"From the local town post office, the mail is transferred to the state’s general mail facility, in which the mail is consequently processed at one of USPS’ international gateways," Slater said.
The facilities of the USPS not only handle international mail but also all of the international mail of the armed services.
"A small military contingent operates with USPS at these gateways to assist USPS in routing mail to overseas points," she said. "They are called Joint Military Postal Activities. JMPAs work to assure that USPS arranges, assembles and consolidates the letters and parcels to the correct locations, then dispatches correctly on commercial airlines. Both military personnel and USPS civilian employees work hard to get the mail to its proper destinations."
At this point, the mail is loaded onto the aircraft for delivery to the Southwest Asia area of operations. Those letters are sent on connecting flights that average less than 29 hours from takeoff to delivery at the first offload point in the Middle East.
"The U.S. Postal Service, reimbursed by the Department of Defense, contracted Kalitta Airlines to provide air delivery service to and from Southwest Asia," said Slater. "Currently, Kalitta does not fly into Baghdad, because the commercial airport is not yet fully operational and does not grant Kalitta the authority to fly in."
Instead, Kalitta flies to an alternate location, where it off-loads the cargo to a different air carrier that flies the deliveries into Iraq. Delivery into Iraq used to be only through Baghdad, but now there is also direct service from the transfer point to three other locations in Iraq.
Once the shipments arrive at the main transportation hubs in Iraq, Kellogg Brown & Root drivers contracted in advance by the Army, are standing by to drive the mail to the receiving camp’s main post office. The departures depend on local ground dangers, highway problems and the force protection that must accompany the convoys.
"At the camp, post office personnel take the mail and sort it by the different units that it supports," she said.
The day the mail is delivered to the main post office is not necessarily the same day that all units arrive to retrieve their mail.
"There are literally dozens, if not hundreds, of units situated long distances from the main bases or camps that are unable to get a hold of their mail everyday, for (vital) reasons such as operational security," she said.
Slater said obstacles like mission delays or additional safety precautions might, at times, slow down the final deliveries. On the same token, those mission delays or additional safety precautions may save lives.
"This is not like the USPS in the United States, where you can go up to your lockbox and pick up your mail," she said. "This is a war zone. It’s a totally different world."
Nevertheless, the present mailing system is a vast improvement from the method used during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.
"We continue to peel back the onion on postal operations, timeliness and movement," said Col. Alan Dodson, Third Army/CFLCC’s deputy chief of staff for personnel (C-1).
Both Dodson and Slater said the routine of preparing, organizing and delivering mail to service members deployed to the Middle East is a method that the U.S military postal service evaluates and takes steps to enhance on a day-to-day basis.
In response to ongoing queries about delivery of mail via the Military Postal Service System, agency officials said that more than 65 million pounds of letters and parcels were delivered to the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility during calendar year 2003, at a cost of nearly $150 million.
"On a daily basis, just in Iraq alone, we receive up to 300,000 pounds of mail," said Slater. "That’s two huge 747-size plane-loads. Even on days we don’t get that much, there is enough for at least one 747 from Newark, NJ. And the U.S. Postal Service contracts for planes that have the sole purpose of transporting mail in and out of the theater every single day."
