Video and more here.
Loyd Leatherman was 18 years old when he first stepped aboard the U.S.S. Oglethorpe, the massive Navy cargo ship that would be his home for the next two years. It was 1944, the world was at war and Leatherman had just finished his training in San Francisco. He was preparing for life thousands of miles away in the Pacific when his captain approached him.
“He said, ‘You’re going to be the first man over the side when we hit port and you’re going to be the last man to board when we leave. And that’s just the way it’s going to be,'" Leatherman, now 90, told ABC News.
Leatherman's mission was one that was crucial to morale, his captain explained.
"He said, ‘I want you to understand, from my point of view, the mail is the most important thing on this ship,’” Leatherman said. “We delivered the good news, basically."
Leatherman said that once the U.S.S. Oglethorpe set sail, the captain's words rang true: loaded down with about five bags of mail, he said he was the first person off the ship when it docked and the last person to board when it left port. He carried letters from soldiers to their loved ones at home to the port's post office, and picked up mail for sailors on his way back. Sometimes his journey included riding in the back of a jeep, other times he would have to trek by foot. He said he was almost always accompanied by armed escorts.
“Every time I got back to the ship with all this mail, they could hardly wait for me to get it sorted and get it out to them,” Leatherman said.
According to the Post Office Department's 1945 Annual Report, more than 56,000 postal personnel like Leatherman served in the U.S. armed forces during World War II. They worked, lived and died alongside the U.S. soldiers deployed across the world. Their mission was one that, while not always mentioned in history books, was crucial to the war effort.
