Kenyon Delivers During Two World Wars
On July 24, 1942, Postal Inspector William Kenyon is named acting chief of the Army Postal Service during World War II.
World War I
After starting his career as a young man cleaning mail bags, Kenyon rose to become a prominent member of the Postal Inspection Service. After years spent working his way up the ranks of the Postal Service, Kenyon was appointed a Post Office Inspector on August 9, 1906. He served in the New Orleans, Austin, Cincinnati, and New York Divisions before being assigned to France with the American Expeditionary Forces in 1917 during World War I.
Word War II
Throughout 1919 and 1920, Kenyon served as the chief of the Postal Express in France, Germany, and Luxemburg, and he oversaw the creation of an organized system to get mail to soldiers during the war. After World War I, Kenyon returned to the States where he was assigned to the Pittsburg Division until his promotion to assistant chief Post Office Inspector in 1931. In 1939, Kenyon was given the special appointment to study mail service for the armed forces in preparation for Word War II. This led to the agreement between the Post Office Department and the War Department that would leave mail distribution during times of war and emergency in the hands of the Post Office Department.
Legacy
Inspector Kenyon’s success earned him the title and respect of being a colonel in the armed forces. His ideas and organization of soldiers’ mail distribution and APOs (Army Post Offices) are still widely used today.
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