18th CS post office serves all

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Hailey Staker
  • 18th Wing Public Affairs
KADENA AIR BASE, Japan --  Row upon row of eight-foot tall shelves are packed with boxes unclaimed by customers of the 18th Communications Squadron post office, ranging from online orders to care packages from home, here.

The mission of the post office is to provide both personal and official mail to the service members and their families here on the island.

"First we take care of the personal mail side of it, and also we have an official mail center too which takes care of all official mailing needs," said Senior Master Sgt. David Braun, 18th CS post office superintendent. "(The official mail center) sends anything from medical records being sent to your next base, career development courses and testing material, aircraft parts, and anything mission related that can be sent through the mail system."

The personal side of the postal system here is no different than anyone would find in the U.S., offering many of the same services, and an additional service some may not see in the states.

"We provide almost all the same services that you would see in your stateside post office," Braun said. "We do any type of mailing out, express mail and priority mail, money orders and process mail to be delivered to our customers. That's a big challenge overseas because in the states, normally the mail is delivered to your house but here we have to process it, store it and then the customer has to come pick it up."

Braun pointed out how most of their shelves store packages purchased from online retailers due to the inability of customers being able to head to a store and pick up anything they would like.

"Customers do a lot of online ordering so our packages are probably a lot more than what you would see in your hometown post office," Braun said.

The post office delivers approximately 3 million pounds of mail a year and provides service for 27,000 customers on Okinawa.

"Base wide we're at 22,000 people but we do service a good portion of Marines, the Navy and the Army," Braun said. "We're also open six days a week for pick up and five days a week for mailing out."

Some people may have noticed during the holidays, some of the lines at the post office were quite long. To remedy this, the post office recently began an additional service mid December.

Another helpful initiative the post office has is priority lines. A priority line for uniformed service members from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and expectant mothers all day exists in order to keep wait times for those customers at a minimum. Due to the positive feedback during the holidays, the post office kept these lines open permanently.

"One additional service we have that stateside doesn't is the new email notification system," said Tech. Sgt. Chad Trickett, 18th CS post office assistant post master. "Once packages are accepted, an email notification will be sent out so everybody knows they actually have mail here."

With the notification comes approximately 50 percent more foot traffic in the lobby of the post office, but luckily packages tend to come in and leave the post office within two days of their arrival.

"Normally a customer will probably check their mail once a week or pick up all their packages at once," Braun said. "Now we're seeing customers leaving with one parcel because they are getting those email notifications and also we noticed we have a lot more floor space for packages now too because the packages are coming and going out almost the same day."

However, this notification system doesn't mean that customers must pick their packages up right away, or else they will be returned to sender.

"There's a misconception because people are receiving these emails and they might feel like we're going to return it if they don't pick it up immediately," Trickett said. "That's what the second notices are for. It's more of a reminder to please come in and pick up your mail."

Trickett added that customers should inform the post office when they go on leave, to a temporary duty or get deployed so their mail can be put on hold. This ensures their mail will not be returned if they are unavailable for pick up, and keeps post office personnel from creating second and third notices, as well as trying to contact the customer.

Remember to be patient when lines are long and check mail receptacles once a week. If a customer does not check their box within a 30-day period, their box will be deemed inactive.