Atsugi Naval Air Station, Japan, April 1957: U.S. sailors aboard the Navy attack carrier Shangri-la on exercises in the western Pacific area receive late issues of the Stars and Stripes while serving hundreds of miles at sea.

The service was part of the Navy’s “COD” (Carrier On-board Delivery) plane service operated by the VR-23 Navy Air Transport Sq. at Atsugi and popularly known as the “Codfish Line.” The powerful twin-engine planes operating from Atsugi NAS carried mail, passengers and late issues of the Pacific Stars and Stripes from Atsugi to the carrier at irregular intervals as needed.

October is Archives Month! Since 2004 the small (but mighty!) archives staff has worked to make more of our historic content available online. We have digitized our 1948 — 1999 European and Pacific editions, as well as several of our WWII editions and made them available online through http://starsandstripes.newspaperarchive.com/

In 2014 we focused our efforts on the preservation and digitization of our vast photo archives and have been slowly but steadily digitizing negatives, slides and prints — mainly concentrating on those with preservation issues.

Have a question for our archivist? Submit it here!