2,200 additional Marines sent to Iran war
The 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit is deployed to the Middle East, bringing the total number of Marines participating in the Iran war to nearly 5,000.
When Dan F. heard from the daughter of a Marine aboard the USS Tripoli that the ship was running out of hygiene products, he sent care packages containing shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, toothpaste, and tampons, and filled every empty space with candy and snacks.
They filled the second box with Emergen C vitamin C packets (Dan’s daughter said she felt her throat was starting to hurt) and clean socks.
The boxes were shipped nearly a month ago, but neither have reached their destination. Dunn’s daughter is one of the tens of thousands of military personnel facing the same challenges who are serving in the Iran war.
Dunn asked that her daughter be called by her first name just to protect her from retaliation.
As of April, the military has indefinitely suspended mail delivery to military postal codes across the Middle East. The Army said mail already in transit to these areas is being stored at the facility.
Boxes filled with items that families like Dunn’s and community members hoped would help service members survive long deployments in the Middle East – homemade fudge, Jolly Ranchers, crossword puzzle books, playing cards, toothpaste, Girl Scout cookies, fresh socks – are left dangling.
Military claims war situation caused suspension
After the United States and Israel attacked Iran, the U.S. Postal Service suspended mail delivery to 27 military zip codes. According to the military, the war has ceased, but there is no end date in sight.
The Postal Service and Military Post Office have suspended these deliveries since early April “due to airspace closures and other logistical impacts due to the ongoing conflict,” Army spokesman Maj. Travis Shaw told USA TODAY. He said mail already in transit when the suspension took effect was being held at secure post offices or military facilities “in preparation for delivery once service resumes.”
The suspension “will remain in effect until further notice,” Shaw added. “The resumption of postal services is conditional on the reopening of airspace by civil authorities and the regional commander’s assessment of the stability of transport and circulation in the region.”
Shaw said no mail is “returned to sender” in these zip codes.
The Postal Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the delay. The Pentagon did not respond to requests for comment about the mail outage and reports that some U.S. ships were running low on food.
Your luggage is waiting in your living room, stuck between destinations
Karen Turgeon, organizer of the annual Thanksgiving Care Package Drive for Military Families in Monson, Mass., quickly organized an additional drive for four local service members who were deployed to the Middle East after the outbreak of war.
None of the group’s luggage has reached its destination. Instead, the movement channeled its energy into dropping cards of encouragement and flowers at the homes of troopers’ families.
“We’re trying to cheer them up at home,” she said. “We give them envelopes with things to send so they can send them when they can.”
Dawn Penrod, treasurer of the Edgewater, Maryland-based American Legion Auxiliary Branch, said she spent an hour at the post office about two weeks ago trying to send a care package to her nephew, an Army Reserve member stationed in Bahrain.
Inside the package was a bag of little treats to ease the difficulties of long-term deployment – bars, candy, homemade fudge, Girl Scout cookies, puzzle books, pencils, pens, playing cards, and other games. The Auxiliary Chapter gave Penrod $100 for the package and postage, and her customers donated an additional $50.
But Penrod said a postal worker told her they couldn’t send anything to the military address she listed. She couldn’t even fill out the customs forms required to ship packages to military postal codes overseas. She left the post office with her package in hand.
“It’s sitting in my living room, waiting,” she said.
Penrod said other members of the auxiliary branch, which has been sending care packages to military members for decades, had never experienced delays or outages like this.
“They were always delivering mail and packages,” Penrod said. “I don’t see why we can’t do it now.”
‘Extenuating circumstances’ impact military mail delivery
Lynn Heidelbaugh, curator at the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum, said wars and other operations often delay the delivery of packages to deployed military personnel. She said she has never encountered a total suspension of mail delivery to military zip codes like the one currently in place, but said the lack of an official announcement, especially in the pre-Internet era, doesn’t mean there hasn’t been a mail suspension before.
“There are always extenuating circumstances,” she said. “It’s much more complex than domestic mail.”
Military Post Offices provides postal services in 76 countries, according to the Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General. The company operates 1,670 postal operations around the world and transports about 80 million pounds of mail annually, according to a fact sheet from the agency.
According to the Postal Service, non-express packages to the Middle East typically take up to 24 days to ship. In 2003, it took an average of 11 to 14 days for mail to reach military personnel deployed to the Iraq War, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office.
Families say there is a shortage of food on board.
Not receiving care packages is especially worrying for some families who sent extra snacks to loved ones on ships in the Middle East. They are worried about messages from loved ones that there is not enough food and people are starving.
When the USS Tripoli reached a pocket of internet service, Dan F.’s daughter told him in sporadic messages that members on board were distributing food. Fresh produce was nowhere to be found, she told him.
A photo of the meal aboard the warship, shared by his daughter, showed a two-thirds empty lunch tray with a small scoop of shredded meat and a folded tortilla. Dunn said after his daughter told him the ship’s coffee machine was broken, he stopped drinking coffee in solidarity with what she was going through.
“We have the strongest military in the world,” said Dunn, 63, who also served in the Marines. “We shouldn’t run out of food and we shouldn’t be unable to receive mail on board.”
“The only victory we had over our enemies was feeding our people.”
A Texas mother whose son, a Navy sailor, is also on board the Tripoli, said she panicked when she heard her son was hungry on board. Her family has now spent at least $2,000 on care packages, but her son has received nothing. The mother requested anonymity for fear of retribution against her son.
In an exchange of messages with the sailor shared with USA TODAY, the sailor said military personnel on the ship eat when they can and that if one person receives more food than another, they share it equally.
In a March 11 message, he wrote that the crew would not be in port until the ship returned from its mission because supplies would be “very low.”
“Morale will be at an all-time low,” he wrote.
The Tripoli has been at sea for more than a month since leaving its home port in Japan to take part in the Iran war. According to U.S. Central Command, the 3,500 sailors and marines aboard the Tripoli and two accompanying warships are currently tasked with reinforcing the U.S. blockade on ships leaving Iranian ports.
Other warships remain at sea much longer. On April 15, USS Gerald Ford broke the post-Cold War record for longest aircraft carrier deployment of 295 days. On March 23, the aircraft carrier withdrew to Naval Support Operations Base Souda Bay on Crete for maintenance work. The military said there was a laundry fire on the ship and there was a problem with the plumbing.
Karen Erskine Valentine, a church pastor in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, said she was concerned after hearing from a community member whose son was in the Middle East aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln about the poor quality of the food on board. The Abraham Lincoln was one of two aircraft carriers sent to the region, along with the USS Gerald Ford. A third USS George HW Bush is approaching.
A photo sent by a soldier to his family of a mid-April dinner aboard the ship shows a few boiled carrots, dried meat patties and gray chunks of processed meat.
“The food is bland, there’s not much of it and I’m always hungry,” Erskine-Valentine said. “It breaks your heart.”
The community packed and sent 18 boxes to seafarers to share with them. She sent 4 more boxes on April 15th.
“I announced that they needed love and nourishment,” she said. “We collected 18 boxes within two days.”
Sending the boxes isn’t cheap, she said, costing at least $540 just for shipping.
According to post office tracking, six of the packages arrived in Tokyo on April 14th. They have not yet reached their destination.
