posted 03-05-2024 11:40 PM               

Space Cover 743: Fort Bliss Centennial Stamp

The Fort Bliss Centennial stamp was issued to honor the 100th anniversary of Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas.

The stamp's designer, Charles R. Chickering, wanted the stamp to depict the old and the new and portray some of the highlights of Fort Bliss's hundred-year history . . . all on a small single stamp!

As space collectors, we know the stamp for its vignette featuring a triangularly shaped frame featuring an image of Fort Bliss and the launch of a V-2 rocket. The first United States postage stamp featuring a rocket.

If you check out the stamp more closely, below the "3c" on the left appears a mountain scene, and below the "3c" on the right appears an old mission. Chickering cleverly used the border of the triangle to engrave a long line around the three sides of men and vehicles, representing "the military of Fort Bliss and the civilians of El Paso and the Southwest" walking down the road together in the hundred-year period. There is a covered wagon drawn by oxen at the lower left, motorized heavy military equipment at lower right.

Did you know that the stamp also contains an image of a camel? The camel appears on the upper left near the point of the triangle, just ahead of the horse-drawn stagecoach.

The color of the stamp was picked to depict the color of a desert sunset.

As World War II in Europe was ending, Operation Paperclip officially authorized 118 German V-2 rocket team members to come to the United States. The members of the group arrived at Fort Bliss, Texas, between September 1945 and early 1946. Wernher von Braun and seven others travelled by plane; the others came in two groups of about 55 each by ship.

Other individual regarded as members of the Rocket Team were not among these initial 118. Wernher von Braun was able convince the Americans to add approximately 25 others who had worked in Peenemünde but who could not be located as the team left Germany. When von Braun returned to Germany in March 1947, he was able to contact those 25 and bring them to America.

The Rocket Team launched their V-2 rockets from the nearby White Sands Proving Grounds in New Mexico.

Third Assistant Postmaster General Joseph L. Lawler dedicated the stamp in El Paso on November 5, 1948.

Charles R. Chickering of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing designed the stamp. C.A. Brooks engraved the vignette, and A.W. Christensen engraved the border, the lettering, and the numerals.

Scanned is a plate block of 4 Fort Bliss Centennial stamps signed by Chickering, Brooks, and Christensen.

posted 03-06-2024 05:20 AM               

I know it is widely, if not universally identified as a V2... but it is the wrong shape for a V2 (or a Bumper-WAC). Instead I believe it is a Vultee-(Convair) RTV-A-2 "Hiroc." the forerunner of the Atlas ICBM.

It was the outcome of Project MX-774 a US program to develop an ICBM which was cancelled in 1947, but leftover funds were used to build and launch three of the planned 10 research vehicles designated RTV-A-2 from White Sands during 1948.

The image of a Vultee Hiroc was widely available at the time, and I even have a contemporaneous postcard of a Hiroc on the pad at White Sands with a Las Cruces postmark in my collection.

posted 03-06-2024 08:54 AM               

The base of the rocket at the fins is not the same as those seen on the rocket photo at White Sands. Even the V-2 fins are not the same of that stamp image.

Also, at the time in 1948, I don't know if the U.S. Air Force Vultee (MX-744) program was mostly classified as a military-weapon usage since it was a pre-ICBM test vehicle.

posted 03-06-2024 09:25 AM               

And yes, the fins on the stamp appear different to the fins of the Hiroc on the pad. It needs to be considered though, that in flight the exhaust plume can distort the perceived outline of the fins. Also, the three Hirocs that were fired didn't all have the same tail configuration. I might be wrong and will stand correction, but I believe these three flights were the very first to demonstrate gimballed engines. It is my further understanding that the moveable graphite exhaust vanes (as used on predecessor V2s) were not eliminated on the first launch, but, as a range safety precaution, were mounted on extensions to the flight fin you see in the postcard photo.

I also readily agree with you, that a mere three years after the end of World War II, featuring a Nazi rocket on a stamp would be insensitive.

posted 03-06-2024 10:31 AM               

On a completely different track. I have the Fort Bliss Centennial stamp on a wider range of space covers than any other 'space stamp.'

I have it on envelopes from FDCs all the way up to Apollo 17 PRS splashdown covers. They are not in the same quantity as the other space stamps (Echo 1, Goddard, Moonrise, Achievements etc.), but are definitely more extensive.

posted 03-07-2024 11:04 PM               

1. Fluegel cachet, my favorite cachet design for this issue.
   

2. Hamilton cachet, hand cancel on plate block.
   

3. Hamilton cachet, with two cancels. Standard El Paso first day of issue and also Fort Bliss machine cancel with slogan: "Fort Bliss 100TH Anniversary Nov. 5-6-7".
   

   

posted 03-08-2024 04:56 AM               

I too have a Fluegel (with a block of four stamps). Also there is a very neat Smartcraft cachet at bottom right.