The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has issued a commemorative stamp that pays tribute to the little-known but invaluable work of women cryptologists during World War II.
With young men enlisting to serve in the wartime military, American women were recruited for the top-secret cryptology work needed to decipher enemy communications. By the end of the war, around 7,000 women did cryptology work for the U.S. Army and another 4,000 worked with the U.S. Navy. However, their story was withheld from public tribute for decades due the sensitive nature of their duties.
“Their work was both frustrating and exhilarating (sometimes simultaneously) ””and one of the conflict”™s best-kept secrets,” said Jakki Krage Strako, the Postal Service”™s chief commerce and business solutions officer. “With this stamp, the U.S. Postal Service honors all of the women cryptologists of World War II, whose service played an inestimable role in the Allied victory.”
