U.S. PACIFIC ISLANDS BULLETIN

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "U.S. PACIFIC ISLANDS BULLETIN"

Lesley Ross
5 years ago
Views:

1 U.S. PACIFIC ISLANDS BULLETIN An Occasional Newsletter about U.S. Post Offices in the Pacific area (including Guam, Midway Is., the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa and the successor administrations in the Caroline, Marshall and Line islands including the Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of the Marshall Islands & Republic of Palau) Website: ******************************************************************** ISSUE NUMBER EIGHTY OCTOBER 2018 ******************************************************************************************* REPUBLIC OF THE MARSHALL ISLANDS The Intergovernmental Philatelic Corporation of Brooklyn NY has been appointed the exclusive philatelic agent of the Marshall Islands effective January This is not the first time IGPC and Marshall Islands Post have teamed up; IGPC was the first international philatelic agency to represent the Marshall. Islands Postal Service when it began issuing its own postage stamps on May 2, IGPC continued as the philatelic agent for the Marshall Islands until Aug. 1, 1989, when Unicover Corp. of Cheyenne, Wyo., took over that role. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> MARSHALLS KILOWARE ULIGA & AIRPORT: Thanks to Jim Mulik for alerting me to a Pacific kiloware offer on e-bay. Visible were Uliga B: June & Sep Uliga A: Aug Airport? Mar (The code letter is not legible) Jim Mulik also reports receipt of packages from Uliga with customs labels date stamped with an Uliga A datestamp & dated Dec & Sep The latter is an especially clear impression and is shown below as Illustration 80/1 As with Uliga A previously shown as Illustration 76/2 these measure 38mm diameter Illustration 80/1

U.S. PACIFIC ISLANDS BULLETIN -OCTOBER 2018 - NUMBER 80 PAGE 2 ******************************************************************* Jim also alerted me to e-bay offer of a cover from Kazakstan to

2 U.S. PACIFIC ISLANDS BULLETIN -OCTOBER NUMBER 80 PAGE 2 ******************************************************************* Jim also alerted me to e-bay offer of a cover from Kazakstan to Majuro returned to sender with the cachet shown below as Illustration 80/2 I guess this was applied at Majuro does anyone have any other thoughts on this? It certainly appears similar to other U.S. markings but in view of the name of the addressee being non Marshallese could it have been sent on to Kwajalein before return to sender? The cover is described as a philatelic item sent to a fictitious address in Majuro Illustration 80/2 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> EBEYE possibly? Late last year I sent a cover to Ebeye asking for an example of the current postmark The cover (Illustration 80/3) on page 3 was received back in the U.K. on 24th July What to make of it Is it from Ebeye? note the dumb cancel with no office of posting & the disparity between the date on the postmark and the Honolulu transit mark, and note that the USPS inscription at the bottom of the cancellation is intact unlike the cancellations seen in It occurs to me, as a possible explanation for the non-return of covers sent to Ebeye, that as Ebeye mail is no longer covered by the U.S. Post Office agreement to pay for the transport of mail to and from Ebeye, the incoming international mail for Ebeye is routed via Majuro rather than Kwajalein, as previously, and the Marshall Islands Post Office have decided not to forward philatelic mail to Ebeye as they would have to pay for air mail transit by weight of the mail bags. Does anyone have a view on this?. Until late 2016

3 U.S. PACIFIC ISLANDS BULLETIN -OCTOBER NUMBER 80 PAGE 3 ************************************************************************ the Ebeye Post Office was almost 100% reliable, in my experience, in promptly returning covers sent for postmarking. Illustration 80/3 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> EBEYE 1944/45 Bernd Neuhaus writes I recently obtained a cover with a plain U.S. Navy four-bar cancellation On first glance it looked unspectacular BUT it carries a CASU(F) 18 return address. According to Bob Murphy in his book A Postal History/Cancellation Study of the U.S. Pacific Islands --Page CASU 18 was stationed on Ebeye from September to April I wonder if the second 1944 should read 1945? Does any reader have a copy of Bob Murphy's other book Locations & Assignments USN/USMC Mobile Land Forces or any other publication which can clarify this.? A scan of the cover is shown on page 4 as Illustration 80/4. The Combat Aircraft Service Units (CASU) were part of the U.S. Island hopping strategy to secure land based island airfields to enable the hop to the next island as they headed for Japan. The CASU(F) units followed the Marines immediately an island (or part of it with an existing airfield) had been secured. Their main purpose was to service, rearm, and make minor repairs to land planes or seaplanes, large or small until more permanent facilities were operational. The CASU(F) units were operational west of Hawaii and were highly mobile closely following the marines as they island hopped across the Pacific. One would not therefore expect them to stay very long on any particular island so the question remains were they still on Ebeye in February 1945 and should the April 1944 date in Bob Murphy's study read April 1945?

