VICENZA, Italy — Hustling truckloads of packages around the holidays did not go unnoticed this year, as the U.S. Army Garrison commander recognized the efforts of a dozen or so Italian workers at the mailroom.
The garrison operates three postal centers processing incoming and outgoing mail year-round. The holidays present a challenging time for mail around the world and the garrison here is no different.
Each year, the garrison hires temporary workers to support the 24 percent increase of bulk and flat rate mail. This helps community members get their packages to family and friends stateside and makes sure goodies from loved ones back home get delivered in a timely manner too.
Col. Scott Horrigan, the U.S. Army Garrison Italy Commander, stopped by the Caserma Ederle mail room recently to recognize the team for their hard work.
“I want to say thank you to the employees who make things happen,” Horrigan said. “We would not have been as successful without their help.”
A fun fact, offered by the garrison postmaster Tyone Knight, was how mail gets to Vicenza. Not everyone knows that mail travels from its origin to Chicago, then to New Jersey, then to London’s Heathrow Airport, then to Milan and finally here in the Vicenza Military Community, Knight said.
USAG Italy had 13 temporary postal workers whose work included loading and onloading mail trucks, opening bags of mail received, shelving and delivering parcels, plus sorting and pitching letters into the receptacles, Knight said. The postal centers processed 23,100 pieces of mail over the holidays, a 24-percent increase over an average non-holiday month.
The Garrison Outlook asked Knight, “How can the community help our postal operations be more successful?”
Here’s what he said:
1. Retrieving your mail/Aged Mail. As postal clerks, we do not want to return someone’s mail because it sat in the receptacle for 30 days. The process of returning mail is lengthy.
2. This also pertains to the 24/7 lockers. If you receive an email that you have a package in the lockers, please retrieve it. Your access code will expire in 72 hours.
3. If TDY, Vacation, Hospital - Fill out a Mail Disposition Card and we can place mail on hold or forward, if needed.
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