Sgt. 1st Class Roy Frazier, an inspector general non-commissioned officer with 1st Infantry Division Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, pulls a package out of a shipping box to the Combined Joint Forces Land Component Command-Iraq mail room March 4, 2015
“It’s about getting a little bit of home in a box,” Lt. Col. Greg Johnson, personnel officer with the 1st Infantry Division in Camp Taji in Iraq, told an Army news site last week.
But getting mail to soldiers is a challenge.
The military now has a smaller presence in Iraq than a decade ago, which means there are fewer postal units.
Mail is flown into Camp Taji from Kuwait on transports carrying personnel and supplies. Space is limited, so mail is sometimes bumped off.
There also are few personnel trained to deliver the mail when it arrives.
Despite these challenges, the mail is getting through, said Sgt. Alana Abraham, who’s in charge of postal operation at Camp Taji.
“We’ve received mail three weeks in a row, which improved morale,” she said.
Said Johnson: “It’s important for service members to understand that all those back home support what we are doing over here. It also says the chain of command cares.”