I know her batallion's in Iraq, but can I still write her?

[greenhippie]

I wrote an old friend from high school a few weeks ago to an address I found on post locator. It was sent back to me with her batallion written on it and after searching it on Google, I found out that her batallion has been sent to Iraq. Since I know her batallion and all, is it still possible to write her?

[webadmin]

The more information you have on her, the better the chances are of reaching her. If you know her rank and full name start with that. If you know her SSN, then make that the next line of the address. If you know her company, that would greatly help in addition to the Bn address. If you know the division that helps even more to pin down. To find the APO number, take what you have and go to your local post office and they will be able to tell you what that is. An example of an address that I'm trying illustrate is as follows (and they're all made up):

PVT Jane Doe
111-11-1111
B Co, Sig Bn
101st Airborne Division (AASLT)
APO New York 11111

If you have never sent a letter through the APO system before, do not try to send it airmail as you would for other countries. You just use regular stamp as if sending within the US.

If you have at the very least her rank, name, battalion, division, and APO number, you have a good chance of the letter reaching her. May take awhile, but it should get there.

[greenhippie]

Whoever processed the letter I sent and sent it back to me, wrote this on the envelope.

UUMS
62nd Eng Bn
19Nov04 MM

I assume the last part is simply the date they received the letter and I know the second part is her batallion but the first part is beyond me.

I left a message on my recruiter's voicemail to help me get singed up with AKO so I could run her name through the post locater again myself or at least have him look for me. Hopefully I'll hear back from him soon.

[webadmin]

OK, the 62nd Engineer Battalion is part of III Corps. There are three companies - HSC, A, and B. This may create a problem if you don't know what company she is with because III Corps supports both the 1st CAV Division as well as the 4th Infantry Division. The 1st CAV and the 4th ID are not in the same places in Iraq.

Have to admit, I have no idea what UUMS is, unless it was a processing station that it went through for identification.

If you are going to put her through the post locator, make sure it is for Ft. Hood. That is her base of origination. You may only get back the battalion. AKO sometimes does not get unit specific and you may only get the battalion. There is another option of calling Ft. Hood's post locator direct, but again the most you might get is just the battalion. Army's very protective about releasing exact information about where troops are located.

To see what she is doing in Iraq, you might find this site interesting:

http://www.cjtf7.army.mil/

This is III Corps official page on what is happening over there.

[greenhippie]

I'm hoping to bump into one of her family members over the holidays, but I'm not holding out much hope because I would have expected to bump into her herself at least once since high school and haven't.

Anyway, she is 2LT Monica Whalen. If anyone knows of her or her address in Iraq, please let me know.

[greenhippie]

After getting my AKO site set up and doing more searching I've figured out that she's in the Combat Support Equipment Company and also that she's a 1LT now. Congratulations, if you read this Monica. But still I'm having no luck finding a unit address. I'm finding addresses for everything else similar, but not this. I bet there's just one piece of information I'm overlooking that'll get me her address.

But in good luck, I found an alternative. http://www4.army.mil/ocpa/tooursoldiers/index.php

It's a website that posts messages to our soldiers in Iraq. I thought I'd post it for anyone who wants to send morale to our soldiers.