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Published: December 26th 2009
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The motto of the Pony Express that was first started back in 1860 was simple… The Mail Must Go Through. It started as 1,966 miles between Missouri and California in a time period where stage coach delivery could take up to 25 days of travel for a mere 1,000 miles and ships took months to cross oceans. Fast forward to now and we have so many options of communication available to us worldwide. From email and twitters to Skype and telephones. But to be honest, nothing can compare to an old fashioned letter or package. What all soldiers fondly refer to as “Snail Mail!”
Early Christmas morning I had the distinct honor to go and work with our KFOR 12 Postal Detachment. Eleven dedicated and motivated soldiers who hail from five different states were up and alert waiting for the mail truck to arrive from its Pony Express delivery route. One of our few “Army Reserve” units (instead of National Guard), we are quite fond of them because the unit is stationed in Minnesota and bring a little bit of the Midwest accent and cultural familiarities to light for a bunch of us North Dakotans. The Commander stood tall
with his Santa hat and his soldiers eagerly waited for the truck to finish backing up to the loading dock.
The truck had been driving for days, through eight European countries, border crossings and many drivers. If you have ever wondered why it takes so long for the mail to reach us over here in Kosovo it is because the trek across the world takes quite a vicarious route. Boxes and letters start at the local postal office back in the states, and after sorting, starts on its journey to Germany. This takes many days in most instances and once reaching Germany the Military Postal Service Agency (MPSA) takes over. Soldiers carefully bag up the mail bound for Camp Bondsteel and put it into the back of a semi-truck and off it drives.
Every single day a truck leaves Germany rolls non-stop until its arrival here in Kosovo. This is completed by contracted truck drivers who follow the same principles as the Pony Express of years past. The truck drives until it reaches a checkpoint and then switches out drivers, which enables the truck to travel nearly non-stop. Next thing we know it has been somewhere between 12
and 20 days and some lucky soldier has received a treasure from home!
The doors opened on that big container and it was a beautiful sight. Bags upon bags of mail were stacked to the ceiling. The conveyer belt started up and each bag was loaded from the bag to the belt and that carried each item into the building. The KFOR 12 postal workers had quite a rhythm down. Grab a bag. Tear the tag off and throw it on the floor. Read the address and then put it into the correct bin. Over and over again they repeated the process until the hundreds of boxes and envelopes were sitting where they belonged. Best part…These soldiers were having a blast and believed that they were going to make some soldiers in our Task Forces quite happy on this holiday so far away from home.
To all our Postal workers, mail handlers and leaders who support the efforts of the soldiers who have dedicated their time and energies bringing happiness to all of us here in Kosovo. They say… It is worth everything to see just that one soldier smile as they open up messages
of love from home!
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