# "Property of US Government" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 17, 2020, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/property-of-us-government/920852 "2020-09-17T16:54:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![a6ka97](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c2a13f/32.png) [@a6ka97](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a6ka97)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/property-of-us-government/920852/21 "2020-09-18T18:59:05Z")
I’ll wait for it to come around on the guitar. ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/property-of-us-government/920852/22 "2020-09-18T19:15:58Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > I read the memoir of one of the guys involved in the Manhattan project. When he and his arrived at Los Alamos the housing and everything in it was furnished by the Army – there was no way their household goods would be moved there. After about a week his wife complained why they couldn’t have anything new. > > Puzzled, he checked. Sure enough, _everything_ in the place – the back of the furniture, the sheets, even the broom handle was stamped USED, so he checked. > > Turned out it stood for United States Engineering Department. I’m _very_ doubtful about this story. The only reference I can find to this acronym is an unsourced entry on [acronymfinder.com](http://acronymfinder.com) (which notes it as being in use c. 1900, btw, not c. 1943). Also, there is no such thing as the U.S. Department of Engineering, and I can’t find any evidence that an entity by that name has ever existed. The Army engineering branch, which managed the Manhattan Project, was at the time (and still is) called the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The nomenclature doesn’t even make sense. The term “Department” in the U.S. Federal government is pretty much always used for executive branch agencies with a cabinet secretary, and the U.S. has never had a “Secretary of Engineering.” And the official name takes the form of “U.S. Department of X”; the form, “X Department”, is usually only used informally, not stamped on Department property. ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/property-of-us-government/920852/23 "2020-09-18T19:21:12Z")
Addendum to the above: It’s _possible_ that some incident like that occurred involving the U.S. Department of _Energy_, but that agency didn’t exist until 1977, and I personally find it unlikely they would stamp their property with USED (U.S. Energy Department) instead of USDOE (U.S. Department of Energy). ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/property-of-us-government/920852/24 "2020-09-18T20:26:55Z")
I kind of puzzled about it myself. I was wondering if it was some sort of subset of the Army Corps of Engineers who were the ones in charge of the project. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/property-of-us-government/920852/25 "2020-09-18T20:35:00Z")
> [@Keeve](#): > > I heard that this technicality is what made it illegal for other entities to put stuff (advertising or whatever) into any mailbox, Actually what makes it illegal is a law passed in 1934, not what is stamped on a mailbox. > [@gdave](#): > > The only reference I can find to this acronym is an unsourced entry on [acronymfinder.com](http://acronymfinder.com) (which notes it as being in use c. 1900, btw, not c. 1943). Never let the facts get in the way of a good story 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/property-of-us-government/920852.md?page=1)