Here you go.....!

Looking back on my brief stint as a letter carrier, I can imagine the furor which would have been caused by someone even mentioning the possiblity of carrying firearms.

Having said that, in the late '60s a career postal employee gave me a quantity of .38S&W brass he had policed up after some employees (job descriptions unknown) had test fired their weapons in a steam pipe tunnel under an urban post office. So apparantly weapons of that caliber were still around at that time.

I hope it is OK to resurrect this old thread. We know about the POD using M1917 revolvers borrowed or surplussed from the Army. They bought lots of Colt Banker's Specials and a few S&W Terriers, primarily for the Railway Mail Service. There is the Model 45 "Post Office" revolver. But what do you reckon is in this holster? The revolver and the holster are heretofore unknown to me as standard PO issue. The picture is dated 1970.
Regards,
Kevin Williams

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Kevin Williams SWCA1649 HF208

Round butt 10-5 with a four-inch barrel would be my guess.

From the diamond-free stocks, the gun is of post 1968 manufacture.

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David Wilson

A couple of stories:

A guy who worked for me in the early 1980s had two brothers who worked on the Post Office rail cars back in the 1940s. He told me that his brothers carried Colt 1917s at the time. As previously related, back in those days, a lot of mail traveled on railroad mail cars, and mail sorting was done en route by postal clerks. And a lot of cash and valuables were transported by the Post Office. Therefore, armed postal employees were almost a necessity.

On the IAA forum, there was a discussion in which it was brought up that the Post Office once used .38 Short Colt ammunition in .38 Special revolvers for training, as the .38 Short Colt would not only chamber in .38 Specials, but it was also much milder than the standard .38 Special load, and therefore more suited for training. Does anyone know more about this?

The RMS bought thousands of Banker's Special and a few hundred S&W Terriers, both in .38 S&W. They bought damn few guns in .38 Special, AFAIK.

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Kevin Williams SWCA1649 HF208

But not necessarily for RMS service.

Having a background at FLETC (Federal Law Enforcement Training Center) we had over 50 federal agencies that had armed divisions within them, some off the wall like the Dept. of Education. There were several agencies in the late 80's and 90's that were issuing the 3" Ruger's as mentioned in previous posts.

how about another model 45 image wearing some old ivories.

I saw a uniformed officer with a U. S. Postal Police shoulder patch in a restaurant where I eat breakfast last week. I didn't do a "target glance" at his sidearm but it was some sort of plastic pistol. Unfortunately, the guy looked as though his long time assignment had been protection of interstate transportation of Crispy Creme doughnuts.

Bob

Really

Kevin, I think that might be a S&W rig all the way. Here's a model 02 Off Duty holster made for a 2" model 10.

Regards,
turnerriver

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turnerriver

Hi:
In the 1956-1958 era I was a "Temp Employee" for the U.S. Post Office. Mail Carriers that was assigned "Registered Mail" was issued a sidearm before leaving and when returning the sidearm was turned in. IIRC the sidearms at my Post Office were small .38 revolvers. There was one S&W M1917 .45acp Revolver in a brown left hand flap holster in the Arms Locker. Usually this was the last to be issued as the Carriers didn't like the size or weight of it.
Jimmy

I don't know about them carrying guns, but there are a couple of female clerks at my local post office that if they ever did a strip tease would make you wet yourself from fright. When they are all working at once it looks like the bar scene from Star Wars.

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Vaya con Dios

When I was a kid, in the mid to late 50's, I remember seeing the fellers that delivered the mail to the Post Office were armed with what I remember as large revolvers. They drove in, in a large bob-tailed truck with the days mail deliveries for the Post Master at the small rural Post Office where I lived. I can't swear to it, but I think one had a holstered Colt, and the other had a holstered S & W. Neither wore any type of uniform or had any badge of any sort. Just regular working type fellers wearing guns in a plain bobtail truck marked U. S. Post Office on the side of the door. That was it, but I do also remember a "Night Watchman" walking around wearing a K-frame in a holster with a little tiny badge pinned to his shirt in those days, too. He was as good as a Deputy to us in those days.

Did the Post Office buy or issue Model 36's? Every so often, it comes up. For example, a model 36 square butt, not a flat latch, struck U.S.P.O. on the parkerized frame.

That would be Krispy Kreme, and please do not underestimate the importance of protecting them.

