*Sgt Joe Smoe
535th hmc 3bct
Fob Mickey
APO, AE 09300
The first thing that comes to your attention is that it looks to be of foreign origin as there is no city or state listed. Instead you see the letters APO or FPO followed by either AE or AP. The normal reaction is to question what this means and wonder how the person will ever receive anything sent to them.
What Do These Acronyms Stand For?
APO stands for Army Post Office it goes to Army or Air Force installations.
FPO stands for Fleet Post Office and this mail goes to Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard installations and ships.
(Occasionally a single installation will receive both APO and FPO mail. It depends on whether or not that installation has been segregated by branch of service – a section for Army, a section for Marine Corps, etc.)
The acronyms that follow these tell which state they will be sent to from your home or post office. There are three locations (Military Gateways) that handle mail of this type:
AA is sent to Miami, FL. AA stands for Armed Forces (the) Americas
AE is sent to New York, NY. AE stands for Armed Forces Europe
AP is sent to San Francisco, CA. AP stands for Armed Forces Pacific
At these facility locations the mail is sorted further by zip code and then all responsibility is handed to the military to transport overseas.
Each postcode has its own destination. The codes are corresponded closely to the Gateway’s city zip code:
The first two numbers indicate the routing center.
The next number indicates the APO/FPO country or region.
The last two numbers help isolate the exact destination for the package.
The rules of the USPS are still followed, along with all federal and appropriate international laws.
As the mail arrives in the correct country it is transported to the correct camp by the Post Office there. It is then sorted into units or placed in the correct military member’s mail slot, depending on which country they are stationed at.
This is the process taken to deliver military mail to over 85 countries.
* For safety reasons, do not place the deployed military member’s rank on the address label or custom sheet. Also, do not place the country of its destination even if they state Iraq or Afghanistan in the address when they send it to you, again for safety reasons. The Post Office knows where to send it even if the country is not listed by looking at the remainder of the address.