Mail call

All Hands, August, 2005 by Shane T. McCoy

Millions of packages flow in and out of the Washington, D.C, area every day, and any one of them could bring our government to a deadly halt.

It's the job of Postal Clerk 2nd Class (SW/AW) Demetrius James to make sure a government stoppage is not caused by any of the mail passing through Anacostia Annex.

"Tons and tons of mail comes through here every day," said James. "If the box rattles or there is no return address, it's a red flag for us."

The key to protecting the capital is the use of large radiation machines similar to the X-ray machines in airports. Every piece of mail is hit with enough radiation to not only kill any virus or chemical inside, but to also melt the occasional compact disk or make a new credit card took like a child's "Shrinky Dink."

"It's not a piece-of-cake job; we sort every piece of mail by hand and radiate everything," says James. "Sometimes it turns the mail yellow and things get destroyed,"

Postal clerks may not be considered a front-fine defensive lob in the Navy, but without lames, and many others civilian postal, workers like her. a terrorist attack on our capital, could not only kill thousands, but also cripple our government's ability to effectively command the world's largest military.

MCCoy is a photojournalist assigned to All Hands.