“Free” mail means your deployed sweetie can afford to send you a letter a day!*

Pop quiz: What appears to be missing from this letter? It was sent from Iraq to the United States by one of our servicemen. 

When letters from locations such as Kuwait and Afghanistan arrive in your mailbox, you may notice that the military sender has written “free mail” where the stamp is usually affixed.

The answer is a stamp. But that’s not a problem for the U.S. Postal Service or the Military Postal Service, which offer “free mail” privileges for certain warriors who are serving outside the United States. Currently, those deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq, Qatar, Macedonia, and Uganda are among the members of our military who can send free mail. (The U.S. Postal Service website has a complete list of military locations with free mail.) It applies to letters and postcards only; our military men and women must pay postage to send packages home.

Don’t try this trick when sending letters from the USA, however. If you want your letters to get to your overseas sweetheart, you’ll need to add stamps.

How free mail impacts your care packages. Blank stationery (paper, cards, envelopes, postcards) is an excellent addition to boxes headed overseas. One of our Adopt an MP participants even includes a few self-addressed envelopes in her boxes to make it easier for her soldier to write back. But because postage is not required for a letter’s trip back to the States, she knows it’s smart — not stingy — to skip the stamps.    

Note: The envelope shown above was sent in 2006, so it doesn’t reveal information about an active military mailing address.

*Hey, we can all dream, can’t we?