Alvin Gauthier has been a USPS letter carrier for about 20 years. He started the job when he was just 19 years old. This week demonstrated why he is so dedicated to the job.
"I was getting ready for my route and found some letters that were dated back to 1942, so World War II," Gauthier said. "Being a veteran myself, so I'm like man, this is some history! Because once again, mail boosts morale for all soldiers, so my main thought was I have to find this family."
The only clues were the soldier's name, a military return address, and a recipient address that was simply Jacksonville, Arkansas.
Gauthier reached out to the NBC station in Little Rock, which ran a story that helped find the soldier Marion Lamb's family, still living in Jacksonville.
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"I could have stuck them in the mail, but it's kinda like sometimes you have to go above and beyond," Gauthier said. "Just go the extra mile...or 379 miles."
Gauthier drove to Jacksonville, Arkansas on his day off, using his own money for gas and hotel, to deliver the letters in person.
"For me, it's a connection with my family," Jo Ann Smith told NBC affiliate KARK.
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Smith was just two years old when her older brother went off to war. The letters were sent by another family member to Smith's daughter Debbie Smith, who is the family historian, in Grand Prairie, Texas. The package didn't hold and the letters fell out before delivery.
"They had the name of the recipient and they had the address of Jacksonville, Arkansas; which if you think about it, in 1941 we were just a small community and we got the mail like that no problem," Jo Ann Smith said via Zoom with her daughter visiting from Grand Prairie by her side. "It restores your faith in people," Debbie Smith said. "And we saw the connection, the real connection, between military families."
"They are like my family now," Gauthier said. "And if kinda something like this happens next week, I will do the same thing again!"
