The Gun Counter

Military announces holiday mailing deadlines

By Karen Jowers - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Oct 3, 2008 10:50:58 EDT

Military postal officials are expecting “a bit” less holiday mail to be sent to Afghanistan and Iraq this year compared to 2007.

But the decrease is not related to military missions, said Lt. Col. Mary Gould, chief of the transportation division for the Military Postal Service Agency.

“People aren’t spending as much money,” Gould said. “It’s the economy.”

As such, MPSA doesn’t expect to have problems obtaining the airlift capacity to get mail to the theater, Gould said.

As officials prepare for the holiday mail surge, they are also in the midst of ensuring absentee ballots are getting to and from troops overseas. For those in Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan and on deployed ships, the recommended deadline to mail in ballots is Oct. 7; for others overseas, it’s Oct. 14.

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