posted 10-26-2025 10:04 AM               

Space Cover 829: My Favorite Apollo 13 USS Iwo Jima covers

I chose for my latest submission three covers for the Apollo 13 recovery. Now we all know the story of Apollo 13 so I won't go in to that. But did you know that as a rule, Gene Kranz and the flight controllers never celebrated the end of the mission until the crew was safely aboard the recovery ship. With all of the unknowns with Apollo 13 this was probably a good rule to follow.

The prime recovery ship for Apollo 13 was USS Iwo Jima. Many covers exist for the recovery postmarked aboard USS Iwo Jima with various cachets and are fairly easy to find. The first cover pictured was flown aboard the recovery helo #66. This was also the same helicopter that recovered the Apollo 11 crew upon their return to Earth following the first moonlanding. The cover was flown and signed by Chuck Smiley who was the assigned primary recovery pilot. The cover also has the US Navy rubber stamp recovery cachet on the back.

The second cover pictured was sent to recovery flight surgeon Keith Baird. He was asked to carry the cover into quarantine with the crew. Now, since there was no moonlanding there was no need to quarantine the crew. Keith Baird was part of the team of flight surgeons that evaluated the crew's health on board USS Iwo Jima following the recovery. Baird mailed this cover from the ship after crossing out the indication that the cover was in quarantine with the crew. It is of course unknown if he would have actually carried the cover in to quarantine with him or not. I kind of like to think that he would have.

After the successful recovery of Apollo 13, NASA established a review board to look in to what happened and to make recommendations for future Apollo crews so as not to have a similar incident. Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong was appointed to the review board as the Astronaut Office representative. The third cover pictured was postmarked for the recovery and was soon after signed by Armstrong. A nice combination of two great NASA accomplishments. Note that the ship's name is in a different location on this particular cancel indicating that the ship's post office had at least two cancelling devices.

Apollo 13 is often referred to as a successful failure and NASA's finest moment. These recovery covers are a testament to the dedication of the entire NASA organization to bring the crew back home safely.

posted 10-26-2025 10:34 AM               

A small side fact is that before the recovery mission the helicopter was designated Helicopter 740, and it reverted to 740 after the mission. 740 was painted out and 66 painted on to celebrate its former designation on earlier Apollo recovery missions including Apollo 8 and 11.