Posted on Jul 15, 2015
Who remembers standing in formation for mail call? Does the military still conduct mail call?
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I was recently reminded me of the importance and significance of mail call especially in the days before email, cell phones and texting existed in the 1950's 1960's, 1970's and I think through the 1980's. Waiting with anticipation in formation as a young enlisted man in sun, snow, rain or wind for mail call. The weather was much less important than hearing the names of friends called out to get mail and then hearing my own name which was wonderful. Going back to the barracks to smell envelopes from girl friends, read the letters on my bunk.
Later as a cadet at West Point one of the duties of the freshman class known as plebes was to distribute the mail to the upper classmen. It was a very important function and seemed to release a sense of common humanity and a brief period of humane treatment.
After I was commissioned in 1980, my mail was delivered to me except when we were away from home station when we would have mail call or else wait until the operation was over and then mail would be distributed.
Images: mail call wingen 70th ID WWII; Korean War early afternoon mail call brought these Thunderbirds in the 279th Infantry; Mail call! Pfc Glen Zachery of the 19th Army Postal Unit brings a sack of mail to the
Later as a cadet at West Point one of the duties of the freshman class known as plebes was to distribute the mail to the upper classmen. It was a very important function and seemed to release a sense of common humanity and a brief period of humane treatment.
After I was commissioned in 1980, my mail was delivered to me except when we were away from home station when we would have mail call or else wait until the operation was over and then mail would be distributed.
Images: mail call wingen 70th ID WWII; Korean War early afternoon mail call brought these Thunderbirds in the 279th Infantry; Mail call! Pfc Glen Zachery of the 19th Army Postal Unit brings a sack of mail to the
Edited 4 y ago
Posted 9 y ago
Responses: 377
Mail call in Basic Training and AIT. Once I got to my first Permanent Duty Station, the unit had a mail clerk and you were assigned a "mail box". Deployment to Desert Storm, OIF, and OEF didn't have "formation based mail call", but you went to a specific location within the unit to check for mail.
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LTC Stephen F.
Maj Chris Nelson, I expect incoming and especially outgoing mail from a deployed zone was reviewed by "censors." Were there censor stamps on your mail similar to what was used in WWII, Korea, etc.?
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Maj Chris Nelson
I never received mail that had been previously opened. I suspect that packages were screened using modern technology such as X-ray. I was never told by people receiving mail that it had been opened. That includes my footlockers of gear sent home in advance.
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PVT Mark Brown
Maj Chris Nelson: I guess what we had in Korea in the 60s was pretty much the same as you describe. Since I was deployed my entire time in the Army other than Basic and AIT my frame of reference is limited.
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Went from group mail call to bags dropped off at the department to mailboxes just like the Post Office. Funny MSG (Join to see) mentioned pay. In the old haze gray and underway days, you'd go down to the DK shop where there was a clip board with everyone's name on it. It had everyone's balance on it and you'd fill in how much cash you wanted. There were limits depending on grade. There wasn't much to buy so Coke and toothpaste money pretty much covered it. All this stuff would never pass PII muster but back then we were required to stencil in our SSNs on the inside of all our clothing.
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MSgt John McGowan
I had so many marks on my clothes I also didn't Know them my Mom put some of my clothes in soak then told me I was nasty. The soak water was almost black. She didn’t understand the wash system they used.
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that and payroll officers. Getting your check cashed buying German Marks and then pay day activities!
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LTC Stephen F.
CW3 Kevin Storm, I remember being a pay officer in Germany with a briefcase with dollars Deutsche marks, and having to be armed while carrying and issuing the money during pay call. Having to keep strict accountability of the funds was an important lesson for me as a young officer.
I certainly enjoyed spending my Deutsche marks at the Bäckerei [bakery], Metzgerei [meat market] especially when we are on maneuvers in the German countryside.
I certainly enjoyed spending my Deutsche marks at the Bäckerei [bakery], Metzgerei [meat market] especially when we are on maneuvers in the German countryside.
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CW3 Kevin Storm
Sir I was in a 60 man detachment on a German Kaserne, we didn't have to go far to spend marls.
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Basic, AIT (Infantry), Visual Tracker Coursel, RVN, during field training in the '70s and '80s.
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LTC Stephen F.
Thank you my friend MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D. for responding and making us aware that you had mail call in Basic Combat Training, 11b AIT, during field training and the Visual Tracker Course in the Republic of South Vietnam.
