Editing USS Barbero (section)

====Missile Mail====
{{Main|Rocket mail}}
<div style="float: right; margin-left: 1em">[[File:missilemail.jpg|500px]]</div>
In 1959 ''Barbero'' assisted the [[United States Post Office Department]], predecessor of what in 1971 became today's [[United States Postal Service]] (USPS), in its search for faster, more efficient forms of mail transportation. The Post Office tried its first and only delivery of "Missile Mail", though the idea of delivering mail by rocket was not new. Shortly before noon on 8 June 1959, off the northern Florida coast under command of her new skipper Robert H. Blount, ''Barbero'' fired a Regulus cruise missile towards the Naval Auxiliary Air Station, [[Naval Station Mayport|Mayport, Florida]]. Twenty-two minutes later the training type missile landed at its target; its training-type warhead having been configured to contain two official USPS mail containers.<ref name="English2003"/>

The Post Office had officially established a branch post office on ''Barbero'' and delivered some 3,000 pieces of mail to it before ''Barbero'' left [[Norfolk, Virginia]]. The mail consisted entirely of [[Cover (philately)|commemorative postal covers]] addressed to [[President of the United States]] [[Dwight Eisenhower]], other government officials, the Postmasters General of all members of the [[Universal Postal Union]], and so on. They contained letters from [[United States Postmaster General]] [[Arthur E. Summerfield]]. Their postage (four cents domestic, eight cents international) had been cancelled "USS Barbero 8 June 9.30&nbsp;am 1959" before the boat put to sea. In Mayport, the Regulus was opened and the mail forwarded to the [[Jacksonville, Florida]] Post Office for further sorting and routing.<ref name="English2003"/>

Upon witnessing the missile's landing, Summerfield stated, "This peacetime employment of a guided missile for the important and practical purpose of carrying mail, is the first known official use of missiles by any Post Office Department of any nation." Summerfield proclaimed the event to be "of historic significance to the peoples of the entire world," and predicted that "before man reaches the moon, mail will be delivered within hours from New York to California, to Britain, to India or Australia by guided missiles. We stand on the threshold of rocket mail."<ref name="English2003">{{cite book|last=English|first=Dave|title=The air up there: more great quotations on flight|url=https://archive.org/details/airupthere00dave|url-access=registration|access-date=7 June 2011|date=2003-01-24|publisher=McGraw-Hill Professional|isbn=978-0-07-141036-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/airupthere00dave/page/41 41]}}</ref>