FORT BRAGG, N.C. - The 18th Human Resources Company, 82nd Sustainment Brigade will open a retail post office April 15 to complete the third component of the postal training facility that was opened here in August 2009.
The purpose of the postal training facility is to provide a regional, joint, multi-component postal training facility. The facility has three elements that include: an integrated retail terminal classroom to conduct F5 (postal operations) and F4 (postal supervisor) courses; a mock post office for postal platoon deployment training and certification; and an Army post office.
The new Army post office serves primarily as a training facility for Soldiers, while providing the added benefit of retail postal service for local Fort Bragg residents. This facility affords Army postal platoons the opportunity to do real-world training prior to deployments. The Army post office simultaneously provides realistic deployed operations training and an installation service.
In the long term, the facility will serve as a training aid for all human resources professionals regionally located at Fort Bragg, to include active, Guard and Reserve forces.
The IRT classroom provides an opportunity for servicemembers to gain an additional skill identifier, and affords the postal warriors on Fort Bragg the opportunity to train at their home station. Thus far, 228 servicemembers have been trained over nine iterations of classes. One hundred thirty-seven servicemembers have earned the F5 postal operations skill identifier and 66 have earned the F4 postal supervisor skill identifier.
In addition to courses conducted in the F5/F4 classroom, the mock post office stands ready to train joint and multi-component servicemembers, as well as the 18th Human Resources Company Soldiers who currently use the facility.
The concept of the postal training facility was a result of a September 2006 initiative by Col. Reuben Jones, executive director, Military Postal Service Agency. Jones requested approval from the United States Postal Service for the Army to operate postal facilities on military installations.
In 2007, approval was received and in 2009, Col. John O'Neil, previous commander, 82nd Sustainment Brigade tasked the human resources professionals in the brigade with the mission. Thanks to Jones' understanding of the future for Army postal operations training and O'Neil's vision for a multi-functional training facility, the facility stands ready to train our servicemembers.
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