrets to become lifeless—they had no power with which to operate. For three critical minutes, South Dakota had no ability to do anything. When the power was restored, it took time for the vacuum tube based electronics to warm up and calibrate. By going to the starboard side of the destroyers, South Dakota became illuminated by their fires, and was immediately spotted by the Japanese. They turned on their searchlights, illuminating South Dakota, and opened fire. South Dakota was hit by multiple eight inch shells from the Japanese heavy cruisers. Kirishima also fired at South Dakota, managing to hit the base of the South Dakota’s after turret with a 14 inch shell from 11,000 yards, but South Dakota could only meekly return fire with her 5 inch batteries as the big guns still had no electricity to fire. Fires raged on South Dakota as she was raked by the Japanese. However, South Dakota somehow managed to avoid 34 Long Lance torpedoes fired at her, and soon had the fires under control. Captain Gatch elected to withdraw to the south.Meanwhile, Washington pressed on, seeing multiple blips on the radar, but unwilling to fire for fear of firing on the South Dakota. However, when the Japanese turned on their searchlights to fix South Dakota, Admiral Lee now knew where his enemy lay. By passing to the port side of the burning destroyers, Captain Davis had hidden Washington behind their fires. At night, when the only real light comes from bright fires in the distance, no one can see what may be behind those fires. The fires essentially blind the onlooker to anything behind the fires. Additionally, Washington had the very dark background of the island of Guadalcanal behind it, essentially blotting out any other light from stars or moon that might betray Washington’s presence. Washington was thus able to approach the Japanese unseen. Washington’s radar plots could both see and distinguish the larger ships like the battleship Kirishima and the heavy cruiser Atago. Washington closed on the biggest threat, Kiriashima. Admiral Lee had his 5 inch secondary batteries train on the cruiser Atago, and his big guns aimed at Kirishima. At 8400 yards, which was all but point blank range for her 16 inch guns, Washington let loose with a full salvo.The first salvo destroyed the main radio room on Kirishima. The second salvo struck the barbettes of her two forward 14 inch turrets, threatening to ignite the magazines. Damage control officers immediately flooded the forward magazines. Another shell from Washington slammed into Kirishima’s steering machinery room, causing it to flood and jamming the rudder to starboard. Meantime, the secondary batteries raked Atago, causing marked damage and greatly unsettling Admiral Kondo, the Japanese force commander, and his staff. Kirishima managed to return fire, and her captain believed they had scored at least ten hits, but, in fact, all had passed over the Washington, whose radar directed fire was far more accurate. Washington officially recorded 26 hits on Kirishima out of 75 shots fired, but this understated Washington’s accuracy. After the war, surviving officers of the Kirishima were interviewed and claimed that at least four and perhaps as many as eight torpedoes also struck the ship below the waterline. Washington, however, did not have torpedoes. These “torpedoes” were clearly shots that fell just short, but due to the flat trajectory of the shot, plowed through the water and into the side of the ship below the waterline and below Kirishima’s armor belt. These below the waterline hits (an underwater survey of Kirishima showed apparently seven shots struck below the waterline) caused massive flooding within the ship. Kirishima was slowed to 10 knots and stuck in a circle to starboard. Fires raged the length of the ship. As the ship would list first to port, then to starboard, damage control was constantly flooding more spaces in an effort to correct the list. Later that night, Kirishima foundered and would be abandoned. Her valves were opened to scuttle her, but by this time it is likely she was already gone. Japanese Admiral Kondo, aboard the damaged but still operational Atago, ordered a withdrawal of his entire force. Washington tracked them on radar and trained its guns, but Admiral Lee would not open fire for fear of hitting South Dakota whose location was again unknown at this moment.Captain Davis, knowing Japanese tactics and expecting a torpedo counterstrike, then elected to go to flank speed and turned quickly to starboard 180 degrees until his ship was heading due south, away from the scene of battle. As the mighty ship churned up a huge wake, several explosions were recorded within the wake as Japanese Long Lance torpedoes launched at Washington detonated upon hitting the violent churning water behind the ship. Nevertheless, for the first time the U S Navy had clearly bested a Japanese in a battle of capital ships in a night naval action. Having lost Kirishima’s sister ship, Hiei, two nights earlier, the Japanese no longer ruled the night in the waters around Guadalcanal.Despite the fact that this was Washington’s first naval battle, the crew experienced no moments of panic or great emotion. In after action reports, Admiral Lee stressed his ship “functioned as smoothly as though she were engaged in a well-rehearsed target practice.” Others who were aboard that night in various functions remembered it the same way despite the deafening sound and massive pressure of the big guns firing. This was a credit to Ching Lee and his thorough training of the crew. Washington’s crew knew their jobs and acted accordingly, in the finest traditions of the U S Navy. Washington thus changed the battle for Guadalcanal, which in turn, forced the Japanese in a long, slow retreat back to their home islands.Postscript: The example of Admiral Lee was not lost on the American chain of command. In a letter to Admiral Ernest King shortly after the battle, Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander in Chief-Pacific, identified the key to victory in the Pacific: “training, TRAINING, and M-O-R-E T-R-A-I-N-I-N-G.”(emphasis in the original). In contrast, the Japanese consoled themselves by spreading the story throughout their navy that the United States had lost three battleships for the loss of Hiei and Kirishima.Postscript II: The American battleships formed up and returned to their base at Noumea. Unfortunately, Washington’s crew was somewhat resentful of South Dakota’s inept action, leaving them to fight the Japanese alone. Similarly, the pride of the crew of South Dakota was hurt by the expressed displeasure of Washington’s crew—seems more than once their collective manhood was challenged. A small war broke out between the crews at bars throughout Noumea and the local brig was soon full to overflowing. Lee finally ordered a truce and required the respective ship’s captains to coordinate a staggered leave schedule as the two crews could not be trusted to be on good behavior to one another.

