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Shaw mail clerks push the envelope

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Ashley L. Gardner
  • 20th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. --  Imagine walking into a room with important official mail that needs to be sent out in your hands.

You get to the front desk and the person at the counter greets you with a smile, ready to help you get your official package on the move to its final destination.

Welcome to the official mail room, where all you need is your package fully addressed with labels and the mail clerks will help get your package through the transportation process while also balancing the rules between United States Postal Service and the military.

Every morning the mail clerks come into work and start their daily process. They call the base post office to see if trucks are available, check for suspicious packages, count and pitch mail for delivery and pick-up. This process is done between the hours of 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.

The on-base mail personnel are a lot like the United States Postal Service, but they only send packages or letters that have an office symbol, are for an organization on base or concern a military activity. They are more helpful for military members by screening names and also find the lowest possible cost to send packages that will be helpful for the economy.

They support everyone on base from 3rd Army to 9th Air Force, Air Forces Central Command, and the 20th Fighter Wing. They operate with a five man team and service around 9,000 people total. They were recently recognized by the Pentagon for Different Best Practices as a reward for all their hard work.

"I love working here," said Antoine Pearson, 20th Communications Squadron mail clerk. "Just meeting people and being able to get out is what makes this job so great."

"Being in a customer service position, positive interactions are very important," said Tech. Sgt. Marla Parham, 20th CS official mail manager. "We have a really good working relationship with customers, they know that we will help them and we communicate with them so well, that they're comfortable around us."

All the postal locations on base work together. They are all one in the same. The only difference between the postal section in the Military Processing Facility and the others are they only ship official packages, explained Paraham.