Reduced Postal Benefits for Exchange Officers

[Pajaro]

I'm trying to find an AFI or DoDI that covers postal benefits, but am not having any luck. I'm an exchange officer stationed in Europe 3 hours from the nearest APO and 7 hours from the nearest US base. Back in the day the USAF had a contract with DHL to deliver mail from the closest US base to my location once per week. Due to budget issues that went away but was replaced with a monthly TDY mail run. That soon changed to a quarterly TDY. That then changed to a quarterly mileage only TDY. That turned into nothing and I have no support at all.

I now pay about $120 out of pocket and miss a day of work each time I want to check the mail. I wouldn't care about missing work, but I'm an exchange officer doing a job for a foreign government, so I can't really miss a day of work each week to check the mail.

Since I'm so far from the BX/Commissary, I really rely on the APO to help me keep costs down as prices on the economy are much higher than the US. I have other solutions for letter mail, but auto parts, clothes, pharmacy items, etc are pretty pricey.

So, here's my questions:

1) Any idea which AFI or DoDI even covers postal benefits?

2) Does anyone know if EOs in Asia or the Americas currently get postal TDYs?

3) Am I missing an obvious solution?

Thanks,

Pajaro

[epsilon]

I'm on exchange in Europe also and a long while back the US ODC in my country worked a handshake deal to have the host nation military post courier pick up packages for me and drop them off at my base. It is not frequent or particularly timely but it gets the job done for some items. Sometimes it takes 2 weeks and others 2 months. For letters, the ODC picks them up for me at the embassy post office and throws them in the foreign post every couple of weeks. Again, just a handshake deal as I am the only exchange officer in country.

Never did a mail run to the embassy as it is too expensive (tolls) and mileage won't cover as far as I know. For the most part if we want something right away we suck it up and mail international post.

FYSA I am also three hours away an DPO and over 8 to a US base.

[Pajaro]

the US ODC in my country worked a handshake deal to have the host nation military post courier pick up packages for me and drop them off at my base.

This could work. I'm not sure if my host country has a military courier or if I would even trust it, but it's a good place to start. Thanks for the idea.

[slackline]

I go through the consulate closest to me. It's not an APO, but it's close enough. It's an hour away, so I don't check it often. I'm 11 hours from the nearest base, and the consulate route takes a month or so, but that's all I've been able to work. Check with them. There is an DPO in the states that ships to the Embassy. The Embassy then ships it via van to the consulate (6 hours), and I pick it up when I can. You can't have over sized items shipped, but oh well.

DPO not FPO. Sorry, didn't see that DPO was already coverd.

Edited May 30, 2013 by slackline