Living in a Navy town with lots of active duty and retired military personnel, I assumed all our PO would be savy about mailing pkgs overseas. I sent out the first three boxes at the main branch and had no trouble at all. (Love those FRB!) Today I stopped by a satellite branch due to time constraints; I wanted to get this box moving in the right direction now that it's packed. Big mistake.

The postmistress admonished me that I couldn't use the "Attn: Any Soldier" designation anywhere on the pkg. I politely tried to point out that a specific soldier's name preceeded that, however she was adamant that it could not be used at all. Remembering what I'd read at this web site, I didn't argue with her (though it was difficult).

Then, she also said that I could not Redirect this to "Addressee's Commander" if undeliverable because the address itself might be messed up. I had considered using the phrase "Any local chaplain" as an alternate, however that doesn't account for a seperate address. What do other people do on their mailings?

I usually put Chaplain as the alternate.  Been sending for many years and 'knock on wood" have never had one returned.

The postal clerk was just wrong.  And I have debated with one guy at our PO, and won all three times.  Had him look up the rule.  He even tried to tell me once I couldn't put any tape on what used to be the larger of the flat rates.  It had the preflued flap on the ends.  Told me I couldn't go over 20 lbs in the new larger flat rate too.  Sometimes they just don't know their jobs.

They just got the new custom forms and told me I could just write general things like 'toiletries' and not list separate shampoo, bath gel, tooth paste etc.  It states clearly in the directions that that is NOT allowed.  Haven't used one yet, still have a bunch of the old ones.