So I sent a card and wrote a note on the front of the envelope as follows in large print: "Did not seal in case anyone wishes to inspect contents. Thank you." And I tucked the envelope flap into the back. Had my return address on both sides. That was Nov. 28.

I had addressed it to "A Recovering American Soldier, c/o Walter Reed Army Med. Center, 6900 Georgia Ave., NW, Washington, DC." Yet no one at the hospital or the Postal Service in Washington, D.C., knows of any recovering American soldiers?