Bagram mail team delivers

  • Published
  • By Capt. Catie Hague
  • 455th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan (AFPN) --  Delivering messages from home to more than 700 deployed Airmen is a “mission of morale” being carried out on a daily basis by the mail team here.

Anywhere from seven to 20 pallets of mail arrive here daily -- anywhere between 15,000 to 50,000 pounds of mail.

“We have a core team of seven Airmen -- admin types,” said Staff Sgt. Lorenzo Smartt, 455th Expeditionary Mission Support Group administrator. “But when the big shipments come in, like around special holidays, we can easily have up to 20 people voluntarily help out.”

Depending on the number of pallets, unloading and distributing mail takes between three and five hours, officials said.

Not all the mail is specifically for Airmen here, Sergeant Smartt said. Soldiers and Marines help the Airmen separate the mail by service and unit.

“It’s a lot of work, without much credit, but it’s all worth it when we realize how happy people are to see us coming,” he said.

The mail team here is a great joint success story, said Col. Rita Meyer, 455th EMSG commander.

“Men and women from every service join together as a team of volunteers to ensure that letters and care packages get pushed out to their final destination.

“There is nothing more important to the morale of our deployed troops,” she said, “than seeing a letter or package postmarked from home. It’s the work of our mail team behind the scenes that provides us with that piece of happiness -- a message of support.”