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| No Christmas Cards For Walter Reed Wounded |
| 2007-11-19 |
| After having received a share of email, comments, and Google News alerts, on the matter of sending Christmas cards to Walter Reed Army Medical Center I have decided that a posted needed to be dedicated purely to the matter in question. The easy answer is simply, DO NOT SEND ANY SOLDIER/WOUNDED WARRIOR/RECOVERING SOLDIER/AMERICAN HERO MAIL TO WALTER REED. It will not be received. There are many reasons. One being that there is a 2001 regulation saying that it cannot be done. It also says that the mail will not be accepted, but there is a larger problem than that. And unfortunately it is a logistical one. The contractor that handles the mail simply cannot (have not) been able to keep up with the volume of mail that is received for this type of parcel. Last holiday season there were nearly 1 millions pieces of mail to Wounded Warriors here at Walter Reed alone. Imagine huge mail carts, holding thousands and thousands of letters. Now imagine cart after cart of this mail clogging the storage rooms and hallways. Now the horrible part…imagine that mail being sorted, processed, and returned by the very Soldiers that the mail was intended for. Due to the volume of mail, and shortage of contract employees, last holiday season Wounded Warriors from Med Hold and Holdover were tasked in assisting in the return of these cards. From 0800 until 1500 every weekday 6-12 Soldiers worked in sorting these cards. First, by whether or not they had return addresses. If they did not they (assumingly) were returned to the mail postal facility and destroyed. If the parcles did have a return…. that’s when the work began. The Walter Reed zip code was lined through first and then the barcodes. Next it was stamped “return to sender, addressee not known and refused”. From there a card from the post commander describing why the mail could not be received and an alternative to supporting the Soldiers was hand addressed. The endacted letters were then separated, bundled (if you sent more than one), and returned to sender along with the hand addressed card. Progress was shown by the number of hand addressed cards that had been completed in a day, normally in the hundreds. Needless to say, that is a small dent in a very large pile of mail. This operation went on from November until March when the “Walter Reed Scandal” story broke in the Washington Post. The operation was then downscaled and delegated to a smaller number of Soldiers. For all that I know mail from last year is still being returned. So in conclusion, this holiday season do not send “Any Soldier” mail to Walter Reed. Find a particular Soldier at Walter Reed and write them; or even better find a local veteran or VFW and write them. Show them your support. While there are a few of us here, there are many more veterans in your local community that need your support during this holiday season. It would mean the world to them. And to me, that I would not have to return one more Christmas card to you. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #1 Last holiday season there were nearly 1 millions pieces of mail to Wounded Warriors here at Walter Reed alone. Imagine huge mail carts, holding thousands and thousands of letters. Meanwhile, the ugly self loathing people who pass themselves off as Americans, aka lefties, will enjoy a very dark and lonely holiday in which they will be stuck with those of similar sulking lifestyles, self centered and devoid of light. Couldn't be a nicer season to know that regardless of the hate and loathing on campuses and around Hollyweird, people by the thousands, the common people, the yeoman of this nation extend their heart and faith in those willing to give all for not just their fellow countrymen but also those not of their circle and community who've for generations are just emerging from the darkness of tyranny. Those who've not fully mortgaged their souls in their obstruction of liberation of their fellow man, must either escape from our rational universe or feel the deep hollow emptiness so personified by Scrooge himself before Christmas. Cheers! |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2007-11-19 20:39 |