Military Post Offices in Iraq to Close Nov. 17

WASHINGTON — Because U.S. forces are com­ing home from Iraq by the end of the year, the U.S. Postal Ser­vice will stop accept­ing mail addressed to mil­i­tary post offices in Iraq start­ing Nov. 17, Defense Depart­ment offi­cials said today.

Mil­i­tary post offices in Iraq also will stop pro­cess­ing mail Nov. 17, and ser­vice mem­bers there should begin now to advise those who send them mail about the Nov. 17 deadline. 

Mail still in the postal sys­tem through Nov. 17 will be processed and deliv­ered to ser­vice mem­bers in Iraq, offi­cials said. 

In Novem­ber, U.S. mil­i­tary postal ser­vice respon­si­bil­i­ties in Iraq will tran­si­tion to State Depart­ment embassy or con­sulate post offices for ser­vice mem­bers assigned to Office of Secu­ri­ty Coop­er­a­tion or the Chief of Mis­sion in Iraq. 

These sites will pro­vide let­ter and par­cel mail ser­vices to ser­vice mem­bers assigned to the Office of Secu­ri­ty Coop­er­a­tion or the Chief of Mis­sion in Iraq. 

The tran­si­tion will be close­ly coor­di­nat­ed with the U.S. Postal Ser­vice Agency, which will delete ZIP codes for Iraq mil­i­tary post offices from the USPS data­base to pre­vent unde­liv­er­able mail from enter­ing the postal sys­tem after Nov. 17, accord­ing to defense officials. 

If APO mail arrives in Iraq after a ser­vice mem­ber departs, mail will be redi­rect­ed to the new mail­ing address pro­vid­ed or, if no mail­ing address was pro­vid­ed, returned to sender. 

Any mail mis­tak­en­ly accept­ed by a USPS post office after Nov. 17 will be returned to sender once it reach­es the Inter­na­tion­al Gate­way in New Jersey. 

U.S. ser­vice mem­bers in Iraq who do not receive an absen­tee bal­lot by Nov. 17 should con­tact their U.S. Local Elec­tion Office to change their address. Unit vot­ing assis­tance offi­cers can pro­vide state-spe­cif­ic vot­ing details. 

Ser­vice mem­bers who are remain­ing in Iraq after Nov. 17 and who are there on behalf of or are assigned to the Office of Secu­ri­ty Coop­er­a­tion or the Chief of Mis­sion in Iraq should coor­di­nate with their chain of com­mand and the ser­vic­ing State Depart­ment mail loca­tion to receive a new mail­ing address. 

Accord­ing to defense offi­cials, con­di­tions and sit­u­a­tions in the Iraq tran­si­tion change often. Offi­cials rec­om­mend that ser­vice mem­bers check the Mil­i­tary Postal Ser­vice Agency web­site and USPS Postal Bul­letins fre­quent­ly for updates. 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs)