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mindbleach, in How do you address a letter to an army soldier or even a navy sailor on a ship?

For WWII specifically, anything written might not actually be sent. V-Mail services photographed letters, reduced them onto microfilm, and reprinted them overseas. A lot of people were sending a lot of mail and paper is fucking heavy.

AFAIK, addressing worked about the same way it works now: you’re given an address for a specific person, at a somewhat-abstract location. Sometimes it’s a very concrete place - no pun intended - like a permanent airbase or an actual city. Sometimes it’s a boat. Sometimes it’s a “forward operating base,” which falls somewhere between no-fun-allowed paintball facility and Burning Man with more grabassing.

Overseas military addresses must contain the APO or FPO designation along with a two–character “state” abbreviation of AE, AP, or AA and the ZIP Code or ZIP+4 Code.

AE is used for armed forces in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Canada; AP is for the Pacific; and AA is the Americas excluding Canada.

Also:

APO / DPO / FPO basics

APO – Army/Air Force Post Office. The Military Post Office for Army and Air Force personnel
FPO – Fleet Post Office. The Military Post Office for Navy and Marine personnel
DPO – Diplomatic Post Office. The preferred designation for mail addressed to Department of State overseas post offices.
MOM – Military Ordinary Mail. Mail originating from the Department of Defense.
MPO – Military Post Office. Provides postal services for military personnel.
PAL – Parcel Air Lift. An expedited service for Package Services is available for an additional fee.

Anyway you can also send “unit boxes” for a whole group, but I think you’re still supposed to address them a specific individual.

BaroqueInMind, (edited ) in How do you address a letter to an army soldier or even a navy sailor on a ship?

They had their letters delivered to them at their duty station APO before their mission deployment. There’s no fucking way they could get a letter from home in the middle of combat during Operation Overlord.

I’m sure you imagine a Skyrim courier interrupting a U.S. soldier brutally wrestling and slitting a Nazi throat to tell him your grandmother said hi with included slutty nude photo in a Western Union telegram.

MedicPigBabySaver, in How do you address a letter to an army soldier or even a navy sailor on a ship?

The more info the better. Family and friends probably know:

Name or number of the unit/boat/airwing. Maybe even the smallest group like which platoon or squad.

I’m not sure if postage is still free. It was when I served back in the late '80s.

scrubbles, in How do you address a letter to an army soldier or even a navy sailor on a ship?
@scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech avatar

It’s actually kind of neat. They have their own “state” codes for the Air Force or Navy, and that’s how the mail is handed over to the military. They do have to give an apo or the like, but the deployed know that before leaving so family knows how to write.

It gets murkier once it’s inside how they route the mail, don’t know for sure, but as long as you follow USPS guidelines it’ll get to them. So, part of your answer at least

pe.usps.com/text/pub28/28c2_010.htm

Magiccupcake, in Does taking my glasses off to 'let my eyes rest' actually have any meaningful effect? Or am I just making my eyes work harder?

I think it depends, farsighted? Probably not.

Nearsighted looking at things hopelessly out of focus and not trying to look, perhaps.

I’m very nearsighted amd taking my glasses seems to make them relax, since nothing will be close enough to make them focus.

Somebody that’s farsighted might strain their eyes to focus without their glasses.

Papanca, in Does taking my glasses off to 'let my eyes rest' actually have any meaningful effect? Or am I just making my eyes work harder?

Afaik, to rest your eyes you need to look in the far distance, like the end of a street. For at least 20 sec at a time

MayonnaiseArch, in Does taking my glasses off to 'let my eyes rest' actually have any meaningful effect? Or am I just making my eyes work harder?
@MayonnaiseArch@beehaw.org avatar

I suppose this varies from person to person and I can only speak as a glass wearer with some… uhhh… 30-ish years of practice: your eyes can get tired. I have some days when I can’t stand the feeling of my glasses and have to take them off a lot. My experience is that contacts make me really tired, much more than glasses. It’s like my brain refuses to function if I see like a normal person. It’s all just anecdotal unless a medic confirms it though :)

chuckleslord, in Does taking my glasses off to 'let my eyes rest' actually have any meaningful effect? Or am I just making my eyes work harder?

Your head might need the rest from the glasses on your head, but when you take your glasses off your eyes have to work harder to compensate. So, the idea is sound, but the explanation is wrong.

LostWon, (edited ) in If you're reading something and you don't understand a word, should you stop and research it or should you keep reading the whole thing first?

If it’s written according to standards of any sort, then research it first as it should have been explained already and if it isn’t, they just expect you to know. If it’s some form of casual writing that isn’t structured that well, then you might need to look for contextual clues in the original text first, and then search them up together for more insights.

jadero, in If you're reading something and you don't understand a word, should you stop and research it or should you keep reading the whole thing first?

I try to figure out what it means from a combination of context and etymological guesswork, then check it a dictionary. If it’s a person or region or concept I’m unfamiliar with that isn’t covered directly or in notes, I hit the encyclopedia or atlas (well, Wikipedia and mapping software, these days.)

That’s how my father taught me to deal with stuff I didn’t understand when I was a kid and I’ve been doing that ever since. It interrupts the flow far less than having to set it aside for other demands on my time, so it’s not that big a deal.

We always had good dictionaries and encyclopedias on hand. Now, of course, it’s all online or downloadable.

One of the reasons I love eReaders is direct access to dictionary, translations, and Wikipedia.

Siethron, in If you're reading something and you don't understand a word, should you stop and research it or should you keep reading the whole thing first?

Situational based on context and how much understanding the word effects the tone of what you are reading.

DarkNightoftheSoul, in If you're reading something and you don't understand a word, should you stop and research it or should you keep reading the whole thing first?

I’m not gonna speak to whether you should or should not, but I always do. It’s rare for me to come across a word I don’t already know anymore, but when I do I want to know it. I always look up words I don’t know or am not sure about, immediately.

Papanca, (edited ) in If you're reading something and you don't understand a word, should you stop and research it or should you keep reading the whole thing first?

I don’t know what you mean with ‘something’, but when i started learning english decades ago (as in; no internet) i had a dictionary on my night stand. I only got it when a word was intriguing; when it seemed crucial for the plot; or when it turned up many times and it started to bug me.

Edited night stand

Dagwood222, in If you're reading something and you don't understand a word, should you stop and research it or should you keep reading the whole thing first?

If it’s fiction, I’ll keep going unless it seems vital to the plot. Same applies for articles and light reading.

If it’s a school/work text, look it up, and then write it down.

NounsAndWords, in If you're reading something and you don't understand a word, should you stop and research it or should you keep reading the whole thing first?

If it’s important to the context of what I’m reading then I’ll look it up. Otherwise I write it down for later.

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