More Letters from the Sand (Text)

More Letters from the Sand

rlkn'o lratfu,.rs llrrnll tlrc Snnd In 1991 the U.S. Postal Service published a book titled Letters From the Sand, stories

told in letters written by service men and women stationed in the Middle East during Operation Desert Shield/Storm. Today American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines are again fighting a war in the Middle East, and letters to and from family and friends at home are still important.

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Rodeo #9, a mobile helicopter service providing base exchange merchandise and postal service to troops at remote locations. Forward Operating Base (FOB) "Danger" was located at Tikrit, Iraq.

The purpose of this exhibit is to examine a selection of covers, rather than the letters in them, mailed from military units in Iraq and nearby countries during the years 2003 to 2005. The covers were sent to a senior citizens center in California, in response to a campaign of writing letters of support to service personnel abroad. In the 21st Century, such mail is unusual, for today the more common means of communication are email and cell or satellite phones.

The Department of Defense's Military Postal Service Agency manages overseas military mail, operating post offices at bases and transporting mail to and from overseas locations. Military post offices outside of the United States are classified as Army/Air Force Post Offices (APO) and Navy Fleet Post Offices (FPO). Under current law, ordinary letters mailed by those stationed in designated combat zones may be sent back home free of postage.

The exhibit examines the styles of postmarks in current use, then displays covers from Army, Marine Corps and Air Force units in Iraq, and in adjoining countries. Covers from "Rodeos" conclude the exhibit. The military nature of the sender's unit, and its approximate location, where determinable, is provided for each cover.

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Today there are no official standards for the styles or wording in postmarks, but long-time customs prevail. Military post offrces abroad do not include the name of the country in which they are located, but identi$' the post office by its branch of service and assigned APO/FPO ZIP Code. State code '6AE" is fbr Armed Forces Europe (Middle East and Africa). "AP" is for the Pacific; "AA"the Americas. ZIP Code group "093" are contingency numbers for short-term use.

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After more than a century, the "four-bat" postmark remains the standard hand cancel for United States mail. The bars are intended to deface the stamp, but are not needed for free mail.

Air Force and Marine Corps

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Both services use a mix of four-bar hand cancels, and round daters. Today most round daters, which are actually intended for use on postal paperwork, are self-inking devices. Those with the date in a straight line incorporate a thumbwheel date setting mechanism into the cancel.

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"MPS" undoubtedly stands for Military Postal Service. The "Military Postal Unit" marking is a modern self-inking cancel, with a thumbwheel dater built into the device. Vertical lines and cross-hatching on the killer bars of the cancel at the right are caused by rubber bands used to hold the cancel together in the dry desert heat.

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The Abu Ghraib prison complex 20 miles from Baghdad became known as "Saddam' s Torture Central," and had a world-wide reputation as a place where some of the worst cases of torture in the modern world were conducted under Saddam Hussein's regime. Unfortunately, the torture history of the facility seems to have inspired some American soldiers to continue the practice after the prison was captured early in the war, and was used to hold detainees.

Abu Ghraib

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The Marine Corps uses five-digit "Unit Numbers" as mailing addresses to simplify the routing of mail. It also avoids the need for mail handling personnel to understand the Marine Corps' occasionally obscure unit titles. FPO ZIP codes arc 09502 or 09509, for deployed units, plus the last four disits of the Unit Number.

The 2nd Low Altitude Air Defense Battalion deploys shoulder- fired Stinger missiles against low-flying enemy aircraft.

SGTMAJ ANDRE JOHNSON TASK FORCE RHINO 2D LAR BATTALION UNIT 73505 FPo AE 09509-3505

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The 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion drives LAV-25 armored personnel carriers.

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Marine Expeditionary Forces

I Marine Expeditionary Force based at Camp Pendleton, California, operating from Camp Fallujah, Iraq. FPO AP 96426 is assigned to the Marine Force Pacific in Baghdad.

FPO AE 09387 is assigned to Camp Fallujah.

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II Marine Expeditionary Force, from

Camp LeJeune, North Carolina,

also at Camp Fallujah.

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Division Artillery headquarters at Salemo, Khost province, Afghanistan.

The War on Terrorism actually began in Afghanistan, which was viewed as the home of the terrorists who stased the attack on New York's World Trade Center.

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5r*551st Military Police Co., an Army reserve unit from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, based at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan.

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The names of several bases in Afghanistan have become familiar from regular news reports on activities conducted from them.

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Task Force 2- 35, from the Army's 35th Infantry, based at Kandahar, Afghanistan.

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&Fi;* The Office of Military Cooperation - Afghanistan, part ofthe Defense Resource Sector, at Kabul, Afghanistan.

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The Army's 116th Engineers, operating from a base at Batumi, Tbilisi, Georgia.

The republic, formerly part of the Soviet Union, is a coalition partner in the War on Terrorism.

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Supporting troops are also based in near-by countries.

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Georgia & Uzbekistan

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A platoon of the 841st Adjutant General Company (Postal), managing the post office at Karsh-Kha, Nabad, Qarshi, Uzbekistan

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There are few Air Force units actually located in Iraq, because of a lack of suitable

airfields and difficulty in protecting aircraft. Strategic bombing and close support missions tend

to be flown from more secure bases in nearby countries.

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The Army's l25th Military Intelligence Battalion (Combat

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Intelligence) using the Air Force post

office at Bagram Air Base,

Afghanistan.

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The Army's l25th Signal Battalion using the Air Force postal facility at

Kirkuk,Iraq. The Army has a large logistics center at Kirkuk, in

northern Iraq.

When two or more services share a base, same

both may have post offices operating there with the APO ZP Code.

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The origin of the term "Rodeo" is not certain, but they have become very popular with service men and women stationed in the dusty deserts of the Middle East far from large bases. They are mobile service units brought by helicopters, offering base exchange services, such as music tapes and CDs, personal items, and snack foods to the troops. Each Rodeo also carries personnel and payroll clerks to resolve administrative needs, and a postal clerk to help with mail.

Forward Operating Base Brassfield- Mora, located

north of Samama, Iraq.

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336th Military Police Battalion, a reserve unit from the Pittsburgh area, operating from Camp Anaconda, a sprawling logistics support center at the Balad Air Base, Iraq.

Both senders were probably on maneuvers out in the field rather than at the large bases that they used as return addresses.

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