Sending mail to Navy personnel
To bolster force protection, the general public is urged not to send unsolicited mail, care packages or donations to service members forward deployed unless you are a family member, loved one or personal friend. Mail from family members and loved ones has always been encouraged and the military mail system will continue to work hard to get that mail to service members overseas.
There are many well meaning Web sites, TV stations, and charity groups that are promoting donations to overseas service members. While well intentioned, you should not use them and you should discourage others from using them. These unsolicited letters of support or care packages to service members raise a force protection issue, since anonymous donors are different from legitimate family members and friends. DoD has cancelled mail programs which encouraged the American public in general to mail to "Any Service Member" (versus a specific deployed person). These new programs attempt to do the same thing by gathering names of service members to send mail. While legitimate mail from family members and loved ones is always encouraged, these donor programs, which collect and pass out service members’ names and addresses, is discouraged.
On Oct. 30, 2002, the Department of Defense (DoD) suspended the "Operation Dear Abby" and "Any Servicemember" traditional mail programs due to force protection concerns. The Department of the Navy and the DoD cannot support creative and well-intentioned efforts that defeat force protection measures, but can instead recommend alternatives to mail and donation programs. To show support to troops overseas, the following are recommended:
Log on to the following Web sites to show support, to include greeting cards, virtual Thank You cards and calling card donations to help troops stay in contact with loved ones:
Defend America —
www.defendamerica.mil/support_troops.html Operation USO Care Package —
www.usocares.org/home.htm Operation Dear Abby e-mail to Navy personnel
Other ways by which you can show your support. Service members do value and appreciate such expressions of support:
Visit Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals and nursing homes. Volunteer your services to honor veterans who served in past conflicts. The Department of Veterans Affairs web site can be found at
www.va.gov Donate a calling card to help keep service members in touch with their families at Operation Uplink at
www.operationuplink.org/ Make a donation to the Navy/Marine Relief Society at
www.nmcrs.org/iraqwar.html Support the American Red Cross Armed Forces Emergency Services at
www.redcross.org/services/afes/ Support families whose loved ones are being treated at military and VA hospitals through a donation to the Fisher House at
www.fisherhouse.org Reach out to military families in your community, especially those with a loved one deployed.
Questions about finding the e-mail address of a Navy person are addressed on our e-mail FAQ page.
U.S. personnel deployed to the Arabian Gulf region and other overseas locations can now receive personal messages from family members, friends, neighbors, colleagues and supporters via the pages of Stars and Stripes newspaper as well. "Messages of Support," a daily section that debuted March 17, gives family and friends of deployed service members a chance to pass their greetings, words of encouragement and announcements free of charge. "Messages of Support" can be e-mailed to Stars and Stripes 24 hours a day at messages@estripes.com, are limited to 50 words or less and will be printed on a first-come, first-run basis. Stars and Stripes reserves the right to screen and edit all messages and to omit any determined inappropriate.
The following information may be helpful also.
I got the information below from one of my news letter from a conservative action news alert group.
You can help support our troops in the Middle East, with a morale boost like
they've never seen.
One of The items they're requesting the most is an international phone card.
ACTION ITEM: Here's the easiest way to get a "morale package"
to our troops:
(1) Buy a copy of USA Today with our full-page "RightMarch.com"
ad in it; tear out that ad. (It's also available for printing
online at
www.conservativealerts.com/usatodayad.pdf)(2) Buy an INTERNATIONAL pre-paid Phone Card at your local Wal-Mart, service station, or whatever's closest to you. If you can't get one locally, you can buy one online
(http://www.conservativealerts.com/phonecard.htm -- scroll down after you click through, and get the "Global Caller" card), and print out the information that's e-mailed to you
on how to use it. (Soldiers are desperate for these, to keep in touch with their families back home.)
(3) Check with friends, neighbors, church members, etc., and see if they have a son/daughter/relative serving in the military that would like to receive a care package; get their name & address for delivery.
(4) Pack up a large envelope or small box (like a shoebox), insert the ad and the phone card (or virtual phone card printout), along with a note of encouragement, and ship it
off to your soldier. Instant "morale packages" for our troops!
To ensure that mail gets through to troops, the following information is given on addressing. Recommended address:
* Soldier's Name (Use of rank is optional)
* Organization to which assigned (Organization name should be included if you have it; however, it is not always used for certain types of forces)
* Unit # xxxx (Unit # is a four digit number assigned to some units, but not all. Where assigned, it should always be used.
Soldiers will have notified friends and family if they have one assigned)
* APO AE 09xxx-xxxx
(APOs served by New York have a 09 prefix (09xxx); APOs served by San Francisco have a 96 prefix (96xxx), and APOs served by Miami have a 34 prefix (34xxx). The last four xxxx represent a ZIP 4 add-on to the normal five digit APO Zip Code, and have been assigned to some forces. Where assigned, correspondents should have been notified and the four digit add on should always be used to help in automatic sorting
of mail.)
THIS IS IMPORTANT: You can NO LONGER send a package to "any service member", ever since the first anthrax threats emerged. The Department of Defense cancelled the anonymous "any service member" mail programs on October 30, 2001. The cancellation has not been rescinded and still remains in effect. The instructions here are the BEST WAY to get your "morale package" to our troops fighting in the mideast.
If you don't have a family member deployed overseas, check with your friends, colleagues, or church members to get the address of someone who is serving. If you still can't find
anyone to send to, then package up your items and send them to:
Operation ShoeBox
P.O. Box 1465
Belleview, FL 34421
Operation ShoeBox will package the items and mail them to specific service members who have been deployed. They also need help with postage to mail packages to the troops, but they aren't set up to accept checks or cash. What you can do, if you want to help, is to send them a US Postal Money Order payable to US Postmaster. They can turn these over to the Postmaster, who will apply the amount to the Operation ShoeBox account at the Post Office, on which they can draw for stamps. It costs about $6.00 to send a shoebox.
NOTE: Please forward this e-mail to everyone you know who might also want to send a "morale package" to our troops fighting overseas for our freedom and the freedom of others.
Thank you!
