US Navy Postal Clerks

By Steve McGourty

Have you ever wondered who gets the mail out to our sailors when they are floating 100 miles off the coast of Oman? Navy Postal Clerks insure that thousands of pounds of official and personal mail get out to the fleet in all corners of the world and back to shore every day.

This is the rank of Chief Postal Clerk (E-7), displaying the “canceled crow” of one who has served over 12 years honorably (thus gold stripes rather than red)

While no PC has been awarded the Medal of Honor, too many have died in the line of duty. A PC was among the 34 men who died when the USS Liberty was attacked by Israel in 1967. “We have had several postal clerks get purple hearts and many of us wear the combat action ribbon,” said Master Chief Postal Clerk (ret.) Abel Quinones.

Duty for PCs can be remote, for instance McMurdo, Antarctica

For the most part the job of a Navy Postal Clerk is the same as any civilian Postal Clerk. Of course Navy PCs have some more unusual duties as well, that might include hooking a mail bag hanging from a hovering helicopter 20 feet above their head while trying to stand upright on a Fast Frigate being pushed around by 30 foot swells; or earning their blue nose by wintering over at McMurdo Bay, Antarctica. Wherever PCs are though, they are always a boost to morale. Mail from home has always been cherished by sailors.

You never know where mail will be sent from when you’re a Navy PC

As you can imagine, there is a great deal of mail coming and going from large ships such as Aircraft Carriers. When a ship is deployed, daily mail is not typical. The outgoing mail soon piles up and PCs are often forced to work in tight quarters even though they are on a large ship. A post office on a typical Carrier might have ten PCs assigned. Most ships with a crew of over a hundred sailors would have at least one Postal Clerk aboard.

PCs posing in front of a load of mail in the hanger bay of the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75)

The Fleet Post Office (FPO) mail centers on each coast are the backbone of the Fleet’s postal system. The PCs assigned on shore get the mail in from and out to the fleet from these centers. FPOs move many tons of mail every year to all corners of the world. “CVN 70 West-Pac 2002 moved approximately 4100 lbs per day for a total of 873,763 lbs. from Jan02 -Sep02,” said Lt. Sean Urban, NAVSCSCOL in Athens, GA, where all PCs are currently trained.

PCs are often on the front line of some of the Fleets newest technology. Since March 2004 many ships have been making the transition to the Navy Cash Card system. This smart card system will eliminate the need for cash and coins on board any Navy vessel. Since PCs are one of the main places on ships that previously dealt in cash, they are on the forefront of this change and have been instrumental in its planning and implementation.

Sailors can become the victim of circumstance when either of these two centers are prevented from moving the mail. At least once in the seventies, a trucking strike shut down the New York FPO center for six weeks. Many a sailor caught hell during this period, when at the end of the strike they received a bundle of madder and madder letters from home scolding them for not writing, and then getting the last letter apologizing when their wife had received six letters in one day. I know this happened to at least one sailor, through personal experience.

“As soon as we get into the … Area of Responsibility we’ll have free mail,” said Chief Postal Clerk Isadore Vandiver, postal officer for the USS Nimitz (CVN 68). “It’s a congressional program to say thanks to … Sailors for serving their country.” The sailor just writes “Free” in place of a stamp and the mail is processed normally. Free Franked mail, as some call it, has become a hot collecting interest in recent years. There is a lot of this kind of mail being generated right now, as we typically have two carrier groups (about 14,000 sailors) in the Indian Ocean at any one moment.

All Navy Post Offices have their own FPO number, ashore or afloat. These days a FPO number is a nine digit zip-code. Just like shore mail, a ship’s PC will cancel all outgoing mail. The cancel typically consists of a single line circle enclosing the ship’s name across the top, the FPO number across the bottom, with the date centered in the middle.

In November 1960 the first 644 sailors were converted to Postal Clerks (PC) and allowed to wear the PC rating. The need for efficient movement of the mail was a recognized necessity in the days before the internet and satellite communications. The thinking was that a specialized rate would streamline the process and make it more reliable, which it did.

Since then the Navy has been served by a dedicated team getting mail to the Fleet. Often these sailors serve as the only Postal Clerk in their command. All Navy PCs are required to be a US citizen and obtain at least a Secret Clearance.

The PCs’ days are numbered because the Navy has plans to eliminate them as a specific rate. As the Navy continues to downsize, many of the less populated rates are being combined where similar duties and skill sets overlap. The current 900 PC’s will eventually be merged in with the ship’s Serviceman and Storekeeper rates, ending up with about 13,000 sailors in the combined rate. In April 2004, Vice Adm. Timothy LeFleur decided to remove all postal clerks from surface ships, leaving postal duties at sea to Storekeepers. The rate consolidation actually reflects an old Navy tradition. Prior to 1960, the sailor assigned to handle a ships mail duty was most likely a Storekeeper. Although when the rate was created, at least one Torpedo Man was converted to PC.

Atlantic Fleet Supply Officer Rear Adm. Steven Maas, who oversaw East Coast postal services for the Navy in 2002, once said, “There is absolutely no single more important job as far as morale is concerned than that of a [Navy] postal clerk.” The designated rate of Postal Clerk may be phasing out, but the service they perform will be an important part of the Navy as long as there are sailors who are separated from their friends and families.

The author would like to thank the following people for their help in gathering background information and proof checking for this article;

Abel Quinones, PCCM USN (ret)

C D (Red) Lail PCCM USN (ret)

Sean Urban, Lt. USN

And my wife, Charli McGourty for extensive editing

About the author

Steve collects US and GB stamps and enjoys researching postal history.

He served in the Navy as an AT in the late seventies and early eighties.

He now works as a network analyst for a large airplane manufacturer near Seattle, WA.