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Medical ➔ Standard Army and Navy Package
Identifier:
145847Description:
This opened, empty, standard army and navy cardboard package has text, whether handwritten or typed, on every outer surface. While at first glance it appears to be "just a box" on further inspection it is clear that the box has had two different uses, both of which reveal a great deal about the experience of wartime.Originally, the package appears to have contained one large bottle of dried human plasma and one bottle of sterile distilled water, and is "from the volunteer donors enrolled by the American Red Cross." The purpose of the contents was to aid soldiers who had lost large amounts of blood in combat. The contents were to be used before "DEC 16 1947" and were the "PROPERTY OF THE U.S. GOVERNMENT".
It appears that the box was later repurposed to send a more personal package. The above labels are all crossed out and the box is addressed in handwritten script to "MRS. RALPH BLOCKSMA" in Grand Rapids, Michigan from "CAPT RALPH BLOCKSMA" in New York, New York.The front has a signed attached sticker that reads "I CERTIFY THAT THE ENCLOSED ARTICLES ARE BONAFIDE GIFTS FROM A MEMBER OF THE ARMED FORCES OF THE UNITED STATES ON DUTY OUTSIDE THE CONTINENTAL LIMITS OF THE UNITED STATES AND UNDER PUBIC LAW 790 ARE ENTITLED TO FREE ENTRY." On one side of the box it reads, in cursive, "1. German headgear." The bottom of the box has a larger certificate dated 20 April 1945. This certificate supports that the box was used to send back to the United States "items of captured enemy military equipment" along with statements of the value and regulation compliance of the objects enclosed. The items have been listed in cursive, but the ink has worn making the words indecipherable.
