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How do you address a letter to an army soldier or even a navy sailor on a ship? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I was watching Band of Brother and wondering how those paratroopers got letters from home. Did their family need to know their nearest base? Or could they simply write their name and battallion? If I want to mail a package to a sailor do I just the ship's name? Or a port? I'm not actually mailing anything I'm just curious how that works. How much postage do you need to mail to a ship overseas?

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

For WWII specifically, anything written might not actually be sent. V-Mail services photographed letters, reduced them onto microfilm, and reprinted them overseas. A lot of people were sending a lot of mail and paper is fucking heavy.

AFAIK, addressing worked about the same way it works now: you're given an address for a specific person, at a somewhat-abstract location. Sometimes it's a very concrete place - no pun intended - like a permanent airbase or an actual city. Sometimes it's a boat. Sometimes it's a "forward operating base," which falls somewhere between no-fun-allowed paintball facility and Burning Man with more grabassing.

Overseas military addresses must contain the APO or FPO designation along with a two–character “state” abbreviation of AE, AP, or AA and the ZIP Code or ZIP+4 Code.

AE is used for armed forces in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Canada; AP is for the Pacific; and AA is the Americas excluding Canada.

Also:

APO / DPO / FPO basics

APO – Army/Air Force Post Office. The Military Post Office for Army and Air Force personnel
FPO – Fleet Post Office. The Military Post Office for Navy and Marine personnel
DPO – Diplomatic Post Office. The preferred designation for mail addressed to Department of State overseas post offices.
MOM – Military Ordinary Mail. Mail originating from the Department of Defense.
MPO – Military Post Office. Provides postal services for military personnel.
PAL – Parcel Air Lift. An expedited service for Package Services is available for an additional fee.

Anyway you can also send "unit boxes" for a whole group, but I think you're still supposed to address them a specific individual.