SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, Hawaii -- More than 30 Soldiers from the Human Resources Sustainment Center, 8th Theater Sust. Command, went through extensive training on how to manage and operate a postal program, here, recently.

The training taught Soldiers the rules and laws on how to move and deliver personal mail in deployed environments and across the battlefield.

Mail and postal operations play a vital role in the daily lives of any person, but to Soldiers deployed to a foreign land, it could be the lynchpin of their day, week or entire month. For this reason, the role of the mailroom and its packages are key to a Soldiers' morale, according to Sgt. 1st Class Michael Seymour, HRSC.

"I believe we play a major part," Seymour said, "because our job as postal inspectors is to ensure that the post offices downrange, to include garrison's, are doing their jobs as far as delivering the mail on time to those Soldiers.

"I believe my job is very important, because if we don't put down the laws in reference to postal, things can go crazy, packages go missing (and) mail is sent wrong," he continued.

Many Soldiers serving in Afghanistan and other remote areas are not always able to readily and easily jump on the Internet to talk to their friends and families. The mail is their only connection to home.

"I feel like I am the link between the Soldiers and their families," says Capt. Jerry Lupo, HRSC. "Nothing is more rewarding than knowing you put a smile on someone's face, because you don't know what they are going through. To be able to do that is rewarding."



Mail deadlines

Deadlines for deployed Soldiers to receive mail by Dec. 25 are Nov. 12 for parcel post mail; Nov. 26 for space-available mail; Dec. 3 for parcel airlift mail; Dec. 10 for priority mail and first-class mail, letters and cards; and Dec. 17 for Express Mail Military Service.