After working in several clerical positions at local small businesses, Couch saw a newspaper advertisement seeking mail clerks; the pay was $75 per month, significantly higher than his then salary of $20. Passing the entrance exam in Shreveport, Louisiana, qualified Couch to enter the United States Post Office's Railway Mail Service, for which he would sort mail in one of the many railway postal cars which criss-crossed the nation. Couch initially worked on a Railway Post Office route on the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway between St. Louis and Texarkana, then a Memphis and Texarkana run over the St. Louis Southwestern Railway, before getting an assignment in Louisiana south of his home town of Magnolia.