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Mail Team Keeps Holiday Season Morale High in Iraq
American Forces Press Service ^ | Sgt. David Hodge, USA

Posted on 12/12/2008 3:55:27 PM PST by SandRat

FORWARD OPERATING BASE FALCON, Iraq, Dec. 12, 2008 – A team of certified mail handlers is helping to boost morale for deployed soldiers by ensuring they receive their holiday care packages from family and friends back home.

Click photo for screen-resolution image
Army Sgt. Charles Kowalski makes a list of mail recipients to post outside the headquarters mail room while Army Sgt. Frederick Gregory sorts mail in the 4th Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team mailroom, at Forward Operating Base Falcon, Iraq, Dec. 10, 2008. Kowalski and Gregory are certified mail handlers and infantrymen assigned to the 4th Infantry Division’s Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 1st Brigade Combat Team. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. David Hodge
  

(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.
About a dozen soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team make up the “Raider” mail team.

With the holiday season at hand, post office operations are in full gear, with sometimes more than a dozen large boxes arriving at a time for a single soldier.

Mail operations have a serious affect on soldiers’ morale, Army Sgt. 1st Class Wanda Tapp-Kratzer, the logistics noncommissioned officer in charge, said. “With Christmas around the corner, it is important to get the soldiers their mail every day,” she said.

The increased workload keeps the Raider mail team busy at all hours of the day, and the mailroom is open for business twice each day.

Army Sgt. Charles Kowalski, a certified mail handler and battle noncommissioned officer with the 1st BCT, works in the mailroom as an additional duty. At first, he said, he was doubtful about the extra work, but he soon realized the impact letters and packages have on soldiers. “People are happy when they get their mail,” he said.

“The mail serves as a connection from home to a combat zone for a soldier,” said Army Sgt. Frederick Gregory, an infantryman from Houston assigned to the 1st BCT. “I love to boost morale, and morale makes soldiers work more proficiently while deployed to a combat zone.”

Tapp-Kratzer said she is proud of the way the mail handlers have handled the increased workload.

“I’ve got all the mail handlers on the same sheet of music,” she said. “They have done outstanding work.”

(Army Sgt. David Hodge serves in the 4th Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team public affairs office.)
Related Sites:
Multinational Corps Iraq
Click photo for screen-resolution image Army Sgt. Frederick Gregory, a certified mail handler, picks up letters and packages Dec. 10, 2008, from the United States Postal Service post office at Forward Operating Base Falcon in Iraq. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. David Hodge  
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Click photo for screen-resolution image Army Sgt. Charles Kowalski, a certified mail handler, carries packages to the headquarters mailroom Dec. 10, 2008, at Forward Operating Base Falcon, Iraq. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. David Hodge  
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TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: christmas; frwn; iraq; mail; morale

1 posted on 12/12/2008 3:55:27 PM PST by SandRat
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To: 91B; HiJinx; MJY1288; xzins; Calpernia; clintonh8r; TEXOKIE; windchime; freekitty; A Navy Vet; ...
FR WAR NEWS!
If you would like to be added to / removed from FRWN,
please FReepmail Sandrat.

WARNING: FRWN can be an EXTREMELY HIGH-VOLUME PING LIST!!

2 posted on 12/12/2008 3:55:50 PM PST by SandRat (Duty, Honor, Country! What else needs said?)
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To: SandRat

You know....I find it amazing they can get certified mail handlers to deliver packages and goodies to the troops during the holidays...... which is VERY important......BUT.... no one can seem to manage handling soldier votes... getting them stateside on time in an election year?


3 posted on 12/12/2008 4:01:34 PM PST by LaineyDee (Don't mess with Texas wimmen!)
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To: LaineyDee

The problem lays with each State’s Election Clucks errrr Clerks and the political machines therein. Not with the military mail system.


4 posted on 12/12/2008 4:06:16 PM PST by SandRat (Duty, Honor, Country! What else needs said?)
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To: SandRat

WOW...they hardly put any tape on their packages. I have been sending packages to Afghanistan..and I tape that sucker all the way around with the free tape..and then tape off the flate rate words with clear tape. Of course, mine are being dropped by helicopter onto a mountain..but still..I do that even with ones I send to Iraq. Mine run between 10-15 pounds and I don’t want them busting as they get thrown around.


5 posted on 12/12/2008 4:10:44 PM PST by RummyChick
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To: SandRat
Then they should let the military do the honors...

Just sayin'....

6 posted on 12/12/2008 4:28:58 PM PST by LaineyDee (Don't mess with Texas wimmen!)
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To: SandRat

I am at FOB Falcon and I’ve been getting lots of mail. Never a damaged package either. www.booksforsoldiers.com is awesome for getting something good to read.

Keep up the good work!


7 posted on 12/13/2008 12:19:58 AM PST by rfreedom4u (Political correctness is a form of censorship!)
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