Martin Luther King, Jr.

ernie11

With MLK Day approaching, I was reminded that I own this plate block of 12 Martin Luther King, Jr. stamps. They were issued in 1979 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of King's birthday.

291fifth

It was issued just over ten years after his death. In those days I believe it was USPS policy to wait ten years after their death before commemorating individuals.

MzCallie2025

Hello 291 Fifth,

What is your collection centered or focused around? I started collecting stamps when I was young, and during my years in the military i took a break, and after discharging from the armed forces becamed really serious about my collections and choose an of specility which is U.S (the beginning stopping at 1979, a few errors of choice, African French Colonies noted: not just a selected few). I also enjoy having some of the special selections ie: in the back of the catalog, too.

Thanks for reading/listening to

291fifth

The only stamp collection I have left is what I call my "personal interest" collection. It consists of First day and event covers. stamp club covers and things like First day programs from First days I attended. In the case of many of the first days covers I did my own cachets in colored inks. In the case of the stamp show covers I was heavily involved in their production and often designed the cachets and special postmarks.

In the distant past I had an excellent collection of the stamps of Ethiopia where I was stationed when I was in the Army.

MzCallie2025

Thanks 291fifth,

I, too, was "hooray." My last duty station was Fort. Jackson. Thank you for your service time. My deployment didn't send me to Africa, but as a young girl, the pastor had invited a minister from Africa to visit our church back in the day, a lot of large Baptist churches did this... long story short, my mother became good friends with the pastor's wife, and they wrote letters and stayed in contact. I took an interest in the stamps, which is what piqued my fascination for collecting.

Sounds like we have some similarities Was 291fifth infantry? I spend that time at Benning.

Well I shouldn't talk your ear off ... gotta run take care hope to hear from again...bye

291fifth

291fifth was Military Police. Basic at Ft. Polk, AIT at Ft. Gordon. My regular duty station was USASAFS, Asmara, Eritrea, Ethiopia (Kagnew Station)}. Eritrea is no longer part of Ethiopia. A highlight of my time there was seeing and photographing Emperor Haile Selassie when he visited out base. Later that year I was selected to be a bodyguard for Haile Selassie when he visited our base for a dental appointment. We sat around for three days but he never showed up.