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Well Colonel, I'm a bit older than you and got my commission via OCS in '67. They never had us deliver mail to the company ahead of ours...too many other things filling our waking hours ! I do remember standing in formation for mail call during basic training and AIT & the guys hanging around me afterwards once they learned my Mom sent home-made cookies OFTEN ! Formation for payday too, until I became Company pay officer in Germany. Then I sat and everyone else filed through. Still remember (fondly) the footlocker/s full of cash ! Those were the days, Sir !
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LTC Stephen F.
Thank you for responding 1LT Rich Voss and sharing your memories of mail call. I am glad that you often received the home-made cookies your mom sent you and it seems you were not forced to share the cookies but shared voluntarily some, I expect :-)
Thanks as well for sharing your payday formation experience and serving as a pay officer in Germany.
I served as a pay officer in Germany in 1981 and 1982. In those days, we had Deutschmarks as well as dollars for pay. Many of us "played" the currency exchange and tried to figure the best time to exchange dollars for Deutschmarks or other currency - hit or miss :-)
FYI I posted similar question about pay call. Here is the link
https://www.rallypoint.com/answers/who-remembers-pay-call-what-country-ies-did-you-receive-pay-call-in
FYI 1sg-dan-capriSGT Robert R.CPT Tommy Curtis
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Thanks as well for sharing your payday formation experience and serving as a pay officer in Germany.
I served as a pay officer in Germany in 1981 and 1982. In those days, we had Deutschmarks as well as dollars for pay. Many of us "played" the currency exchange and tried to figure the best time to exchange dollars for Deutschmarks or other currency - hit or miss :-)
FYI I posted similar question about pay call. Here is the link
https://www.rallypoint.com/answers/who-remembers-pay-call-what-country-ies-did-you-receive-pay-call-in
FYI 1sg-dan-capriSGT Robert R.CPT Tommy Curtis
SGT (Join to see) SGT Steve McFarlandCol Carl WhickerSGT Mark AndersonSSG Michael NollCPT Daniel CoxSFC David Reid, M.S, PHR, SHRM-CP, DTMMAJ RaĂşl RoviraSP5 Jeannie CarleSPC Chris Bayner-CwikTSgt David L.SSG Robert Mark OdomSPC Matthew LambSSG Robert "Rob" WentworthSFC Terry WilcoxPO2 Roger Lafarlette
Who remembers pay call? What country(ies) did you receive pay call in? | RallyPoint
I remember pay call while being stationed in Bamberg, Germany in the early 1980's. I think pay call was only used for forces stationed overseas [expect that includes all Navy vessels as well] where a choice of currency to receive your pay made sense. Pay call made sense when many service members did not have direct deposit for their salary. I don't know if pay call still exists and where it is used. [Update July 19] I was an infantry training...
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LTC Stephen F.
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1LT Rich Voss
LTC Stephen F. - Colonel ! Sorry I missed your response, sir. Sometimes it seems "rallypoint" stores messages and then spits them out at a later date. I can't believe we were both stationed in Bamberg. Amazing. Small world ! We were never issued DMs for pay purposes. Everyone, myself included, had to make the mad-rush to the Credit Union/Currency Exchange after pay call. Most of the time it was 4DM/dollar while I was there. Fabulous indeed ! I rarely had any American money on my person. In part because I lived (as a single officer) with two different German families that actually lived next door to each other up on Viktor von Scheffel Strasse, right below the Castle. The only time I needed dollars was at month end to pay my Officer's Club bill, and buy my various ration stamps. I was basically a German with an American car and a somewhat dangerous job as a tank unit commander... Best wishes to you !
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1LT Rich Voss
LTC Stephen F. - p.s I did regularly share my cookies as my Mom made plenty AND asked me to share...wouldn't want to lie to Mom !
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I use to love mail call. There was a huge mud hole in front of formation and whomever got the biggest package always had to push right in the middle of it for their package.
It was hilarious until my mom decided to send me a huge package.
lol
It was hilarious until my mom decided to send me a huge package.
lol
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MAJ Michael Cummings
LTC Stephen F. - yes, she did know about it and laughed so hard. I was talking to her one day and she asked me if I had received my care package. I knew something was up because she never asked about them any other time. It was the next day that it came.
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LTC Stephen F.
