Women Cryptologists of WWII Stamps

During World War l, some 11.000 women labored day and night, helping to process and decipher an endless stream ofenemy military messages. Their work was by turns frustrating and exhilarating, and one of the conflict's best-kept secretsWith this stamp, the U.S. Postal Service honors all of the women cryptologists of World War ll, whose service played aninestimable role in the Allied victory.

The stamp art features an image from a World War l-era WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Service) recruitment postewith an overlay of characters from the "Purple" code. The poster was designed by john Falter (1910-1982), who designedmore than 300 recruiting posters during his military service. The Purple code was used by the japanese government toencrypt diplomatic messages. Genevieve Grotian, a cryptologist with the U.S. Army's Signal lnteligence Service, discoveredthe key to cracking the code in September 1940. Her breakthrough allowed the United States to read and exploit theinformation conveved in Japanese diplomatic messages for the duration of the war.

In the pane selvage, seemingly random leters (ZRPH QF UB SWRORJLVWV RIZRUOGZDULL, FLSKHU, DQDOBCH, 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 stll in colege or working as schoolteachers. Thoysands more weremilitary personnel, volunteers who enlisted folowing the establishment of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps in May 1942 andof the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service), 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 workedto break the encryption systems that revealed dapanese shipping routes and diplomatic messages. They also built high-speecmachines that allowed cryptologists to break German messages encrypted by the Enigma 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 farreaching contributions for decades. Today, they are widely considered STElM pioneers, especially because their wartime workcoincided with the development of modern computer technoloay, Thelr contributions opened the door for women in the militanand have helped shape intelligence and information security efforts for future generations.Antonio Alcalá served as art director and designer for this stamp.The Women Cryptologists of World War ll stamp is being issued as a Forever® stamp. This Forever stamp will always beequal in value to the current First-Class Mail® one-ounce price.

Made in the USA