Celebrating those who served

Washington College has seen many young men put their education on hold to serve their country in times of war. Sadly, some never made it back to walk for their degree.

When Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7, 1941, the town of Chestertown and Washington College immediately began performing blackout drills. Despite Maryland being closer to the European Theater, it took an attack over 7,700 miles away to really bring the war home. The Elm of December 12, 1941, immediately published bulletins on draft ages and how to support war efforts from the home front. 

One person who took this to heart was Doris Thistle Bell, a physical education instructor at Washington College. She was a bit of a one-woman war effort. Soon, donation and book drives for service men were held on campus, joining existing relief efforts. Then, Red Cross Plasma Drives were held. Many of Washington College’s male students decided to defer their education to serve their country, and Doris organized a campaign to keep in touch with them. News from the soldier’sletters back would then be published in the Elm under the “Camp to Campus” column. 

War-time correspondence, especially during World War II, was very different from how we communicate today. The FaceTimes and Zooms that our current servicemen can receive when stationed around the world are still critical lifelines essential for morale and have the added benefit of immediacy. Men serving far from home during World War II had to wait for snail mail to make it across oceans and through conflict zones, and then by the military censors. Mail is also priced by weight, and even the weight of regular paper could make sending a letter pricey. For a family wanting to let their loved ones know that all was well on the home front, and not to worry about those they left behind, having to restrict how much they could write for fear of it costing too much, must have been a difficult task. Even more so for those serving far from home on foreign soil, wanting to let their loved ones know they were safe and alive. The sheer volume going through the military post was almost overwhelming the system and taking up precious space in cargo ships with bags of mail.  

The military decided to use the latest technology to alleviate the problem: microfilming! You would get specially printed stationery called “V-Mail,” short for “Victory Mail.” Servicemen were given the V-Mail for free and weren’t charged for mailing. Those at home had to pay to use the service. This allowed a person to write a single page, though occasionally some letters were given a second sheet. The page was then photographed onto film smaller than the usual 35mm film most commercial cameras used. This meant hundreds of thousands of letters could be transported across the globe and not take up critical supply space. Recipients would receive a printed photograph of the letter, but 60% smaller than the original sheet.   

 

Having the mail go through a military process also made the work of the censors easier. Rules regarding what can be communicated have always been a necessity in the armed forces and something taken very seriously, especially in times of war. Headed by military intelligence, redacting things like locations or troop movements meant that intercepted mail wouldn’t compromise lives on the ground. Another advantage of V-Mail meant that espionage techniques like invisible ink, microdots, and microprinting couldn’t be used. 

Letters to and from home played a crucial part in the war effort; something Doris Bell understood. A school the size of Washington College, and in a close community like Kent County, would have felt the loss of every student who went to serve. Even greater would be the permanent loss of those who never came home. After the war, Washington College worked to welcome home and accommodate the students, now older and with different experiences, back to campus to finish their degrees. It also honored those lost. On this Veteran’s Day, you can join others in honoring those who served at various public events and moments of silence. You can listen to their experiences through the National Home Front Project on the Digital Archive or read some of their letters in MS 0062, the Washington College collection on World War II. 

You can support those currently serving through programs that create care packages with cards and letters, like Doris did back in the day.