The United States Postal Service is marking Veterans Day with the issue of its new World War II Medal of Honor Forever stamps. Of the more than 16 million Americans who served in the armed forces during that conflict, only 464 were awarded the medal and almost half of those received the honor posthumously.

When the USPS announced they project, they decided to include images of all twelve surviving WWII recipients. They are: Charles H. Coolidge of Chattanooga, TN; Francis S. Currey of Selkirk, NY; Walter D. Ehlers of Buena Park, CA; John D. Hawk of Bremerton, WA; Daniel K. Inouye of Honolulu, HI; Robert D. Maxwell of Bend, OR; Vernon McGarity of Memphis, TN; Nicholas Oresko of Creskill, NJ; Wilburn K. Ross of Dupont, WA; and George T. Sakato of Denver, CO, all of whom served with the U.S. Army. Arthur J. Jackson of Boise, ID; and Hershel W. Williams of Ona, WV; served with the U.S. Marine Corps.

If you want to order First-Day-of-Issue Postmarks, follow these instructions:

Customers have 60 days to obtain the first-day-of-issue postmark by mail. They may purchase new stamps at local Post Offices, at usps.com/stamps or by calling
800-STAMP-24. They should affix the stamps to envelopes of their choice, address the envelopes to themselves or others and place them in larger envelopes addressed to:

Medal of Honor Stamps
Special Cancellations
PO Box 92282
Washington, DC 20090–2282

After applying the first-day-of-issue postmark, the Postal Service will return the envelopes through the mail. There is no charge for the postmark up to a quantity of 50. For more than 50, there is a 5-cent charge per postmark. All
orders must be postmarked by Jan. 11, 2014.