A couple of days. It gets processed at the plant closest to you, that likely happens the day/night the piece of mail was put into the mail. After that, it hops on a plane to the plant closest to its destination.(No joke. The USPS uses commercial airlines to ferry mail around the country.)After it has arrived in the plant, it’ll get shuffled around a bit and sent out to the station where the route for the destination address is. The morning it shows up at the station is the day it goes out for delivery.The USPS is working literally 24 hours a day to make sure mail gets where it needs to go. Next time you see a letter carrier, say hello, and even better, thank them! Yes, we’re getting paid, but it’s also super nice knowing we’re appreciated.Hope your mail doesn’t get delayed overmuch!

Children "mailed" by their parents because it was cheaper to mail them (Special Delivery)One of the most overlooked, yet most significant innovations of the early 20th century might be the Post Office’s decision to start shipping large parcels and packages through the mail. Up until 1913, the U.S. Postal Service didn’t deliver packages that weighed more than four pounds, which meant that American citizens had to hire private delivery companies whose prices for delivering packages were high.[1] However, that year it was announced that Americans could send packages weighing up to 11 pounds through the Post Office. In a period of just six months, due to increased access to mail order companies like Sears & Roebuck, millions of parcels were mailed, spurring the national economy to faster growth and particularly improved the lives of people in rural America.[2]When the US postal service began parcel deliveries on January 1, 1913, customers and postal officials were slowly becoming familiar with the ins and outs of the service.[3]People immediately started testing the limits of the system by mailing eggs, bricks, snakes and other unusual “packages.”[4] Different towns worked the system with different items, depending on how their postmaster interpreted the regulations. It wasn't long before some ingenious parents cottoned on to the idea of mailing their children. But they weren’t stuffed into mailbags; With stamps attached to their clothing, children rode trains to their destinations, accompanied by trusted postal workers.[5]In January 1913, the 10-month old baby boy of Mr. and Mrs. Jesse (Mathilda) Beauge of Batavia/ Glen Este, Ohio, was posted for the cost of 15c in stamps to his grandmother about a mile away by Rural Free Delivery carrier Vernon Little.[6] Baby James was just shy of the 11-pound weight limit for packages sent via Parcel Post. To avoid any impropriety, his parents did insure him for $50.[7] James Beauge became the first-known account of a child being sent through the mail.Charlotte May Pierstorff (Pam Crooks: "Neither Snow nor Rain..." Bizarre Post Office Tales - Petticoats & Pistols)Over the next few years, stories about children being mailed through rural routes would crop up from time to time as people pushed the limits of what could be sent through Parcel Post. In the most famous case, on February 19, 1914, a four-year-old girl named Charlotte May Pierstorff was “mailed” via train from her home in Grangeville, Idaho to her grandparents’ house about 3 hours and 73 miles away.[8] The postage stamps, $.55, cheaper than a train ticket ($1.55, which her parents could not afford) were attached to her coat. Her story has become so legendary that it was even made into a children’s book, Mailing May.[9] She was stamped and tagged on the back of her coat as a 54lb baby chick.The quirky story soon made newspapers, and for the next several years, similar stories would occasionally surface as other parents followed suit. “It got some headlines when it happened, probably because it was so cute,” United States Postal Service historian Jenny Lynch.[10]“Mrs. E. H. Staley of this city received her two-year-old nephew by parcel post to-day from his grandmother in Stratford, Okla., where he had been left for a visit three weeks ago.The boy wore a tag about his neck showing it had cost 18 cents to send him through the mails. He was transported 25 miles by rural route before reaching the railroad. He rode with the mail clerks, shared his lunch with them and arrived here in good condition.”[11]The practice is not as callous as it first appears, the few documented examples of children being sent through the mail were nearly all publicity stunts[12] , instances of people who knew the postal workers in their area asking them to carry their babies a relatively short distance along their routes to some nearby relatives, or cases in which children were listed as ‘mail’ so they could travel on trains without the necessity for purchasing a ticket.U.S. Parcel Post stamps of 1912-13. (People used to Ship Children via the Post Office)Postmen were trusted local officials whom rural people usually knew personally. May Pierstorff was herself sent with a cousin who was a postal clerk.