The Post Office for the Air Force’s 407th Air Expeditionary Group, which is currently deployed to an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia, helps thousands of service members stay in touch with friends and family through the delivery of care packages and letters from home.
Three Marines and two Air Force personnel run the office.
The Marines are deployed from Camp Pendleton, CA, where they all perform postal duties at the same office, but for the airmen, working in the office is entirely new to them.
“At first it was intimidating coming to work with the Marines, but we worked to build a rapport with them,” said Air Force Staff Sgt. Desiree Tuazon, who is deployed from Beale Air Force Base in California. “We figured it’s a good opportunity for us to learn from the Marines and see how they do things.”
The office processes and sorts more than a thousand pieces of incoming mail each day. Once the mail truck arrives, the mail is sorted and distributed to airmen, Marines, sailors, civilians and others assigned to the base.
“Postal is very important to the mission, the base and the people,” said Marine Staff Sgt. Maurice Jones, who serves as the postal chief.
“All these boxes and care packages help a lot of people. … So whenever the mail shows up and they get these care packages and you see their facial expressions, they love it.”