The Mail in T2K

[Raellus]

I've been thinking about how troops would behave when they arrived back home from campaigning overseas- in particular, U.S. troops. This got me thinking about the mail- the old fashioned paper mail.

By 2000, most troops on foreign soil (or in another state) wouldn't have received much (if any) news, personal or otherwise, from "The World" since the TDM. Once they return to their home country, a lot of them, I'd imagine, would want to get back to their loved ones ASAP. I, for one, would want to at least know for certain what had become of my family while I was away. For this reason, I think that desertion could become a big problem. Otherwise disciplined, loyal soldiers, would go AWOL to seek out their loved ones.

Anyway, one way to head this off and win over the general public at the same time would be to reestablish a mail service. "Snail" mail is quickly becoming an anacronism, but in '97, e-mail wasn't quite as widely used as it is now and, thanks to EMP and other effects of multiple nuclear strikes the world over, it would become nearly impossible to communicate electronically. So, good ol' fashioned mail would make a comeback. Only the military would have the resources to get the mail moving again.

In the U.S., both Milgov and Civgov would have ample incentive to reestablish mail service. It would help decrease desertion rates and improve the morale of the citizenry. An efficient communications network would also be crucial to overall reconstruction efforts as well as the prosecution of the civil war.

Lastly, escorting mail shipments between cities/states would make for some interesting adventure opportunities for players and GMs.

What are your thoughts on the mail in the Twilight Years How have you handled mail in your T2K universe

[natehale1971]

Actually, this was important in my groups home campaigns.

mail services was a TOP priority. In fact most postal services was handled on horse back or motorcycle couriers. and even in warzones postal service personnel where not harmed by even the most insane marrauders.

in Europe, postal service personnel go from one cantonment to the next, not worried about what allegiance they are part of. the neutrality of the post has been assured by all sides.

this is how 'communication' between enemies has been done. allowed for the exchange of prisoners and the like..

[Abbott Shaull]

What mail service there would be in 2000 would be highly localized, don't see interstate mail service.

Yes it would be one of the services that any government would try to reinstate, just to help get things back to normal.

[Targan]

What mail service there would be in 2000 would be highly localized, don't see interstate mail service..

I agree. The PCs in my campaign were asked by MilGov forces in the Norfolk area to carry mail and military documents to the 78th Division HQ in New Jersey but it wasn't general civilian mail.

[headquarters]

a little of both

Our campaogn has ebbed and flowed on the "encounter charts " going from anarchy to organizd to terrorized you might say .

There has been an operating postal service at times ,but the current situation means that people most likely have their condiments out and a firepit all light and ready as they wait for the mail man...

[Rainbow Six]

I would tend to agree with the view that international mail certainly would have pretty much ceased after the Tanksgiving Day Massacre. Certainly I always assumed that for US troops in Europe there would be no letters after that time.

One thing I am introducing in my alternative Survivors Guide to the UK is the concept of the King's Messengers. In real life there are currently Queen's Messengers, many of whom are retired military personnel, whose job is to travel around the UK's various Embassies and High Commissions as Diplomatic couriers; the King's Messengers in my SGUK will travel between HMG's various enclaves delivering by hand important messages and packages. (They are titled King's Messengers because in my timeline King William IV is on the throne).

[kato13]

A little distracted in the beginning but I will get to mail

The origin of the US Judicial term "Circuit" as as it is seen in the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals is derived from a circuit path that a full Judicial court would travel when frontier towns were not large enough to support major judicial functions.



All the necessary courtroom personnel would travel as a group from county to county to provide judicial services. Judges, stenographers, bailiffs, prosecutors, defense attorneys and civil litigators stayed in the country seat for a couple weeks to resolve the cases that needed to go to court (as now most cases were settled out of court but with the lawyer's assistance).

I imagine that both governments (Milgov/Civgov) in an effort to establish normalcy within their controlled territories would establish secure paths and use them to do the following:
Send Mail (Weekly or Bi Weekly)
Send Basic Medical services (Monthly or Bi Monthly)
Send Advanced medical services (every 4 months)
Send Legal teams (every 6 months)

I originally came up with this plan for my Morrow Project Game, as I planned to actually have my project work (they wake up after 5 years with a functioning prime base) but I wanted something that would keep my teams moving.

