1srelluc
Diamond Member
An Official Journal Of The NRA | Arms Of The Mail Guard Marines
While difficult to imagine today, brazen armed thefts of the U.S. Mail in the 1920s became all too common and beyond the abilities of mail personnel to handle. Enter the U.S. Marines—armed to the teeth.
In 1920 and 1921, there was a rash of violent robberies of the U.S. Mail that resulted in the deaths and wounding of some postal employees and the theft of large sums of money. The situation had reached a point that the postmaster general requested some guns from the War Dept. to arm “all outside postal employees.” Most of the guns provided by the War Dept. were World War I-era Model 1917 .45-cal. revolvers. These efforts seemed to temporarily reduce the number of mail thefts. However, revolvers were hardly sufficient to stem the rash of robberies for long, and they soon resumed with a vengeance. As stated by the postmaster general, “In this effort postal employees were injured and killed and some robbers slain, but there followed a series of robberies and depredations at points which the Post Office Department had not as yet been able to equip fully and with which it was unable to cope.” Clearly, the postal employees lacked the training, experience and adequate armament to counter the crime wave. Help was sorely needed. Local newspapers carried numerous accounts of many of the mail robberies, with lurid details about the deaths and injuries of postal employees and bystanders.
In November 1921, President Warren G. Harding wrote the following to Edwin Denby, Secretary of the Navy:
“You will detail as guards for the United States Mails a sufficient number of officers and men of the United States Marine Corps to protect the mails from depredations by robbers and bandits.”
The Marines were detailed to ride on mail trucks and trains and to guard post offices and other facilities as directed. The mail guard contingent consisted of approximately 53 officers and 2,200 enlisted men. Of course, it was not possible for the Marines to guard every mail delivery, so priority was given to shipments of substantial value such as cash or negotiable securities.
The Marines took their mail guard duties very seriously. Secretary of the Navy Denby, a Marine Corps veteran, gave the following no-nonsense instructions to the Marines tasked with guarding the mail:
“You must, when on guard duty, keep your weapon in hand, if attacked, shoot, and shoot to kill. There is no compromise in this battle with bandits. If two Marines guarding a mail car, for example, are suddenly covered by a robber, neither must hold up his hands, but both must begin shooting at once. One may be killed, but the other will get the robbers and save the mail. When our Marine Corps men go as guards over the mail, that mail must be delivered or there must be a dead Marine at the post of duty.”
I wish today's politicians still had big brass ones and the ability to speak like that.
Sometimes we just need the politicians to speak like that.
The Marines can usually handle it from there.
