When Can I Send a Letter?

If you are like me, you’ve been writing letters since the day your soldier left. If you are like me, you're wondering when you can send your letter. If you're like me, you don’t want to wait to send it and need the address NOW. Well, I am here to tell you that you do have to wait just a little.

There is this thing called the “Commanders Letter.” This letter goes to your soldier's primary contact listed. If you are not the primary contact and it has been over a month, you might reach out to the primary contact and ask if they have received anything. If it has only been a week, please be patient. Everyone is struggling now, and information will come when it comes. The letter consists of tentative ceremony/graduation dates, your soldiers address, how to write it on your envelope, and a color coordinated marker so mail can be sorted more quickly once on base. It is BEST to wait until you receive this letter to send anything to your soldier. This will give you his address for his entire time at OSUT (One Station Unit Training). So, make sure you KEEP THIS LETTER! The letter will have a return address on it that has your soldiers roster number on it and possibly an entirely different address than what is stated INSIDE the letter. The only thing you need to know is the ROSTER NUMBER. DO NOT copy the address from the return address. Use the address that is laid out for you inside the letter. This is the one where they want the mail to go.

I got this letter three weeks after K had left. I had already heard from him a few times and he let me know that they had sent those letters, and I would be expecting it soon. Once I got that letter, I wrote out his address, with his information, on a separate piece of paper to send to family members and friends.

You’ve got the Commanders letter? GRAB YOUR PAPER AND PEN, YOU’VE GOT LETTERS TO SEND!

If you are confused on how to address your letter, read my post How to Address a Basic Training Letter.