[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...

[Webstral]

I like the idea that mail service backs the legitimacy of the rival US governments. I agree with all those who have asserted that reestablishing mail service would be a top priority for any government in recovery mode in late 2000 and early 2001.

Webstral

[Raellus]

An interesting scenario would be competing Civgov and Milgov forces trying to interdict one another's mail services as a way of discrediting the opposing faction... Mail-Wars!

Once circuits were established, in disputed areas, it wouldn't be too difficult to establish an ambush to snap up the weekly (or whatever) mail service. In addition to the morale/PR effects of intercepting the mail, it could also be a way to glean low level intel.

In a way, it's kind of a throwback to the 19th century- like trying to intercept the enemy's mail packet (ship) during the "Age of Sail" or snaring the Pony Express courier or stagecoach in America's "Wild West".

[JimmyRay73]

While I hate to bring up critically panned Kevin Costner movies, this discussion pretty much points out why myself and my old buddy Rocky were big fans of "The Postman."

Regular (or at least semi-regular) mail service would be extremely important to backing claims of legitimacy for any government for two reasons: 1) That government would need lines of communication across its territory, and 2) the citizenry would be more likely to put their faith in a group that can keep up/restore contact with distant friends and family. A one-shot convention game I played in years ago revolved around CivGov and MilGov groups running mail packets in HumVees.

[pmulcahy11b]

Just as long as they don't deliver the bills anymore!

[pmulcahy11b]

Just as long as they don't deliver the bills anymore!

Hmmm...quoting myself...

But anyway, re-establishing bill delivery and payment delivery and delivery of goods might at some point become vital to re-establishing a commerce system, making a postal system even more important.

[Abbott Shaull]

Yeah I am reminded by the movie/book postman too.

It is one of those things we don't think much about in this day of age, where if you don't have an option of meeting someone face to face. You have phones, cell phones, pagers, e-mail, and instant messaging to get your idea and thoughts out to others. If they go away the snail mail may be the only way left to that, and we take it for granted.

Yeah Paul the lack of getting bills would be nice, but a needed evil I guess for civilization.

[Raellus]

U.S. Mail Delivery Unit

For some reason, I started thinking about this topic again today. I've been toying with the idea of a campaign where the PCs are crewmen on a gun truck convoy for quite a while now, but I couldn't come up with any kind of story hook beyond the standard "stuck behind enemy lines" trope. Then it dawned on me- make the gun trucks mail trucks and send the PCs on an long-haul interstate mail run. Now I've got a clear objective for the group. And it's not going to be a milk run point A to point B type mission. One washed out bridge and the mission's going to be anything but routine.

Here's a generic Mail Delivery Unit. This ad-hoc team is embarking on the first of-its-kind interstate mail run between relatively secure American city X and relatively secure American city Y (location of campaign TBD), a round trip of several hundred miles, much of it through unsecured territory.

Scout: M1009 CUCV w/ siren/emergency vehicle lights, spotlight, and loudspeaker

Command vehicle: HMMWV ARMT Carrier, Armored: M1025A1 w/ M60

Mail truck 1: Hillbilly armored M35 2.5 ton truck w/ M60 & M79 GL

Mail truck 2: Hillbilly armored M35 2.5 ton truck w/ M60

Repair & refueling vehicle: HMMWV, CGO/TRP Carrier: M988A1 w/ 1000 liter (1 ton) tank trailer

The M35s are essentially classic gun trucks, with a gunner's box forward directly behind the crew cab. The mail (thousands of letters, a couple hundred small parcels, and a plot twist or two) is stored behind the gunner's box in an armored, covered compartment. Each vehicle in the convoy will have a crew of 3-4 men.

The mission's importance can't be overstated. Reestablishing interstate mail service will add legitimacy to the military government by demonstrating it's ability to restore services to an area largely abandoned by the federal government for going on two years now. It will also boost the morale of the communities that it serves. Of course, there are certain elements at work that wish not to see this happen...

Aside from the expected (by now, perhaps, clich) obstacles, I've brainstormed a couple of curveballs that should be new to the players. The more I think about this, the more I want to do it. I only wish I had more time to devote to gaming.

Constructive suggestions are welcome.