During the years 1936 to 1937 the United States Post Office issued a series of commemorative stamps honoring prominent figures of the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy who served during the earlier chapters of American history.
The issues, however, did not materialize until President Franklin D. Roosevelt, an avid stamp collector himself, and a frequent motivator of stamp issues and designs, had campaigned for their release.
Ten stamps in all were issued on different dates during the course of six months, with the denominations of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 cents for both the army and navy issues.
[1][2] The Army and Navy issues were released consecutively in numerical order, beginning with the 1 cent issues.
The first day of issue for the army issues took place at West Point and Washington DC, while the navy issues were first released at Annapolis, Maryland and Washington DC.