U.S. Army Spc. Kenneth O'Kelley, 841st Adjutant General Compan., sorts outgoing mail at the post office. U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Chris Stump
Bagram Post Office Keeps Mail Coming, Going
By U.S. Army Pfc. Chris Stump
17th Public Affairs Detachment
BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, June 14, 2004 — Keeping mail flowing smoothly into and out of a combat zone is no easy task - but soldiers at the Bagram Post Office are working tirelessly to make that happen.
Soldiers assigned to the 841st Adjutant General Company, U.S. Army Reserve from Tulsa, Okla., recently took charge of the Bagram facility and several others in Afghanistan. The company has platoons at the post offices in Karshi-Kahanabad, Uzbekistan and Kandahar - with plans to open another office in Salerno this month, said Sgt. 1st Class Randy LeClair, Bagram Post Office postmaster.
LeClair, who is also a postmaster for the U.S. Postal Service, manages the military post office the same way that he does his post office back home, he said. There are virtually no differences in the way mail operations are run between military and civilian offices.
“We have everything a U.S. Post Office has,” said LeClair. “We send priority mail, we insure mail and provide all the same customer services that our civilian counterparts do.”
Providing all those services to troops is often hard work - especially for an office that processes 66 percent of all military mail in Afghanistan, he said.
The Bagram facility receives 30 to 40 pallets of mail a week, added LeClair. Everything from letters to boxes arrives via aircraft into Bagram.
