2022 Women Cryptologists of WWII Forever First Class Postage 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 confict’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 victony.
The stamp art features an image from a World War ll-era WAvES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Service) recruitment poster withan ovelay of characters from the “Purple” code. The poster was designed by john Falter (1910-1982), who designed more than300 recruiting posters during his military service. The Purple code was used by the dapanese government to encrypt diplomaticmessages, Genevieve Grotian, a cryptologist with the U.S. Army’s Signal intelligence Service, discovered the key to cracking thecode in September 1940, Her breakthrough allowed the United States to read and exploit the infommation conveved in Japanese
diplomatic messages for the duration of the war.In the pane selvage, seemingly random letters (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 civlians recruited while stillin college or working as schoolteachers. Thousands more weremilitary personnel, volunteers who enlisted following the establishment of the Women’s Army Auxiiary Corps in May 1942 and ofthe 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 worked tobreak the encrvption svstems that revealed Japanese shipping routes and diplomatic messages. They also bullt high-speedmachines that allowed crvptologists 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 cvptologists of World War l remained silent about their crucial and far.reaching contributions for decades, Today, they are widely considered STEl pioneers, especially because their wartime workcoincided with the development of modern computer technoloav, Their 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 be equalin yalue to the current First-Class ail® one-ounce price.
Made in the USA