thedrifter
12-05-07, 07:08 AM
Published: December 5, 2007 6:00 a.m.
Big hearts, heavy loads
Ossian native among troops moving mountains of mail in Iraq
By Angela Mapes Turner
The Journal Gazette
Marine Lance Cpl. Zachary McKee’s voice, surprisingly clear on the phone from Iraq, sounds older, more serious, than his age.
As it should: Delivering the mail is serious business.
Ossian native McKee, 22, works at the Marine post office at Al Taqaddum Air Base, which is in the Anbar province of Iraq west of Baghdad. The office handles the mail for all Marine Corps, Army, Navy and Air Force and civilian contractors in camps in Ramadi, Fallujah and Blue Diamond.
Lately, there’s been a lot of mail.
McKee, 22, has been at the base for about five months, after serving eight months in Iwakuni, Japan. While he served in the Marine Corps postal service in Iwakuni, the load there pales in comparison to the Al Taqaddum’s bulk of mail, McKee said Tuesday.
Mail is collected throughout the U.S. and delivered to Bahrain. From there, the mail is sent on commercial jets that the military has contracted to Al Taqaddum or other bases.
In the first few months of his work in Iraq, McKee said an average day would bring about two commercial flights.
As the deadline for sending holiday mail to troops in Iraq approached Tuesday, two or three large commercial flights have been delivering between 90,000 and 100,000 pounds of mail daily, McKee said.
McKee is part of a staff of 12, supplemented by borrowed personnel for the busiest days, that must unload and sort mail and packages.
That’s a lot of heavy lifting.
“It definitely takes a toll,” McKee said.
As the shipments grow, so, too, does the workday.
Ordinary workdays run from about 7:30 a.m. to about 5:30 p.m., but days when more flights come in often see the postal Marines working until 11 p.m. or midnight, McKee said.
McKee, a 2004 Norwell High School graduate who attended Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne for two years before joining the Marines, said he didn’t even know the Marines’ mail service existed until he was assigned to it.
Adding to the workload is “MotoMail” – short for “motivational mail” – a Marine Corps-sponsored, Internet-based letter-writing service that allows friends and families to pen letters online to specific Marines.
The letters are printed out at the Marines’ respective bases and delivered to them, much like telegrams.
If he were back in northeast Indiana, McKee said he would probably be hunting or lifting weights – everyday hobbies he’s come to miss while deployed.
Even so, the mail service job makes missing home a little easier, because he’s helping his fellow troops connect with their own homes, he said.
McKee’s parents, Julie and Mark, also know about missing people. They talk to their son about twice a week but not seeing him for more than a year has been difficult.
“That’s the hardest part,” Julie McKee said. “We support everything he’s doing.”
In the meantime, she jokes with her son about sending him care packages.
“He says, ‘Don’t send us anything, because that’s just one more thing I have to do,’ ” his mother said.
aturner@jg.net
Ellie
Big hearts, heavy loads
Ossian native among troops moving mountains of mail in Iraq
By Angela Mapes Turner
The Journal Gazette
Marine Lance Cpl. Zachary McKee’s voice, surprisingly clear on the phone from Iraq, sounds older, more serious, than his age.
As it should: Delivering the mail is serious business.
Ossian native McKee, 22, works at the Marine post office at Al Taqaddum Air Base, which is in the Anbar province of Iraq west of Baghdad. The office handles the mail for all Marine Corps, Army, Navy and Air Force and civilian contractors in camps in Ramadi, Fallujah and Blue Diamond.
Lately, there’s been a lot of mail.
McKee, 22, has been at the base for about five months, after serving eight months in Iwakuni, Japan. While he served in the Marine Corps postal service in Iwakuni, the load there pales in comparison to the Al Taqaddum’s bulk of mail, McKee said Tuesday.
Mail is collected throughout the U.S. and delivered to Bahrain. From there, the mail is sent on commercial jets that the military has contracted to Al Taqaddum or other bases.
In the first few months of his work in Iraq, McKee said an average day would bring about two commercial flights.
As the deadline for sending holiday mail to troops in Iraq approached Tuesday, two or three large commercial flights have been delivering between 90,000 and 100,000 pounds of mail daily, McKee said.
McKee is part of a staff of 12, supplemented by borrowed personnel for the busiest days, that must unload and sort mail and packages.
That’s a lot of heavy lifting.
“It definitely takes a toll,” McKee said.
As the shipments grow, so, too, does the workday.
Ordinary workdays run from about 7:30 a.m. to about 5:30 p.m., but days when more flights come in often see the postal Marines working until 11 p.m. or midnight, McKee said.
McKee, a 2004 Norwell High School graduate who attended Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne for two years before joining the Marines, said he didn’t even know the Marines’ mail service existed until he was assigned to it.
Adding to the workload is “MotoMail” – short for “motivational mail” – a Marine Corps-sponsored, Internet-based letter-writing service that allows friends and families to pen letters online to specific Marines.
The letters are printed out at the Marines’ respective bases and delivered to them, much like telegrams.
If he were back in northeast Indiana, McKee said he would probably be hunting or lifting weights – everyday hobbies he’s come to miss while deployed.
Even so, the mail service job makes missing home a little easier, because he’s helping his fellow troops connect with their own homes, he said.
McKee’s parents, Julie and Mark, also know about missing people. They talk to their son about twice a week but not seeing him for more than a year has been difficult.
“That’s the hardest part,” Julie McKee said. “We support everything he’s doing.”
In the meantime, she jokes with her son about sending him care packages.
“He says, ‘Don’t send us anything, because that’s just one more thing I have to do,’ ” his mother said.
aturner@jg.net
Ellie