Post Office Carries Through for an ‘Amateur’ Who Failed

Return to sender . . . 42 years later?

Yes, but this time it was not the post office’s fault, authorities pointed out Thursday, as they returned two undelivered letters to Joe Torres of East Los Angeles. Torres had written them during World War II.

What happened, postal spokesman David Mazer said, was this: Torres was among 92 servicemen stationed in Algeria who handed more than 235 pieces of mail to a buddy going home in 1944. The buddy was instructed to drop them in a mailbox. For reasons still not clear, he never did, instead leaving them in a duffel bag in his house in Raleigh, N.C.

Recently, a pest control worker found the letters in the attic where the since-deceased soldier lived, and they were turned over to the postmaster general.

After a six-week search, authorities found several of the former servicemen, including Torres, 59, a telephone company supervisor.

Los Angeles Postmaster Charles W. King hand-delivered the two still-unopened letters that Torres had written, one to his father and one to his girlfriend.

“The post office always delivers,” King said.

Torres said he plans to re-mail the letter to his old girlfriend, with an accompanying explanation, since she is married and living in Denver.

The house where Torres’ late father lived no longer exists, by the way. It was torn down so the Terminal Annex post office could be enlarged.