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For many service members, especially those stationed overseas, mail can be a lifeline to family, friends, and feeling connected to home. For those stationed within U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces Africa, there is a team of Airmen dedicated to providing timely, cost effective, and efficient mail services.
The USAFE AFAFRICA Air Postal Squadron ensures all mail travelling to and from the major command is transported by the fastest and most reliable means possible, while also ensuring the right mail goes to the right place.
“Our mission is essentially to get your mail to you,” said Staff Sgt. Dereth Worrell, USAFE AFAFRICA AIRPS noncommissioned officer in charge of command postal transportation. “What my flight does, as we like to put it, if the post offices in the states and Army Post Offices here are A and Z, we cover everything from B to Y. We set up things like how your mail moves, what it takes to move, or should a new APO open.”
In 2016, the USAFE AFAFRICA AIRPS inspected, sorted, and transported 60 million pounds of mail to and from the European and African Commands.
The journey a package undergoes to reach its final destination is a long process that requires many moving parts. Once the package is dropped off at a local post office, it is shipped to Chicago, Illinois, to a facility within the O’Hare International Airport that is two football fields long. This facility processes all mail going overseas, whether it’s civilian, military, or Department of State. It is sorted and loaded onto aircrafts flying to one of the three main hubs for military mail in Frankfurt, Germany; London, England; and Istanbul, Turkey.
“No one really thinks about the transportation aspect,” Worrell said. “They think, ‘Oh, I ordered this or my friends or family sent me this, and two weeks later it shows up in my box.’ It takes a lot of work. You’re dealing with so many entities and factors that can change everything, such as weather or civil disturbances. Waiting two and half weeks to get something isn’t that bad considering everything that box has to go through in order to get to you.”
The squadron has detachments at the hubs, for which the air postal squadron provides the tools, resources, policy, and oversight. While most of the handling of the mail is done by contractors, the Airmen in the detachments oversee the offloading, inspecting, sorting, and loading onto trucks the mail undergoes.
“My favorite part was when I was working at the air mail terminal in Turkey and actually seeing everything move, getting to load up the trucks, make sure everything was there and sending it off,” Worrell said. “It was very physical, and yes you were pretty much doing the same thing every day – I pick up box, I move box – but it was eye-opening.”
The U.S. Air Force works hand-in-hand with the U.S. Army to deliver mail throughout Europe. The Air Force is in charge of air transportation, but once all the packages and letters have been loaded into their respective trucks, the Army takes over the ground transportation.
Receiving mail can seem like such a small thing, but it can have a positive effect on Airmen.
“Mail is a very significant component of morale and greater morale has proven to be a major contributor to Airmen productivity,” said Master Sgt. Gregory Sartain, USAFE AFAFRICA AIRPS functional area manager. “Happy folks are better working folks. We are directly contributing to the delivery of Grandma’s cookies to the Airman who’s never been overseas.”
USAFE AFRICA AIRPS not only handles the transportation of personal mail, they are also responsible for the transportation of official mail throughout the theater.
“Not only do we have a big piece of the personal mail side for every Airman, civilian, and Department of Defense contractor, but we also directly contribute to the mission by ensuring the units have the parts, equipment, and supplies needed to execute their missions,” Sartain said. “We’re talking about aircraft parts, communications pieces, things that are very important.”
The air postal squadron Airmen not only provide mail services to those stationed overseas, when they are deployed they provide the same services to the military members downrange.
“Mail is appreciated in garrison, however, when you’re in a deployed environment, it’s different,” Sartain said. “When the Airman, Soldier, Marine, or Sailor gets that letter from home that smells like their girlfriend’s perfume or they get cookies from mom while in a hostile and austere condition, it means more. There’s nothing more gratifying then handing a package to a service member and see their face light up. I really enjoy the deployments, being able to provide that morale support, which at times is crucial in a wartime situation.”
The staff Airmen stationed at Ramstein work with air carriers, USPS, and other entities to ensure the best service possible is used in transporting service member’s mail. This can be coming to agreements with contractors to provide timely deliveries, finding new ways to deliver mail more often to a certain area, or making sure companies adhere to the agreed upon standards.
“The most rewarding thing working on staff is when we set up a new lane,” Worrell said. “It’s knowing we made someone’s day get just a little bit brighter because we were able to get their mail to them a little bit faster.”
The USAFE AFAFRICA AIRPS Airmen use their skills to bridge the distance between service members stationed in Europe away from home and their loved ones.
| Date Taken: | 10.12.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 10.13.2017 02:58 |
| Story ID: | 251347 |
| Location: | RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, RHEINLAND-PFALZ, DE |
| Web Views: | 103 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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