HOLIDAY MAIL CALL

World War II military personnel processing packages.

The benefit of receiving mail from home is incalculable. Many service men and woman today communicate with their loved ones electronically; however nothing can take the place of receiving a letter or package from home. Letters have provided military service men and women with a vital communication link with their loved ones from the Revolutionary War to the present day.

Many campaigns urging people on the home front to write to our members of the armed forces have appeared in the media. These include advertisements, such as this produce endorsement for Gaines Dog Food promoting the use of V-mail in World War II, to the more recent “Operation Dear Abby.”

The Dear Abby program originated during the Vietnam War in 1967 when Sgt. Billy Thomson wrote to Dear Abby and mentioned how many of our armed forces would like letters from home during the holiday season. Newer still was the Department of Defense’s “Any Service Member” program, which began during Operation Desert Storm and continued to reach out to our troops in Bosnia in 1995.

Although both “Operation Dear Abby” and “Any Service Member” letter writing campaigns stopped in 2001 because of security concerns, many alternative ways to support our troops have been initiated since. The Department of Defense has compiled a list of groups that currently support our troops at http://www.ourmilitary.mil/index.aspx. The Red Cross “Holiday Mail for Heroes” is accepting holiday cards for distribution to our troops until December 7 http://www.redcross.org/holidaymail.

These programs keep the military mail clerks busy—especially during the holiday season. They are essential in helping the morale of our troops by ensuring that the holiday mail gets delivered. U.S Army Mail Handlers Sergeants Kowalski and Gregory are shown sorting the mail in Iraq in December 2008.

Although the November 13 deadline for sending holiday parcel post mail to APO/FPO addresses may have passed, you can still send a letter or package to our troops this holiday season following the U.S. Postal Service guidelines at http://www.usps.com/supportingourtroops/.

Explore the Postal Museum’s website to learn more about the history of victory mail and letter writing.

http://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/VictoryMail/ .

http://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/museum/1d_V-Mail_Advertisements.html

http://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/letterwriting/lw10.html

Army Mail Handlers Iraq Photo – Credit: U.S. Army photo by Sgt. David Hodge