European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 22, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Cover Story this letter avoids the Ozone thanks to a postal worker in Offenbach  York pores Over zips while mail pours indy Timothy Cahill new York Bureau n o change As big As the recent restructuring of military addresses and zip codes is possible without a corresponding period of confusion and delay both for Post office workers and their customers. So at the . Postal service sorting and routing facility at new Yorkus John f. Kennedy International Airport the Surprise Isnit that some mail gets misdirected or just Plain lost. After seeing the operation in action the wonder is that the system works As Well As it does. As the Central processing Point for mail from new York and the northeastern United states this vast clanking depot handles some 3 million pieces of mail each Day 100,000 units of that bound for army Navy and air Force stations around the world. Almost three fifths of All Europe bound military mail is processed at Juk. But while the Airport is a major Gateway for Apo and Fpo mail the letters photographs subscription renewals and care packages that connect american service personnel to Home represent less than 5 percent of the mail processed daily. It amounts to a similar percentage of the Post offices concerns. By july 15 of this year All military mail will be required to follow the four line address format that started last july 15. The first two lines of the standardized form identify the individual and military unit. The third and fourth lines function like Street and City state lines of civilian mail giving the mails geographic destination. Under the new system a letter bound for a base in Europe should contain a postal station or Post Box number on line three then a Apo aet and the appropriate five digit zip code on the last line. Coinciding with the four line addresses some 40 percent of the military zip codes have also changed. The civilian and military postal systems Are cooperating to make the transition from old zips to new ones smooth but Don t forget these Are bureaucracies. At Kennedy Airport the uses is handling All questions and complaints about military mail by passing them along to joint military postal activity a Atlantic Headquarters also located at the Airport. A the Post office does no to know what the changes Are a said Frank Diprimo a shift supervisor at Juk. A the military has to notice the problem and Tell us to Correct it. We re not there. We can to Tell them Quot to keep the Post office up to Date on zip code and other changes a military Liaison works daily with postal workers and supervisors. Perhaps typical of the Way the two sides communicate is one Point that came up in conversation with a postal clerk. A let me ask you this Quot the woman began pointing out an air sack with a Frankfurt zip code. A this mail is labelled for Franky right Why is it going to Offenbach a never mind that this procedure violates every Law of common sense. Apo a orders Are to ship the sack to Offenbach for distribution. What a visitor wonders does the military Tell you when you ask about this a you get one of their shrugs a she said shrugging. The new zip system is designed so postal workers can Tell at a glance where in Europe a letter is bound making it simpler and faster to get the mail sorted and in the proper sacks. But change no matter How it promises to improve life is rarely Welcome by workers used to another system. A it took me 20 years to learn the old numbers a said Candace Graham a senior clerk for Apo parcels. A now they change them on  Kathy Gianesses who processes Apo and Fpo registered mail explained that to keep the mail on target she and her co workers Are constantly referring to a Handwritten photocopied conversion Chart that lists the old and new zip codes. A we were going crazy with these the first week a she said. Slowly the regular clerks Are memorizing the changes As they come Down to them but the process inevitably slows things Down. Under Normal circumstances the delay is insignificant. During Christmas though the volume of mail at Kennedy rises to More than 1 million pounds per week. The mail which seems to always be arriving a in stacks bundles Bunches and piles a has ample Opportunity to get lost just along the 4-mile circuit of the Juk station. Most of what arrives is letters and most of the letters Are sorted exactly As they were 30 years ago. Operators work at letter sorting machines a lems a which give them less time than you can say a letter Carrier Quot to locate read and key in the first three digits of each letters zip code. The machine then sends the mail Down a conveyor line to the proper Chute. Like most postal workers Lam typists Wear a a amps Jim Derheim Deadpan expression somewhere Between grim concentration and utter boredom. Each Day Post office mechanics perform routine maintenance on the Lam conveyor and sorter which is necessary to retrieve the mail this mechanical monster consumes in a 24-hour period. In a Corner of the room a visitor was recently surprised to find a collection of Bent wrinkled Tom and soiled letters piled on the floor. This his guide casually explained was the a Blowout pile a the one Day total of mail that slipped Between the cracks of the sorting machine. The postmarks of this mail were within a week of the Day of the tour. The mail Wasny to dead just wounded. Each Day someone a Job is to put this flotsam Back into circulation. Some pieces get scattered from the pile and lie like fallen leaves on the floor where they get stepped on or rolled Over by a cart or hand truck. Meanwhile overhead another letter was caught in the supporting framework of a separate conveyor Belt caught in a limbo Between the sorting bin and the Blowout pile. All the mail is in similar peril though like the citizens of a big City most go on their Way without incident. Each Section has its misfits and discards. In one part of the cavernous facility sits a Hill of rolled newspapers no machine can process. In another Corner Large parcels Are tossed Willy Nilly waiting for attention. Each Day 3,000 letters arrive with no zip codes or incomplete codes. A postal worker will attempt to decipher each of them one at a time. Like most places the . Postal system does not have the budget to hire As Many people As it feels it needs to run efficiently. Its precisely because the Post office needs to move More mail with fewer people that the standardized addresses were instituted. These and other changes including postal bar codes similar to those on groceries Are paving the Way to almost Complete mechanization of mail sorting. So called optical character readers ours already exist that can read certain typewritten mail and sort it at computer fast speeds. Juk owns one a 10-year old Model that is great at sorting business mail like Bills but can to handle much else. Three people accomplish As much on this machine As 13 can do on the lems with almost no Blowout and at a higher accuracy rate. State of the Art ours can read handwriting but Juk despite being one of the busiest facilities in the world wont get one for at least a year and a half. The postal services master plan is to have 95 percent of the mail sorted by such Genius machines by 1995. Until then the Best thing to do is Type your zip code and keep in mind that despite the Odds most of the mail does get where its supposed to go. Page 8 a sunday March 22, 1992