Nothing quite like pushup in the rain my friend MAJ Michael Cummings, When I was going through BCT we were required to do cut-aways over the street in front of our barracks. Cut-aways are illegal - they were started at front ;leaning rest and then went to parade rest. I still have a scar on my chin where I bounced off the street
Image: 1975-03 FT Leonard Wood, MO - view of D-1-3 barracks where I did Basic Training.
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Image: 1975-03 FT Leonard Wood, MO - view of D-1-3 barracks where I did Basic Training.
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I remember standing in formation praying silently and hoping my name would be called. I remember my eyes watered at times ( Holidays ) when I didn't get a letter from home. The one day when my Squadron was assigned to the USS John F. Kennedy. Our shop Ssgt. Brought mail to us, he only had 5 letter size envelopes and one of them was for me ! My baby sister took time out to write her big brother. And let me know how she was so proud of me, to this day I remember that day so clearly and if it were yesterday. Now because of the high Tech Advances in communications and calmer measures and counter common measures and communications I'm here in there are troops can barely get any time to speak to anyone back home. It's too afraid the enemy can easy drop or intercept the signals. I think they need to go back to letter writing and teach that in Boot camp. If the US Army can get the mail delivered to the front lines during the Korea war and Vietnam or why is it so hard to get letters and mail to our troops in Afghanistan , Iraq and certain parts of Africa?
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LTC Stephen F.
Thank you LCpl Cody Collins for responding and making us aware you "remember standing in formation praying silently and hoping my name would be called. I remember my eyes watered at times ( Holidays ) when I didn't get a letter from home. The one day when my Squadron was assigned to the USS John F. Kennedy. Our shop Ssgt. Brought mail to us, he only had 5 letter size envelopes and one of them was for me ! My baby sister took time out to write her big brother. And let me know how she was so proud of me, to this day I remember that day so clearly and if it were yesterday."
Letter writing in the 21st century seems to be rarely used as many prefer messages on cell phones and other electronic messaging.
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Letter writing in the 21st century seems to be rarely used as many prefer messages on cell phones and other electronic messaging.
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LTC Stephen F.
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LCpl Cody Collins
LTC Stephen F. That's so true but you never have to worry about a written letter being intercepted over the airwaves and is something about the person's inflections in the writing of the letter that just can't be duplicated with email our elecktronicks transmissions. Once the Elektron a transmission is over everything that was said is gone forever but that letter will always be in that drawer or in the shoebox for the rest of your life. And every now and then while going through some old things you run across that letter and a breeze back everything that happened on that day as if it happened yesterday. No amount of electronic transmissions could ever replace that.
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Biggest memory was in Nam in 1969. Got six weeks of mail catching up all bundled up.
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LTC Stephen F.
Thank you for responding SP5 George Smith and making us aware that in 1969 while deployed to South Vietnam, you received a bundled stack of mail dating back six week. I hope that gave you a lot of pleasure reading mail whenever you could.
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SP5 George Smith
Receiving mail from home was always a boost. Especially so, after my first daughter was born after I got in-country. Not having to be there when she was born prompted me to make sure I did get back. We couldn’t keep our letters and had to burn them after we read them.
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I remember one particular deployment from Ft. Lewis to Korea in 1992 for Ulchi Focus Lens. We were temporarily set up on a ROK air base at Suwon. We were supposed to set up an APO for us and even had an APO number so that mail, etc. Could be sent us. No such luck. The APO didn't work out, so we didn't receive mail or checks from wives for over 8 weeks until we rotated home. There was a lot of mail sent back because "APO does not exist" was stamped on all post. We didn't have access to any other means of contacting family, so it was aggravating. Especially when one's money ran out.
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LTC Stephen F.
Thank you CSM John Mead for sharing the sad news that the plan to set up an APO for the deployment on a ROK air base at Suwon did not get executed properly. That certainly does sound very frustrating.
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LTC Stephen F.
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LTC Stephen F.
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When I was in, we had mail boxes in the company area so soldiers could pickup their own mail. When we were deployed, then the supply sergeant would bring it out with the food. In the field it was usually not a formation as much as everyone sitting around eating while someone called names for the mail.
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LTC Stephen F.
Thank you SPC Donald Moore for responding and letting us know that when you were in the Army you "had mail boxes in the company area so soldiers could pickup their own mail. When we were deployed, then the supply sergeant would bring it out with the food."
I think that experience is probably common to most soldiers for a generation at least.
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I think that experience is probably common to most soldiers for a generation at least.
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LTC Stephen F.
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