Migration
From the Stars and Stripes archivesPostal prank irks Yank
Stars and Stripes
April 14, 1953
Pvt. Anthony M. Obert tackles his mail. (Frank Praytor/Stars and Stripes)
Pvt. Anthony M. Obert tackles his mail. (Frank Praytor/Stars and Stripes)
Members of Headquarters Company, 3d Battalion, 180th Infantry Regiment, help Pvt. Anthony H. Obert (fourth from left), Cincinnati, read the thousands of letters he has received from the States after his name was broadcast by a radio disc jockey. Helping the eye-weary Obert with his reading duties are (left to right) Pfc. Emiliano Ortiz, San Antonio; Sgt. William E. Stephenson, Waynesboro, Va.; Pfc. Ralph E. Mosley, Cleveland; Obert; Cpl. Thomas Schwaab, Baltimore; Sgt. Robert Hamilton, St. Petersburg, Fla., and Pfc. Richard Shank, Danville, Ill. (Frank Praytor/Stars and Stripes)
WITH 180TH INF REGT, Apr. 13 — Most people are a bit touchy about other folks reading their mail, but Pvt. Anthony M. Obert, a member of 3d Battalion, 108th Infantry Regiment, encourages his buddies to come over and share his letters.
Obert received between 1,000 and 1,500 letters last week, and they are still pouring in. His biggest job is tracking down the letters of his family and friends back in Cincinnati amidst the stacks of letters that come in daily from strangers throughout the United States. His second biggest job is trying to answer as many as possible.
"I STOPPED counting them after the first thousand," the 32-year-old soldier said. "They have come from as far north as Canada, as far south as Florida, and as far west as Newton, Texas. Just about all of the letters are from women — not that I mind."
Obert didn't star in any movie; nor did he inherit Fort Knox. His sudden popularity began its upward roll when a couple of his bunker mates, in jest, wrote a letter to radio station WCKY in Cincinnati in Obert's name and filed a plea for mail from the station's radio audience. The request was read over the air during a recording program and ladies everywhere grabbed stationery and pencils and flooded the 180th regimental post office with letters to "lonesome" Obert, who didn't know what it was all about when the mail first began to pour in.
"I've answered some," Obert said, "but the situation soon got out of hand, so I told the boys around here to help themselves to letters. They have been coming in my bunker and picking out letters from their home states."