U.S. Army Postal Express Service

1917-1920

The rapid mobilization of the American Expeditionary Force for movement overseas in 1917 brought with it the need for an efficient method of transporting and delivering soldier’s mail and War Department correspondence.

In June 1917 the U.S. Postmaster General offered assistance in establishing an organization to handle the mail of the A.E.F. The system did not work well as the Post Office and good intentioned groups encouraged the people at home to fill the mail with useless junk. All this did was consume valuable space on transport ships and virtually all of this “filler” mail was destroyed and never delivered.

The large number of divisions, regiments and companies stationed in France made mail delivery very difficult for civilian mail processors. A Military alternative was needed which understood the complexities of the A.E.F. command structure and dispersal of individual units.

On May 9 1918, under General Order No. 72 the Military Postal Express Service (M.P.E.S.) was established under the direction of the Adjutant General A.E.F.

Its function was to;

-receive from the civil postal authorities all mail arriving in France to the A.E.F.,

-distribute same, and forward it to its destination.

-It will be responsible for the collection, dispatch and delivery of all mail emanating from and destined for A.E.F.

-Return mail will be collected by the M.P.E.S. and delivered to the civil Postal authorities.

General Orders No. 155 General Headquarters, A.E.F., 13 September 1918 amended the name of the Military Postal Express Service to Postal Express Service.

A separate branch was also organized to sort and distribute United States War Department correspondence, the U.S. Army Postal Courier Service. This

A U.S. Army Postal Service office was established at each port of debarkation where it received and sorted mail, and a railway mail service was situated along the lines of communication. A central U.S. Army Post Office was installed at Tours France and divisions were directed to organize Postal departments. Detachments were organized at each Army, Corps, and Division level. These Postal Express Service detachments were authorized the following personnel, attached to the Headquarters troops; One First or Second Lieutenant, Two Sergeants, Four Corporals, and 20 Privates. These men were tasked with the distribution of mail to individual units, and subsequently to the men at the front.

In November of 1918, the Postal Express Service branch represented 0.15% of the total strength of the A.E.F. As the actual combat strength of the A.E.F. on November 11, 1918, was listed as 1,078,222, the Postal Express Service probably comprised around 1600 men.