Ground delivery slows mail in Sicily

Ground delivery slows mail in Sicily
By Sandra Jontz, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Saturday, February 7, 2009

Mail call for U.S. sailors and families stationed in Sigonella, Sicily, has been delayed a bit because mail now travels by ground instead of air.

The switch "adds a day extra to transit, but no more," said Chief Petty Officer Stan Healy, with the fleet mail service at Naval Air Station Sigonella.

Up until the week before Christmas, mail was delivered from Rome to Catania via Italy’s national carrier Alitalia, he said. But "due to airline strikes and uncertainties of Alitalia’s future," officials made the transportation switch, according to an all-hands message sent to Sigonella-based personnel.

Mail had been delivered to Sigonella six times a week in "single loads," Healy said. "Now it comes three times a week in double loads. It delays the mail by just one day."

Now, mail arrives by truck, going by ground from Rome’s airport to the U.S. Navy base in Naples first. Then the truck is placed on a ferry for the trip to Sicily, Healy said.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=60542