[chico20854]

The mail forms an important part of the recovery plan the DC Group is working on.

After the TDM mail service pretty much breaks down worldwide (except for the area under control of the Franco-Belgian Union). As Milgov attempts to coordinate the recovery of the US, the mail forms both a carrot and a stick.

The delivery of mail within Milgov enclaves raises the legitimacy of that government. As Milgov is able to start delivery of mail between enclaves it furthers that legitimacy and buys acceptance from the local citizens. It is also a huge morale booster for troops, both overseas and in CONUS, to send and receive mail. On the air and seaborne bridge between the CENTCOM AOR and CONUS, mail receives a high priority, and, frankly, on the ships it is a negligible load in terms of capacity.

With that said, mail delivery is an almost impossible task. Military units are generally able to account for personnel present, but accounting for those KIA, WIA or MIA over the preceding years is spotty, despite the best effort of staffs (yeah, those S-1 weenies that everyone always wants to grab and send to the front lines to make up for infantry losses). But the much bigger task is locating civilians in CONUS. After the nuclear attacks, refugee camps, conventional wars in Alaska and Southwest and years of post-nuclear chaos, finding any particular person is a gargantuan task. This is where the carrot and stick come in.

In Milgov enclaves, residents will be required to register with the authorities. Registration entitles individuals to a ration card, which also allows passage through checkpoints. This registration forms the basis of the long-hallowed census needed to allocate resources (and post-martial-law political power). One item of the registration is also recording of an address. (And some ad-hoc address designating has to take place... with 10,000 refugees living at a rural county fair grounds there will have to be some building location information standardized, etc.).

Milgov is able to get people to do this for a couple of reasons. First, they have the guns. Second, as petroleum flows back from the Persian Gulf and Milgov starts coordinating efforts between enclaves some communications is restored between the enclaves. Lighter than air craft and high-efficiency civilian aircraft begin a regular circuit between enclaves on a limited basis. While traditional mail is not a major part of the cargo, data is. Each month, the courier aircraft carries a computer (either one that had been shielded from EMP, not in an area affected by EMP, or equipped with a Reset device) that carries the latest registration information (including the rolls of those in the military under Milgov command). That database is distributed to each enclave, and made available to the public (printed like phone books in some areas with an abundance of resources, in searchable databases on public-access Reset-equipped computers at registration sites, and with traveling civil-affairs teams), allowing people to locate their friends and relatives. (There is also a dark side to this, with false names, vindictive ex-spouses, and difficult human situations - a returned POW discovers his wife has remarried and his child thinks new new husband is his father and so on).

Some of the data moved between enclaves is also text files - email that is transmitted physically rather than electronically. Delivery is a problem, as printing resources are scarce.

One major part of the reconciliation between Milgov and Civgov is the expansion of the registration effort to areas under Civgov control.

The need to keep the data coordinated and increase public access to it is a major challenge. The long-term answer is to restore the internet, but that requires a number of other major tasks to be done - the restoration of power for running computers, the restoration of communications (telephone, microwave or fiber-optic) lines between enclaves, and provision of functional computers in great enough quantity to allow public access.

Physical delivery of mail is farther away, as it is more resource intensive to move paper than electrons.

So some thoughts for you guys to ponder...