The U.S. Postal Police guard large facilities, such as mail hubs. Many years ago they were called Federal Police, but that sounded too third world so the name was changed. That is what I remember from orientation 27 years ago.

A friend recently gave me a copy of "THE SECRET SERVICE OF THE POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT As Exhibited In The Wonderful Exploits of Special Agents or Inspectors In The Detection, Pursuit, and Capture of Depredators Upon The Mails, With A Complete Description of The Many Means and Complicated Contrivances of the Wily and Unscrupulous to Defraud the Public; also, an Accurate Account of the Famous Star Route Frauds".

It's a large book by P. H. Woodward and published in 1978 by Durst Publications. I haven't had a chance to read it yet but it appears to be an interesting study.

Bob

I can vouch for the spelling of Krispy Kreme donuts. I'm looking at a box of them purchased this afternoon.

I think Krispy Kreme is the only donut brand mentioned in novels. The late Robert B. Parker mentioned them several times in his Spenser novels.

I never got a response to my question here about customers taking ordinary pocketknives into the post office to mail things or buy stamps.

Someone mentioned Postal Police. I was guarding an office building maybe seven years ago when a postal cop came by asking if I'd seen anyone in the area. Apparently, someone had phoned in a complaint that someone was tampering with a mailbox a couple of blocks away. He was armed, but circumstances were such that I didn't ask with what, and I couldn't see the gun well. Frankly, from the looks of the man, I doubt that he even knew which gun he had.
But he was out on the street, not guarding a hub station.

So: I still want to know if I can carry an ordinary Swiss Army knife in the post oiffice. ???

Texas Star, the officer you saw worked at a plant, or hub. He just got dispatched to check on the complaint rather than send a USPS Inspector. I have met a few of those officers in the past, the last one was eating a Blimpie sandwich, and talking with his mouth full.

As far as toting a Swiss Army knife into a post office, you may do anything you are willing to suffer the consequences for, LOL!! A customer entering the postal facility for business purposes is of course, subject to the law, but we do not have metal detectors nor do we search people. Out of sight, out of mind.

As USPS employees, we have the need for knives to remove plastic wrap and straps from magazines and heat shrink from pallets of parcels. We actually have small knives similar to paring knives and ring knives (rings with hooked blades) for such purposes. I personally carry a Black Hawk switchblade in my pocket, and have for years.

Ordinary mail carriers do not carry revolvers. Post offices used to keep hand guns in the post offices. Postal Inspectors, even today, are Federal LE officers investigating crimes related to the mail. They are armed.

Back when RFD was first established, mail carriers were issued firearms because they were alone in rural, if not even wilderness, type areas. I have a friend who has the Savage .32 semi auto pistol his grandfather was issued as a carrier, he worked about 100 miles southwest from Atlanta.

This was a great thread! I learned very much, especially from the sites that were referenced. Thanks to all!

medxam

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Doc Garrett
Dead Man's Doctor

In the late 50s, early 60s, I worked for the P.O. contractor whose job was to meet the trains that came into Amarillo, TX and transfer mail to the Post Offfice and between depots. The Burlington line (we called it Ft. Worth and Denver) trains had Railway Post Office cars staffed with clerks and yes, they were armed with revolvers tucked away in the hip pocket of their overalls, holster and all. Occasionally, the payroll for Amarillo Air Force Base would come in cash through the mail (some speculated that it was close to a million dollars). I would load it into my truck and one clerk would ride in my cab to the Post Office with his trusty revolver hidden away in his hip pocket. Four Air Police would come to pick it up at the Post Office and they were all armed with .45s and two had Thompson sub machine guns. If one wanted to rob the payroll, hitting my truck would have been the way to go, but probably no one really knew about the opportunity.

I was a parttime rural carrier in 2009 for a few months. I carried my automatic Benchmade knife and no one said anything. Of course, my supervisor was former 82nd Airborne and knew I was a former Marine, as well as being a retired LEEO.

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John 3:16
WAR EAGLE!

I generally carry the same things in the post office that I carry in the grocery store, hardware store, filling station, bank, restaurant...

Bob

Same for my father-in-law's father, a letter carrier in rural Alabama from the late 20's through the early 50's. He was not issued a weapon, but routinely carried a personal long gun (either a shotgun or .22 rifle) and brought home quail, rabbit, etc for the supper table.