Military retirees living overseas believe they may be among those about to lose their government mail privileges, which would leave them reliant on their host nations’ postal services for delivery of benefit checks and medications, several retirees told Stars and Stripes.
“There was no advanced notification and no justification,” Charles Seland, a retired Army colonel and former Red Cross assistant field director living in Germany, told Stars and Stripes by phone on Friday. “The frustration is that this thing was so sudden, no prior warning and no explanation.”
The DOD has ordered the agency, an extension of the U.S. Postal Service that reports to the Army, to end mail services for some patrons, including overseas military retirees and Red Cross workers, starting Aug. 24, the postal superintendent at Camp Humphreys, James Goff, said June 15.
A DOD legal review found that some overseas patrons were “not authorized by law” for overseas delivery by the Military Postal Service Agency, according to an email Tuesday from the Office of the Secretary of Defense to Stars and Stripes. The department did not specify what patrons were improperly benefiting from the service and did not respond by Friday to requests for further information.