I was watching Band of Brother and wondering how those paratroopers got letters from home. Did their family need to know their nearest base? Or could they simply write their name and battallion? If I want to mail a package to a sailor do I just the ship’s name? Or a port? I’m not actually mailing anything I’m just curious how that works. How much postage do you need to mail to a ship overseas?
To send a piece of mail to a ship, you send it to a Fleet Post Office, listed as the city and state.
For example, if the ship is stationed in the pacific fleet (AP- armed forces pacific), you’d send it to:
Jane Q Sailor USS Whatever FPO AP (the unit zip code)
And the mail would be forwarded to the ship anywhere in the world to meet the ship with supplies. I don’t know all the codes, but they’re all similarly formatted.