No harmful substances found in mail
addressed to ex-6th Fleet commander
By Ward Sanderson,
Naples bureau
A suspicious letter addressed to the former commander of the U.S. Navy’s 6th Fleet
turned out to be free of anthrax.
Instead, the letter sent to Adm. Gregory G. Johnson was nothing more than a Navy
buff’s request for memorabilia, the fleet announced Friday.
"The results are that there are no harmful substances," spokesman Cmdr. Bob
Ross said.
The envelope arrived at 6th Fleet offices aboard the USS La Salle, ported in Gaeta,
Italy. Two sailors flagged the letter on Wednesday after noticing its return address had
been crossed out, its address had been handwritten and it bore a New Jersey postmark.
More than 1,000 postal workers were tested for anthrax exposure in New Jersey following
the infection of as many as four of their colleagues.
Sailors did not open the letter.
Instead, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service sealed the letter and turned it,
along with the sailors’ uniforms, over to Italian authorities. The sailors took
antibiotics in the meantime.
Italian Carabinieri, or paramilitary police, and local magistrates handled the
investigation.
According to a 6th Fleet statement, the precautions the sailors took were standard for
handling suspicious mail.
Johnson had transferred to a new command by the time the letter was received. On
Wednesday, Johnson took over the reins of Allied Forces Southern Europe and U.S. Navy
Europe.
The seeds of the anthrax-by-mail worry were sown Sept. 18, when envelopes postmarked in
Trenton, N.J., were sent to the New York Post and NBC’s Tom Brokaw.
The first case to make headlines was that of Bob Stevens, a photo editor for
tabloid-publisher American Media Inc. in Florida. His Oct. 5 death was the first lethal
case of inhaled anthrax recorded since 1976.
Since then, several people in government, the media and the postal service have tested
positive for anthrax exposure. Three have died.
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