by Bob Walsh
I needed some reading material today while I was waiting for a pair of glasses to be repaired so I picked up a magazine. In it was a very interesting article about the Marine Corp during the 1920s. It seems that, due to an increasing number of successful and violent postal robberies during that time the Marines were assigned to provide armed guards, often in armored postal trucks, for the mail. At that time it was common to mail currency, bearer bonds and other high-value negotiable documents.
Some of these robberies netted big dollars and got postal workers shot and killed.
Once the Marines started their work none of the shipments under their guardianship was robbed. Stands to reason, those guys were packing BARs and Thompsons as well as trench guns in addition to hand guns and Springfields. At the same time postal workers who worked outside of the offices were also armed.
Just as an aside, thru the late 1960s when first-class mail was carried on passenger airliners post office regulations required that the pilot of the aircraft be armed. Guess what. Nobody gave a shit. It was a nothingburger.
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