Page 12 - Demo

would normally be closed. Once they were ready, the Bureau moved a Giori press into a locked room, and only a small number of postal employees were allowed inside. While the Mercury stamps were being printed, a guard was posted at the door to keep everyone else out. To satisfy the curious, those who knew about the secret project started a rumor saying the press was being used for test runs of multicolored money. One engraver, who knew nothing about the project, gave credibility to the rumor when he said, %u201cWhatever they%u2019re doing in the Giori room, it wasn%u2019t engraved here!%u201d Once printed, the sheets of stamps were surreptitiously moved across the street, on a weekend, through an underground tunnel, where they were wrapped in plain brown paper, placed inside sealed packages, and stored in a new vault. The stamps were then shipped, prior to the original launch date of December 20, 1961, to 305 of the larger Post Offices around the country. They were located in each of the 48 states, plus Washington, DC and San Juan, Puerto Rico. The stamps were sent to the attention of Postal Inspectors, to prevent curious Postmasters from taking an early peek. Each package was marked %u201cClassified Material. Do Not Open.%u201d Because of the repeated delays in Glenn%u2019s flight, they simply sat in Post Offices until the end of February.Even with all the precautions, the secret was almost blown. Before Glenn%u2019s original launch date, a Cocoa, Florida newspaper reporter heard a rumor about a secret stamp. He immediately called James Kelleher, who had responsibility for all stamp programs at the Post Office Department. Kelleher certainly knew about the Project Mercury stamp%u2014in fact he was in charge of the operation%u2014but he effectively dismissed the report. By the time of the actual launch, two months later, the stamp%u2019s release was the surprise it was hoped to be.It was 2:43 PM Eastern Time when John Glenn splashed down safely in the Atlantic