U.S. PACIFIC ISLANDS BULLETIN -OCTOBER 2018 - NUMBER 80 PAGE 4 ******************************************************************* Illustration 80/4

4 U.S. PACIFIC ISLANDS BULLETIN -OCTOBER NUMBER 80 PAGE 4 ******************************************************************* Illustration 80/4 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> KWALALEIN APO I recently received a cover from APO on Kwajalein. It was date stamped by an APDS APO AP (See Illustration 80/5 below ) Illustration 80/5 Continued on Page 5

5 U.S. PACIFIC ISLANDS BULLETIN -OCTOBER NUMBER 80 PAGE 5 ******************************************************************* A very similar date-stamp APO AP was reported in Bulletin No. 79 used at Roi Namur (Illustration 79/2). Bernd Neuhaus comments That (the Roi-Namur) device is remarkable in two ways: It suggests that there are a number of similar devices (96557 & to 8) which I think is rather unlikely since Roi-Namur is such a small facility, and is only the second APDS with the Zip Code for Roi-Namur, the first being used between 1991 & 1995 (two types of APO AP ) My thought is that could it be nothing to do with operational needs but simply the result of sloppy ordering of APDS Perhaps the Post Office supervisor at Kwajalein decided to order a new AP APDS and wishing to allocate an identifying number to it orders an APDS reading APO AP and perhaps supplies a pattern to the supplier then deciding that Roi-Namur also needs a new date-stamp asks the supplier to produce a similar APDS but to replace with 96557, forgetting about the -9. The layout of the two devices is remarkably similar. My opinion anyone got a comment? >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> COMMONWEALTH OF THE NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS SAIPAN : The philatelic cover shown below (as Illustration 80/6) is date stamped on Aug At first glance I thought it was Illustration 44/8 but the dateline is a straight line rather than the 3 line MONTH/DAY/YEAR on Illustration 44/8. Illustration 80/6 reads SAIPAN MP /USPS date stamps with the suffix 9998 are usually held by the Postmaster and are not generally used for cancelling mail. Illustration 80/6

U.S. PACIFIC ISLANDS BULLETIN -OCTOBER 2018 - NUMBER 80 PAGE 6 ****************************************************************** MIDWAY ISLAND Thanks to David Trutwin for this scan of a Midway

6 U.S. PACIFIC ISLANDS BULLETIN -OCTOBER NUMBER 80 PAGE 6 ****************************************************************** MIDWAY ISLAND Thanks to David Trutwin for this scan of a Midway Island cover. (See Illustration 80/7 & 80/8 below) Posted on Midway by a civilian member of the a construction company and postmarked in Hawaii on MY it only reached its destination in Beverly Hills on April The stamps on the face of the cover appear to have been lost en-route and 10c Postage Due was applied on receipt. I can find nothing specific in the history of Midway to explain this delay It was postmarked pre the attack on Pearl Harbour and I assume that Naval ships regularly called at Midway throughout that period. Has anyone an explanation? Illustration 80/7 Reverse of cover is shown on page 7

U.S. PACIFIC ISLANDS BULLETIN -OCTOBER 2018 - NUMBER 80 PAGE 7 ************************************************************************

below as Illustration 80/9 reads PAGO PAGO AM SAMOA /USPS 96799-9998 and is dated Sep 25 2018.

7 U.S. PACIFIC ISLANDS BULLETIN -OCTOBER NUMBER 80 PAGE 7 ************************************************************************ Illustration 80/8 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> AMERICAN SAMOA: PAGO PAGO: The philatelic cover shown below as Illustration 80/9 reads PAGO PAGO AM SAMOA /USPS and is dated Sep I have not seen this cancellation previously but with the 9998 suffix it would appear to be a Postmasters datestamp rather than an operational one Illustration 80/9 END OF BULLETIN NO 80

Zone Charts Zone 9 & 5-Digit ZIP Code Exceptions

Zone Charts Zone 9 & 5-Digit ZIP Code Exceptions https://ribbs.usps.gov/index.cfm?page=zonecharts The National Zone Charts Matrix assists mailers in applying the proper postage rates to a mail piece. The