November 19, 2021
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NAVSUP in Europe Readies Fleet Mail Centers for Holiday Season By Joe Yanik, NAVSUP FLCSI Public Affairs
very year during the holiday season, hundreds E of military and civilian personnel assigned to Naval Supply Systems Command’s fleet mail centers
(NAVSUP’s FMCs) across Navy Region Europe-Africa (NAVEUR-AF) process higher-than-normal mail volumes beginning in November through April. This year is no different. “Our postal teams have the same goal this holiday season as they have every year: to serve each of our postal customers with the highest level of professionalism and expediency,” said Capt. Douglas S. MacKenzie, NAVSUP Fleet Logistics Center Sigonella’s (FLCSI’s) commanding officer. “We take to heart this important responsibility of ensuring their packages arrive securely to their destinations in a timely fashion. This what our customers expect, and we are committed to exceeding those expectations.” During any given year, NAVSUP FLCSI’s postal activities process six million pounds of mail across NAVEURAF, of which more than one million is processed during the annual holiday mailing season alone. “With the increase in mail volume during the holidays, we are able to maintain the same level of superior customer service and productivity with good planning,” said Vic Gonzalez, NAVSUP FLCSI’s postal program manager. Gonzalez explained how good planning involves taking concrete steps to clearly communicate with the command’s customer base, to train its postal teams and to add manpower with Reserve Component support. “We’ve brought reservists on orders to augment our
postal operations throughout our AOR and help sort and deliver mail,” said Gonzalez. “Unbeknownst to most of our customers, postal personnel are not normally able to take leave during the months of November and December because of the increased mail volumes. There is a need for additional help, and our reserve component definitely helps make a difference, even if it means filling in to allow some of our active component personnel to enjoy a day off from time to time.” When it comes to additional training of the command’s postal teams, Gonzalez said he and installation postal officers meet with their personnel to review proper procedures for handling mail. Topics covered are mail processing techniques, transportation challenges if encountered, and contingency plans to move mail in and out of AOR FMCs with minimum or zero interruptions. “We also take opportunities to advertise and leverage use of technology available at some of our bases, such as availability and use of our intelligent lockers,” he said. NAVSUP FLC Sigonella is a geographically-diverse command whose products and services, like postal operations, support Naval and joint warfighters across NAVEUR-AF in Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Romania and at the U.S.’ only permanent base in Africa Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti. “Because of how geographically spread out postal teams are, we’ve produced in-house training videos that cover topics like proper package handing processes and procedures,” Gonzalez said. “The video medium enables our postal professionals to benefit from the same training that can be viewed at different times and as often "Mail" cont’d on Page 11