[13] Nevertheless the US postal service tried to shut the practice down and had to issue a directive that no humans were to be carried in the mail.Fort McPherson, Ga.Postmaster General,Washington, D.C. — Sir: I have been corresponding with a party in Pa about getting a baby to rais (our home being without One.) May I ask you what specifications to use in wrapping so it (baby) would comply with regulations and be allowed shipment by parcel post as the express co are to rough in handling.The name signed to the letter is withheld at the request of Mr. Hitchcock.[14]As babies, in the opinion of the Postmaster General, do not fall within the category of bees and bugs — the only live things that may be transported by mail — he is apprehensive that he may not be of assistance to his correspondent.[15]The new regulation didn’t immediately stop people from sending their children by post. A year later, a woman mailed her six-year-old daughter from her home in Florida to her father’s home in Virginia. At 720 miles, it was longest postal trip of any of the children identified, and cost 15 cents in stamps.[16]Over the years, these stories continued to pop up from time to time as parents occasionally managed to slip their children through the mail thanks to rural workers willing to let it slide. Finally, on June 14, 1913, several newspapers including the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times all ran stories stating the the postmaster had officially decreed that children could no longer be sent through the mail.[17] But while this announcement seems to have stemmed the trickle of tots traveling via post, the story wasn’t entirely accurate. According to the regulations at that point, the only animals that were allowed in the mail were bees and bugs. There’s an account of May Pierstorff being mailed under the chicken rate, but actually chicks weren’t allowed until 1918.[18]Children may not be transported as parcel post, First Assistant Postmaster General Koons has ruled in passing upon two applications received at the Washington City Post Office for the transportation of children through the mail. Mr. Koons said children did not come within the classification of harmless live animals which do not require regulation.[19]The History of Rural Free Delivery - Community - GRIT Magazine“My father’s cousin was mailed by her father (Her father was a mine worker in Butte and couldn’t take care of her) in Montana to his parents in western Indiana after the death of her mother from the 1918 flu epidemic, which also killed her aunt and baby cousin in Indiana. My Dad said she arrived safely, albeit dirty from coal dust from the train, and in possession of substantial funds much given her by other passengers. This was approximately 1920.[20]But while the odd practice of sometimes slipping kids into the mail might be seen as incompetence or negligence on the part of the mail carriers, it should rather be considered indicative of just how much rural communities relied on and trusted local postal workers.[21] In essence, the mailing of children was never an official policy of the USPS. It was a sign of the times that people even considered the notion and it was really more of asking the postal worker for a favor because “he was going that way anyhow.” [22] Mail carriers were trusted servants. There are stories of rural carriers delivering babies and taking [care of the] sick. Even now, they’ll save lives because they’re sometimes the only persons that visit a remote household every day.Footnotes[1] That time in 1913 when it was legal and appropriate to mail children[2] Delivery of Dreams[3] Special Delivery[4] When People Used the Postal Service to Mail Their Children[5] Were Children Once Sent Through the U.S. Mail?[6] When It Was Legal in the United States to Mail Babies[7] Going postal...[8] Pam Crooks: "Neither Snow nor Rain..." Bizarre Post Office Tales - Petticoats & Pistols[9] Mailing May[10] Blog | National Postal Museum[11] Mailing Babies[12] Were Children Once Sent Through the U.S. Mail?[13] Wild West Magazine[14] Were Children Once Sent Through the U.S. Mail?[15] That Time in 1913 When People Actually Mailed Babies[16] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/05/24/mail-that-baby-a-brief-history-of-kids-sent-through-the-u-s-postal-service/[17] The curious cases of mailing children in 1913-1914[18] The U.S. Postal Service will mail you baby chickens. Yes, live chickens.[19] https://www.uspsoig.gov/document/rural-and-urban-origins-us-postal-service[20] The curious cases of mailing children in 1913-1914[21] https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.uspsoig.gov/sites/default/files/document-library-files/2019/RISC-WP-19-007.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwi0m7mCh-7qAhUEXM0KHR7fBtUQFjAJegQIBhAC&usg=AOvVaw0Q3iZH6pr2zrCtxr0PM_sa[22] The curious cases of mailing children in 1913-1914