A Family-Gram is a relic of the Cold War. It was a personal message sent to a sailor of the United States Navy on a submarine by their families.
Because submarines normally maintain radio silence to
avoid detection, personal messages from the ‘outside world’
are severely restricted.
Family-Grams were originally limited to 15 word and only 3 could be sent during a single patrol. Later, longer and more frequent Family-Grams were permitted; as many as 50 words were permitted 10 times per patrol.
Family-Grams were scanned for content before being transmitted, and scanned again before delivery to the intended recipients.
The squadron would censor the Family-Gram to ensure that it did not contain classified information or “unhappy thoughts”.
You were not allowed to put information about deaths, severe illnesses, financial problems, etc.
You also wanted to limit personal information, because all of the Family-Grams were on the submarine broadcast, so when a boat downloaded Family-Grams, they got ALL of the
Family-Grams for the ENTIRE submarine fleet, not just the grams intended for their crew.
Radiomen were known to post the really entertaining
Family-Grams on a bulletin board for all to enjoy.
Post your Family-Gram. Keep it short with
only happy thoughts that EVERYONE can read!
Please, do not remove the stamp.
