Impact 9-11: Ripple effect

The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 had a ripple effect for the U.S. Postal Service. It wasn't until a month later that Americans were faced with deadly anthrax distributed by mail.

Springfield Postmaster Bill Brayman's 850-member staff along with 750,000 other postal employees nationwide was "thrust into the front line of defense. It forced us to be on a higher level of alert."

Throughout the nation, postal employees participated in an onslaught of Service Talks' from Sept. 11 through the summer. Mail carriers in the area learned about protecting post office assets like mail, vehicles and equipment, "so nobody can introduce any foreign materials into the mail stream through a carrier," Brayman said.

The U.S. Postal Service has spent $500 million in response to 9-11, Brayman said, and no end is in sight. "We plan on spending $1.7 billion in the next two years on new technologies to better protect the mail." That's 2.5 percent of the service's $65 billion gross annual revenue, but Brayman thinks it's well worth it. "Who knows what who is going to do next?"

Things are back to normal at the post office, Brayman said, but "it's a different normal. We're not where we used to be. It never will be."

Employees had different reactions in the aftermath: some were in shock; some donned protective gloves and masks to handle mail; and some reacted stoically and carried on as usual.

"Nine-11 taught all of us whether we live in New York or Springfield or anywhere terrorists can reach out and touch all of us," Brayman said. "About all we could do is be vigilant and raise our level of awareness."

The task ahead is large: "We have to maintain our way of life. We've got to protect the free flow of information, and we've got to protect the free flow of commerce. Otherwise, I guess the terrorists win."

by Eric Olson

SBJ Reporter