Can’t she just mail it to him? The Military Postal Service (MPS) is bracing for a 33 percent holiday bump in its 100-ton daily haul to Iraq. It’s asking that packages to soldiers be no more than 30 pounds–which means that warmer gear, sometimes packed together into boxes upwards of 70 pounds, may take longer to arrive. There’s only so much room in the Humvees that are bumping around to all the outposts. “Something the size of a two-drawer file cabinet can get pretty heavy,” says MPS spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Brian Lomax.
The weight guidelines aren’t the only way that the Pentagon is trying to ease the burden on the MPS. Due to security concerns, it will no longer deliver mail that’s addressed to “Any Service Member,” an old way for schools and churches to brighten up the lives of lonely, disconnected troops.
