V Mail - a small history lesson for my grandchildren

Digging through some old family albums recently, I discovered a couple of tiny little envelopes with tiny little letters in them. I was unsure what they were and wondered why anyone would make miniature copies of letters. I got out a magnifying glass and took a closer look and realized that I had two excellent examples of V-Mail - Victory Mail - a technique used for correspondence in World War II.

I don't know how large these images appear on your screen, but on mine they are just about actual size; the letter portion is 4 inches by 5 inches ; the envelope just over 4 by 4 1/2 inches.

V-Mail was a process used during the war to diminish the weight and bulk of  correspondence to and from members of the armed forces overseas. Standardized correspondence sheets would be   photographed by microfilm machines and the resulting film was routed through military postal service centers, where it would be printed in a smaller version of the original and delivered to the addressee.

According to the National Postal Museum, "V-mail ensured that thousands of tons of shipping space could be reserved for war materials. The 37 mail bags required to carry 150,000 one-page letters could be replaced by a single mail sack. The weight of that same amount of mail was reduced dramatically from 2,575 pounds to a mere 45." This saved considerable weight and bulk in a time in which both were hard to manage in a combat zone.

Both of my V-Mail finds were letters from young men who were friends of my Aunt Ina. The writer of the letter above, Ken Rasco, was a family friend from Tyler who saw service in World War II as a left-waist gunner on a B-17.  He earned four Air Medals with four oak leaf clusters, and the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism during his 35 missions over Germany and France.

After the war, he taught English at Abilene Christian, and when I enrolled in ACU, was the Registrar who led me through the process.