posted 08-11-2019 09:54 PM               

Space Cover 527: Apollo 10 USS Carpenter Special Handling

Shown is an Apollo 10 recovery ship cover from the USS Carpenter which was mailed by the ship's postal clerk to his relatives or friends.

Enclosed in the envelope was a mimeographed letter:

This envelope is postmarked the day of the Apollo 10 splash-down. The cachet stamp on the left side is the special cachet stamp used by all the ships in the recovery force, and the stamp is one purchased for our crew members, to make a better looking letter for mail sent off during the Apollo mission. I purchased 1,700 of these 6 cent stamps for the crew. They still will be sold at 6 cents a piece.

Many collectors have sent me envelopes already addressed with postage on them so that they could have one of these envelopes. There really a collectors item I guess. I'm writing this about 2 weeks before the mission so I can have all my letters, etc. ready but it is expected that I will have to hand stamp approximately 3 to 4 thousand envelopes the day of the splash-down.

I thought that maybe you, as one of my closest relatives or friends, would enjoy having one of these collector items.

Hopefully I'll see you sometime in June. I'm still not sure when I'll get leave' I'll look you up when I do get home – that's a promise.

Love,
Gene

Special handling by Gene the postal clerk included, on the front of the envelope adding the ship's recovery force position and time of the recovery above the Navy RSC and adding the USS Carpenter corner card below the Navy RSC.

posted 08-15-2019 07:46 PM               

It's nice to see an interested aboard ship postal clerk (Gene) quite interested in the Apollo 10 return voyage from the moon. I do like his personal account and notation at top along with the adding of an additional rubber stamp at the bottom.