Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Whitney Houston | A Kellogg, Brown and Root worker sorts through mail at Baghdad International Airport...... read more read more
By Sgt. Whitney Houston
Multi-National Division -Baghdad
BAGHDAD – Since before the establishment of the United States of America – postal systems have been in place, delivering up mail to those troops deployed and a long way from family and friends. It is because of this mail system that our men and women who serve in the United States military can have a viable way to correspond to those back home. It is with a special thanks to American founder and philosopher, Benjamin Franklin who is attributed to being the first Postal General to oversee the dispersion and delivery of mail within the American Colonies. What Franklin began became a paramount of growth in how we communicate today within the United States Postal Service.
While service members continue to serve overseas, sending or receiving mail is as easy as dropping a letter or a parcel off at the post office. But before it can be whisked away to the waiting recipient, there are several steps the mail must hit before this happens.
Before a parcel can be sent overseas to a foreign destination, USPS hands off service mail over to military jurisdiction and groups like the 81st Military Mail Terminal stationed throughout Kuwait, and Iraq ensuring service mail arrives safely to its destination. The MMT works through highly trained contractors serving with Kellogg, Brown and Root, as well as Airmen serving with the 732nd Air Expeditionary Group out of Balad Air Base, Iraq. Together, they make Joint Military Mail Terminals.
"Our JMMT makes sure everything is going smoothly with the operations piece, and to ensure that KBR is meeting the intent of their contract. They also make sure that mail gets out to their respective units," said Lt. Col. Jason Kuroiwa, native of Honolulu Hawaii, who serves at Baghdad International Airport, Iraq, as director of the 81st MMT, under the 10th Expeditionary Sustainment Command.
The JMMT is responsible for dispersing mail to servicemen throughout all of Iraq and Kuwait and have three locations throughout the two countries.
"We're located at three different locations; JMMT North in Balad, Iraq, JMMT South which is in BIAP, and JMMT Kuwait which is in Camp Arifjan," said Kuroiwa.
Each year the JMMTs have succeeded in delivering millions of pounds of mail to their respective area of operations.
"This year we have delivered over 76,000,000 pounds of mail, and that's all of the JMMT's collectively," said Kuroiwa. "Here at BIAP we've delivered well over 32,000,000 this year, and for the month of December it has added up to over 131,000 pounds a day."
December can be a busy month due to all of the Christmas packages coming and going. To avoid potential problems the JMMT prepared for the worst.
"We monitor and oversee all of the problems that we might encounter in December – like this storm in the states now; the planes can't come in or go out. We can't do much about that, but sometimes units come in to get their mail and it gets a little backed up, so we take steps to mitigate it, like a 24-hour pick-up schedule so the units don't have to worry about time constraints, and this Christmas we haven't had any issues," said Sgt. Trend Fate, a native of Wilson, N.C., serving as operations non-commissioned officer in charge for the 81st MMT located in BIAP, Iraq.
Constant dependence on solidarity and competence of the JMMT and KBR contractors ensures what every service member overseas longs for – the delivery of a little piece of home.
| Date Taken: | 12.23.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 12.23.2008 15:13 |
| Story ID: | 28066 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 466 |
| Downloads: | 113 |
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