Support Your Troops

With large numbers of service members deployed overseas, family members, friends, and other Americans who want to support the military have asked about military mail service.  A Department of Defense (DOD) News Release highlighted the cancellation of mail programs that allowed the general public to send mail addressed to “Any Service Member”.  While these programs were very popular with the public, security concerns and transportation constraints with military mail led to their cancellation.  As an alternative, the DOD News Release noted web sites that will post messages of encouragement and highlighted opportunities to support veterans and military families. 

Americans are again asking what they can do to show their support for service members, especially those serving overseas in this time of war.  Below are Web sites for several organizations that are sponsoring programs for members of the Armed Forces overseas. While it would be inappropriate for the Department to endorse any specifically, service members do value and appreciate such expressions of support.

Reach out to military families in your community, especially those with a loved one overseas.  You could offer to cook meals or provide other services to lower the levels of stress on the families of deployed service members.  Contact your local military family support services center and ask how you can help.

Please do not flood the military mail system with letters, cards, and gifts.  Due to security concerns and transportation constraints, the Department cannot accept items to be mailed to " Any Service member".  Some people have tried to avoid this prohibition by sending large numbers of packages to an individual service member's address, which however well intentioned, clogs the mail and causes unnecessary delays.

The support and generosity of the American people has touched the lives of many service members, over 300,000 of who are deployed overseas.