Former MPHS Secretary Bob Kinsley accepts the
Outstanding Service Award from President Kugel (right)
Outstanding Service Award presented to
Bob Kinsley at the 2007 convention
Carter updated and greatly expanded the Army Post Office (APO) directories that the society has published over the years in many editions. Three volumes in the 7th edition have been issued so far. Volume 1 addresses Numbered Army & Air Force Post Office Locations including the base post offices, postal regulating stations, and the regular APOs. Volume 2 covers the temporary post offices numbers that were used by military personnel en route to an existing unit or a new unit. The third volume by Carter lists the numbered Navy and Marine Corps post office locations.
Russ Carter’s latest publication is a diversion from the APO listings and reveals a new area of research that he stumbled on while reviewing records in the National Archives. War Ballots: Military Voting by Mail from the Civil War to WW II describes the regulations for voting by military personnel while they were away from home in training camps or abroad. For WW II there were many types of state and national election forms and envelopes. These are illustrated with details on how they were handled state by state.
Boehret's Receive 2003 Service Award
The Military Postal History Society’s Outstanding Service Award for 2003 goes to Diane and Jesse Boehret for their many years of dedication to the society, the field of military postal history, and to the hobby in general. Jesse Boehret is a past president and director of MPHS, formerly the War Cover Club. During his administration he initiated programs to recommend dealers and judges, who were MPHS members, to the national shows where the society held its annual conventions.
He also emphasized the need for regular annual conventions and regional meetings of the society. In recent years MPHS has offered a military postal history grand and reserve grand award at its convention shows. The awards go to the two best military related exhibits as selected by the show jury. Jesse Boehret has won many golds with his exhibit of the German POW Camps in Japan in World War I. In 1980 he was named an accredited judge and is also an accredited chief judge of the APS.
Diane Boehret has been an ardent supporter of her husband’s work with the MPHS and often remained at the society booth when the membership meetings were in session. She is past president of the American Philatelic Congress and has been president of the Postal History Society for fourteen years. She has received national grand awards with her exhibits of The German Post Offices in China During the Boxer Rebellion, and the German Military Mission in Turkey 1914-1918. Diane is also an accredited APS judge.
In 1997 this husband and wife team became the only such duo to win the National Philadelphia Stamp Exhibition’s local and national merit awards the same year. The Boehrets are the eighth and ninth recipients of the MPHS service award since its inception in 1992. Previous winners include Theo Van Dam, Stanley Jersey, and Norman Gruenzner.
The award consists of a model Civil War cannon, the 12-pounder Light Gun known as the “Napoleon.” The weapon was named for Emperor Louis Napoleon of France who sponsored the design in the 1850s. At the beginning of the Civil War there were only a few dozen Napoleons in the United States. By the end of the war the North had over 1100 of them and the South had about half that number. The field piece was popular as it was lighter in weight than its predecessors and much more mobile. It had an effective range of 1000 yards and a maximum range of nearly one mile.
