Dear Ninja...August 2016 – U.S. Elite Gear

Hey Warriors!

Our Customer Service Ninja is always here to help - he can answer just about any question, be your personal shopper, give you life advice... you name it, Ninja does it.

That being said, we'd like to give you guys a few tidbits of Ninja knowledge. Once a week, one or two customer questions will be selected and answered here on the blog.

HEY NINJA, I’M HAVING ISSUES SHIPPING TO AN APO, WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?

- Mickey MilMail

Well Mickey, first we need to really understand what an APO is and how they work. APO stands for “Army Post Office” and is an address used for American military personnel, usually Army, Air Force, or other service members stationed overseas. At one point, they were mobile and moved with the unit they were attached to. There are also FPOs (Fleet Post Office), MPOs (Military Post Office), DPOs (Diplomatic Post Office), and BFPO (British Forces Post Office). These allow folks around the world to receive mail and packages through USPS as if they were still in the CONUS. Yes, no matter where the final destination may be, the destination country will still be the United States!

Now, knowing that, you’ll need to understand how to ship to an APO (or similar) address and how the information is a little different than a regular street address.

• Name- This will be the name of the recipient, rank, title, and grade are optional and should not be used for DPOs
• Street Address - This is where you put the number for the APO (Army Post Office), PSC (Postal Service Center), CMR (Community Mail Room), UMR (Unit Mail Room), RPO (Regional Post Office) or OMDC (Official Mail Distribution Center) number. You should not include the military formation number (ex. 24th Infantry), nor should you put the street address for a DPO. If you are shipping to a FPO, you SHOULD include the Ship’s Name and Hull Number. If you have the recipient’s box number, this would go here.
• City - This is where you will note whether the package is going to an APO, FPO, or whichever Post Office is being used.
• State - There are really only three options for the state, either AA - Armed Forces Americas, AE - Armed Forces Europe, or AP - Armed Forces Pacific
• Zip - Input the zip code number, all nine digits if you know them, with a “-” between the first five and following four numbers. If you don’t have all nine, the first five should work just fine.

If you have more questions, check out our “Help” section found here - https://www.us-elitegear.com/get-help

HEY NINJA, I’M TRYING TO BUY A PLATE CARRIER BUT I’M NOT SURE WHAT SIZE I SHOULD GET. WHAT TIPS CAN YOU GIVE ME?

- Paulie needs a Plate Carrier

Well Paulie, first of all, you have to realize there are lots of different plate carriers out there, each with different fits and sizes. On our site alone you’ll find plenty of options like the Velocity Systems Mayflower R&C APC Plate Carrier (Gen 1 and Gen 2), the Velocity Systems Law Enforcement Plate Carrier, the Velocity Systems Lightweight Plate Carrier, the Velocity Systems SCARAB LT, the High Ground Plate Carrier, the High Speed Gear Modular Plate Carrier, the High Speed Gear Slick Plate Carrier, and the Blue Force Gear Plateminus V2. Now, with all these different manufacturers and models, you may be worried that picking a size will be really complicated. So I’m here to let you know that isn’t really the case. Some manufacturers, like Blue Force Gear, only need you to select the size of the plate carrier itself. The cummerbund on many manufacturers is set to fit a wide breadth of waist sizes. In these cases, you’ll really only need to know the size of the plates you plan on carrying. The “standard” plate sizes are listed below:

• Small 8.75" wide x 11.75" high x 1.25" thick - For Small SAPI / ESAPI plates
• Medium 9.5" wide x 12.5" high x 1.25" thick - For Medium SAPI / ESAPI plates
• Large 10.25" wide x 13.25" high x 1.25" thick - For Large SAPI / ESAPI plates
• Extra Large 11" wide x 14" high x 1.25" thick - For Extra Large SAPI / ESAPI plates

Until next week, you can always reach the Ninja at customerservice@us-elitegear.com.