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US mail note

US mail note "This letter is one of approximately 4,000 recovered July 4, 1945, from a plane which was wrecked March 11, 1943, at an elevation of 6,000 feet about half way between Mt. Martin volcano and Becharof lake in the Aleutian Chain of the Alaskan Peninsula, Territory of Alaska. The foregoing explains delay in delivery."

In early 1943 Lyttleton Ballard’s wife, living in Staunton Virginia, filled out an income tax form for 1942 and mailed it to Lyttleton in Alaska for his signature. It was not returned and Mrs. Ballard made out another form. More than two years later, in July 1945, an envelope was delivered to the Ballard home, now in Charlottesville Virginia containing a water logged envelope and an explanation of the “delay in delivery.” Inside was the tax form mailed in March 1943 that had been discovered in aircraft wreckage. In the interim years the family address had changed from Staunton VA, to Wickford RI, to Bradford RI to Martha’s Vineyard MA and finally to the home of an uncle in Charlottesville VA. Thomas Ballard, son of Lyttleton, gives the postal service a great deal of credit for tracking the family down and delivering the long lost letter. The post office included a letter of explanation with the long lost letter and tax form.

U.S. National Park Service

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Aleutian World War II National Historic Area, Code: ALEU

Aleutian World War II National Historic Area, Aleutians West Census Area, Alaska
Latitude: 53.8943214416504, Longitude: -166.537902832031

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