Women Cryptologists of World War Il Stamps

During World War l, some 11,000 women labored day and night, helping to process and decipher an endless stream of enemymilitary messages. Their work was by turns frustrating and exhilarating--and one of the conflict's best-kept secrets. With thisstamp, the U.S. Postal Service honors all of the women cryptologists of World War l, whose service played an inestimable role inthe Allied victory.
The stamp art features an image from a World War l-era WAVES Women Accepted for olunteer Service) recruitment poster withan overlay of characters from the "Purple" code. The poster was desiqned by John Falter (1910-1982), who desianed more than300 recruiting posters during his military service. The Purple code was used by the Japanese government to encrypt diplomaticmessages. Genevieve Grotian, a cryptologist with the U.S. Army's Signal lntelligence Service, discovered the key to cracking thecode in Seotember 1940Her breakthrough allowed the United tates to read and exoloit the information conveved in japanesediplomatic messages for the duration of the war.
in the pane selvage, seemingly random letters ZRPH QF UB SWRORJLWWV RIZRUOGZDULL, FLSKHU, DODOBCH, andVHFUHW) can be deciphered to reveal some key words. The reverse side of the pane discloses the cipher needed to read thewords.
Many women cryptologists were civilians recruited while stil in college or working as schoolteachers. Thousands more weremilitary personnel, volunteers who enlisted following the establishment of the Women's Army Auxliary Corps in May 1942 and ofthe WAVES Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Servicel, part of the U.S. Naval Reserve, in July 1942.They deciphered Japanese fleet communications, helped prevent German U-boats from sinking vital cargo ships, and worked tobreak the encryption systems that revealed Japanese shipping routes and diplomatic messages. They also built high-speedmachines that alowed cryptolocists to break German messages encrypted by the Eniqma machine. intercepted enemycommunications, and ensured that encrypted U.S. messages were secure and error-free--an early form of cybersecurity
Sworn to secrecy under penalty of treason, the women cryptologists of World War l remained silent about their crucial and far.reaching contributions for decades. Today, they are widely considered STEM pioneers, especially because their wartime workcoincided with the development of modern computer technology, Thelr contributions opened the door for women in the mlitarvand have helped shape intelligence and information security efforts for future generations.
Antonio Alcala served as art director and designer for this stamp.
The Women Cryptologists of World War I/ stamp is being issued as a Forever@ stamp. This Forever stamp wil always be equalin value to the current First-Class Mail one-ounce price.
Made in the USA
SKUs featured on this page: 482204