Hooah! Postal service to speed up for soldiers in Afghanistan

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Hooah! Postal service to speed up for soldiers in Afghanistan
By Sandra Jontz, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Friday, November 20, 2009

Snail mail going to people deployed to Afghanistan could flow a little quicker starting next month.

The U.S. Army is spending $500,000 to launch HooahMail, a service starting Dec. 1 in which family and friends can send letters electronically to anyone serving in Afghanistan, Bill Hilsher, the Army’s postal program manager, said.

Participants can register immediately online to have some personal letters delivered in as little as 24 hours — a far cry from the roughly 14 days it now can take, Hilsher said. And it’s free.

Here’s how it works: Family and friends set up an account via www.hooahmail.us and enter the recipient’s information and downrange mailing address. With the push of the “send” button, encrypted letters are sent to the servers of designated machines in one of 10 locations in Afghanistan. At least once a day, Army postal clerks switch on the machines, which print, fold and seal the letters in addressed envelopes for delivery through the in-country military postal system.

“At no time while the postal soldier is downloading the message can the message be read,” ensuring privacy, Hilsher said. Writers can also send one photograph, which will be printed in black and white.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=66214